Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers (note 1).

In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque (pic) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” (note 2).

The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border (note 3).

Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with uniformity of design and regulations informed by his Mennonite theology of community. This community flourished economically in comparison to other Nogai villages. While only a small fraction of the Nogai were directly impacted by Cornies’ mentorship and philanthropy, these economic developments led the Nogai to offer cheap, long-term leases to landless colonists before wheat prices sky-rocketed and market prices for sheep declined steeply (note 4). Unprepared to adapt their traditional culture to new market conditions with very little land, virtually all 35,000 Nogai left Taurida for the Ottoman Empire after the Crimean War in the late 1850s, together with Crimean Tatars.

Cornies’ lending library (1841) included at least one relevant book, Muhamads Religion aus dem Koran (Muhammad’s Religion from the Koran; note 5; pic 2). In his report to the state Cornies recommended teaching for the Nogai children in which a "thorough knowledge of the Koran and its interpretations" is given "special emphasis" (note 6).

This mosque appears to have been built shortly after Cornies' untimely death in 1848, i.e., in the early 1850s before the start of the Crimean War.

Cornies used the Koran to achieve his goals of improving the “moral condition” of the Nogai. David G. Rempel tells this story:

“[H]is first effort to improve their source of income [was] through the improvement of their breed of sheep, one of the poorest native varieties. In this attempt he was at first stoutly resisted, chiefly by the Nogai priests who maintained that the merino sheep could not be used for sacrificial purpose. Cornies was undaunted. He resorted to the Koran and in the end succeeded in persuading them that the merino sheep, which the Moors had brought to Spain, was the Mohammedan sacrificial sheep par excellence. This broke the opposition to the introduction of a fine-fleeced sheep.” (Note 7)

Rempel called this a “Cornisian” (!) contribution to the improvement of the Nogais’ lot.

To his Swiss friend Daniel Schlatter, a missionary to the Nogai, Cornