A Traveler's Impressions of the Molotschna, 1927

In November 1927, Susanna Toews of Ohrloff, Molotschna wrote to her brother Gerhard in Canada, "Father is sleeping and the sisters are reading, even though they have read the stuff ten times. . .. Twice a week we get Das Neue Dorf. We read the most important material the first evening and then father reads the rest of it the next day" (note 1).

A youth in Friedensruh, Molotschna reported to the communist youth paper Die Saat in 1928, that their village receives 13 copies of Das Neue Dorf, 6 copies of Die Saat, one of the Moscow-based Deutsche Zentral-Zeitung, 16 copies of Die Trompete, 2 copies of Neuland, and some Russian papers as well. On average, 2 papers per household--all communist papers.

A Mennonite-based monthly agricultural journal, “The Practical Agriculturalist” (Der praktische Landwirt) had been approved for publication in Ukraine in 1924 but was shut down in December 1926. Government authorities in Ukraine were exasperated to see a “significant anti-Soviet religious periodical” and “widely popular” Mennonite church or faith-oriented paper Unser Blatt (“Our Paper”) had been approved in Russia for publication in October 1925 and was made available in Ukraine. It was shut down in 1928 (note 2).

In 1925 Das Neue Dorf--or "new village" --was created out of two smaller Bolshevik /Communist Party papers in Ukraine/Crimea and published twice-weekly. It was the “organ for the Bolshevik Party” designed for German villages of southern Ukraine. The Central Bureau of the German Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Ukraine used the paper to address their on-going “Mennonite problem” and directed it on occasion to create pointed articles, such as: “What the Soviet power accomplished for Mennonites following the Civil War,” etc. Rural correspondents were explicitly directed to strengthen “supervision of abuses,” typically by publicly embarrassing former leaders with wealth or a connection to the church in almost every issue. Cartoons helped to get the message across, as did unsigned letters to the editors (see related post, note 3). But it also supported the official ethnic German cultural developments in officially German districts, advocated for sufficient land for the districts, and offered suggestions for a smoother transition and development to the new political environment.

One of the more measured articles is a type of travelogue through the Molotschna in 1927 (note 4); while it is only signed with the initials of the author (“H.R.”), he appears to be a fellow Low German Mennonite and Communist Party activist.

It is a longer article; here are some excerpts:

“About ten kilometers from [Rudnerweide] lies the village of Gnadenfeld. Here land division is now being carried out. It turned out that some land was being “hidden” [from the surveyor by those wanting to farm more land]. "Didn't you know?" asked the surveyor reproachfully. Everyone was silent at this question. The land share for each farmstead is 16 to 32 desiatina [17 to 34 hectare], yet some are without any land at all. For example, citizen H.D., who is a very hard-working farmer, has nothing except a pair of horses and wagons; he is a native of Gnadenfeld yet nevertheless has to lease some land from year to year.

Wernersdorf is just a small village. It is said that the people here are also poor, although today some farmsteads already look quite prosperous. Everything goes its daily course. Over the last year there have been only two incidents about which the good people of Wernersdorf became a bit disturbed. That was when the land surveyor was to come—this led to some "inconveniences" similar to those in Gnadenfeld, and then also when a new chairman of the village council was finally elected.

The former, they say, was an otherwise good man, but very forgetful in matters concerning the community or individual citizens. On every trip to Halbstadt he especially loved to stop in Tokmak on the way to look deeply into the schnapps glass. This did not suit the citizens of Wernersdorf in the long run, and it is firmly hoped that his successor, a former Red Army soldier, will do things better.

Wernersdorf is situated on the river. On the other side of the bank there is a Russian village. The relationship between the Germans and Russians is not very good. The Russian side often threatens with Makhno [anarchist leader], once they even said: "Makhno will be there in three days and then we will make an end with you Germans." Often there is stealing from the Germans, and the trail almost always leads to the Russian side. A direct hostility is palpable. The Germans do not look at the Russians like they do at their own kind, but from above down: "That's just a Russian."

Of course, a lot of ideological education (Aufklärungsarbeit) is needed here. The Halbstadt District should also contact the surrounding Russian districts and lead this work from both sides. National [ethnic] discord must not be tolerated under any circumstances. Festivals in honour of the Revolution could be celebrated together, meetings and gatherings could be held where German and Russian speakers would appear. Schools could also make joint excursions. The German farmers must show more good will towards Russian farmers, and help them with good advice, because the German understands farming here better. Many more suggestions could be made. It is not an easy task that stands before the district, but it must be solved and a rapprochement--more harmony between the German and Russian population--must be the goal.

The ethnic German schools in the district still leave a lot to be desired. There is still a great lack of German books and guides for the teachers. The material situation of the teachers is still weak. Particularly difficult and time-consuming for teachers is the filling out of the most diverse forms, lists and papers, which are sometimes sent by the rayon in heaps in the Ukrainian language (in German rayon) which are sent by the rayon sometimes in heaps.

The cooperative functions better now than it did when the [Mennonite led] "Union of Citizens of Dutch Origin" was in charge [notice the spin-ANF]. The latter, through its mismanagement, caused tangible damage to many a German farmer. It is only in the present situation that the individual German cooperatives have the opportunity to develop. The demand for goods is great. Comrade “A.,” who heads the cooperative in Pordenau, said that the necessary goods are not always available in Melitopol. People are forced to travel further to buy goods, which, of course, unnecessarily increases the cooperative's expenses. More attention should be paid to the German cooperatives, which are still weak thanks to the previous mismanagement, and they should be better served in Raysojus in Melitopol.

Ideological education is weak. One cannot find a proper reading hall in any village, i.e., where one can get hold of a German book or newspaper. Young people spend most of their free time in the streets. The district party committee should pay more attention to this matter and find ways and means to get closer to the German population. The Party Committee is hardly known in German villages; many do not even know that it exists. If you ask a German farmer about it, he will say: Well, is there something like that in Halbstadt, too?"

Moreover, in many villages there is not a single Komsomol- or party member. This, of course, makes the work exceptionally difficult, but nevertheless, there could be a somewhat closer connection between the German farmers and the party organization.

The church still plays an important role in these villages today. Like everyone else, the Mennonite enjoys complete freedom of faith. But even the sturdy walls of the Mennonite church (Bethaus) sometimes sway quite noticeably. You can see it in the apparently small things. "Did you go to Sunday school today?" a strict father asks his son. "No, I was playing," comes the reply. "There were only girls and two of the very youngest boys." The church in G. [Gnadenfeld] is to be renovated, but the money does not come in; the farmer knows better and invests in his farm instead. The question of conscientious objection is discussed and already there are young people who do not want to renounce the honour of carrying a weapon on behalf of the state of the working class.

The harvest has turned out quite well this year. Winter cereals were mostly good, while the summer cereals in places was very weak. The present winter sowing gives hope for the coming year.

One does not like to leave such a beautiful region. We hope that the German village, the German district, will continue to take an active part in the Soviet construction and serve as a model. H.R.”

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: John B. Toews, trans. and ed., Letters from Susan: A Woman’s View of the Russian Mennonite Experience, 1928–1941 (North Newton, KS: Bethel College, 1988), 22f. https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/wedel_series/letters_from_susan.pdf.

Note 2: See GAMEO: https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Unser_Blatt_(1925-1928)(Periodical); AND https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Allrussischer_Mennonitischer_Landwirtschaftlicher_Verein. Most issues available at: https://chortitza.org/DPL.htm, AND https://chortitza.org/ZUB.htm.

Note 3: Related posts: https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/02/agitation-propaganda-and-strategies-of.html, AND (forthcoming).

Note 4: "Reiseeindrücke (Halbstädter Rayon, Kreis Melitopol)," Das Neue Dorf no. 19, 165 (1927), 3. https://martin-opitz-bibliothDek.de/de/elektronischer-lesesaal?action=book&bookId=via000095#lg=1&slide=0. My translation.

Comments

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws. It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...

Catherine the Great’s 1763 Manifesto

“We must swarm our vast wastelands with people. I do not think that in order to achieve this it would be useful to compel our non-Christians to accept our faith--polygamy for example, is even more useful for the multiplication of the population. … "Russia does not have enough inhabitants, …but still possesses a large expanse of land, which is neither inhabited nor cultivated. … The fields that could nourish the whole nation, barely feeds one family..." – Catherine II (Note 1 ) “We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement. Most of the lands hold hidden in their depth an inexhaustible wealth of all kinds of precious ores and metals, and because they are well provided with forests, rivers and lakes, and located close to the sea for purpose of trade, they are also most convenient for the development and growth of many kinds ...

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...

Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links

Each of the "Commando Dr. Stumpp" village reports written during German occupation of Ukraine 1942 contains a mountain of demographic data, names, dates, occupations, numbers of untimely deaths (revolution, famines, abductions), narratives of life in the 1930s, of repression and liberation, maps, and much more. The reports are critical for telling the story of Mennonites in the Soviet Union before 1942, albeit written with the dynamics of Nazi German rule at play. Reports for some 56 (predominantly) Mennonite villages from the historic Mennonite settlement areas of Chortitza, Sagradovka, Baratow, Schlachtin, Milorodovka, and Borosenko have survived. Unfortunately no village reports from the Molotschna area (known under occupation as “Halbstadt”) have been found. Dr. Karl Stumpp, a prolific chronicler of “Germans abroad,” became well-known to German Mennonites (Prof. Benjamin Unruh/ Dr. Walter Quiring) before the war as the director of the Research Center for Russian Germans...

"They are useful to the state." An almost forgotten Prussian view of Mennonites, ca. 1780s-90s

In 1787 Mennonite interest for emigration was extremely strong outside the quasi independent City of Danzig in the Prussian annexed Marienwerder and Elbing regions. Even before the land scouts Johann Bartsch and Jacob Höppner had returned from Russia later that year, so many Mennonite exit applications had flooded offices that officials wrote Berlin in August 1787 for direction ( note 1a ). Initially officials did not see a problem: because Mennonites do not provide soldiers, the cantons lose nothing by their departure, and in fact benefit from the ten-percent tax imposed on financial assets leaving the state. Ludwig von Baczko (1756-1823), Professor of History at the Artillery Academy in Königsberg, East Prussia, was the general editor of a series that included a travelogue through Prussia written by a certain Karl Ephraim Nanke. Nanke had no special love for Mennonites, but was generally balanced in his judgements and based his now almost forgotten account of Mennonites on perso...

Sesquicentennial: Proclamation of Universal Military Service Manifesto, January 1, 1874

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago Tsar Alexander II proclaimed a new universal military service requirement into law, which—despite the promises of his predecesors—included Russia’s Mennonites. This act fundamentally changed the course of the Russian Mennonite story, and resulted in the emigration of some 17,000 Mennonites. The Russian government’s intentions in this regard were first reported in newspapers in November 1870 ( note 1 ) and later confirmed by Senator Evgenii von Hahn, former President of the Guardianship Committee ( note 2 ). Some Russian Mennonite leaders were soon corresponding with American counterparts on the possibility of mass migration ( note 3 ). Despite painful internal differences in the Mennonite community, between 1871 and Fall 1873 they put up a united front with five joint delegations to St. Petersburg and Yalta to petition for a Mennonite exemption. While the delegations were well received and some options could be discussed with ministers of the Crown, ...

German Village on the Dnieper: Occupation Propaganda Photos. Chortitza, 1943

The following propaganda photos are of the Mennonites community in Chortitz, Ukraine during German occupation in World War II. German armies reached the Mennonite villages on the west bank of the Dnieper River on August 17, 1941. The photos below were taken almost two years later. However the war was already turning, and within two months the trek out of Ukraine would begin. The photographs are accompanied by an article about the Low-German speakers of Chortitza for a readership in the Reich ( note 1 ). The author repeatedly draws on the myth of one-sided German pioneer accomplishments abroad: “The first settlers found the land desolate and empty,” the reader is told, and were “left to fend for themselves in a foreign environment” where with German diligence, order and cleanliness they thrived. The article correctly recognizes the great losses of the ethnic Germans under Bolshevism--as if to convince readers that the war is a shared burden of all Germans, and which is now payin...

Flooding as a weapon of war, 1657

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these maps speak volumes. In February 1657, the Swedish King Carolus Gustavus ordered an intentional breach of the embankments along the Vistula River to completely flood the villages of the Danzig Werder. See the vivid punctures and water flow in 1657 map below; compare with the 1730 maps with rebuilt villages and farms ( note 1 ). In Polish memory this war is appropriately remembered as "The Deluge". Villages in the Danzig Werder (delta) from which Mennonites immigrated to Russia include: Quadendorf, Reichenberg, Krampitz, Neunhuben, Hochzeit, Scharfenberg, Wotzlaff, Landau, Schönau, Nassenhuben, Mönchengrebin, and Nobel ( note 2 ). In the war the suburbs outside the gates of Danzig suffered most; Mennonites lived here in large numbers, e.g., in Alt Schottland and Stoltzenberg. First, these villages were completely razed by the City of Danzig to keep the invading Swedes from using the villages to their advantage in battle. ...

Molotschna: The final months, Summer 1943

These photos are from German propaganda material filmed in Molotschna (called "Halbstadt") in 1943—just a few months before the evacuation from Ukraine and trek to German-annexed Poland (Warthegau). Not all of the film is of the Mennonite settlement, however, but much of it is. Below are some frames from the film. The edited shorter version is of higher quality and designed as propaganda to be consumed by Germans in the Reich and to secure their approval . The scenes are marked by cleanliness, orderliness and discipline. There is economic activity, a model Kindergarten, and always happy ethnic German people in the newly occupied territories. A predominantly Mennonite Cavalry Regiment (Waffen-SS) guarding Ukrainian and Russian workers is also highlighted. This hard to see and disturbing. Anything that may have been good here for Mennonites meant enslavement, hunger and death for untold numbers of others. Two versions of the film are available: Shorter (edited for l...

Nazi German love for Mennonites in Ukraine. Why?

For Mennonites the dramatic and massive invasion of USSR by German forces in Summer/Fall 1941 meant liberation from Soviet state terror and answer to prayer. Nazi Germany spared neither money nor personnel to free, feed, cloth, protect, heal and educate the Soviet Union’s ethnic Germans—and Mennonites in particular. Mennonite memoirs, village reports and EWZ (naturalization applications) autobiographies are consistent with praise for the German Reich and its leader. From the highest levels, goodwill, care and patience towards ethnic Germans was policy. Reichsführer -SS Heinrich Himmler was also named by Hitler as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood . This authorized Himmler and his para-military SS to oversee and coordinate the Germanization, resettlements and population transfers which came with the invasion and partial annexation of Poland (Warthegau), and later occupation plans for parts of Ukraine and Russia. The VoMi ( Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle )...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog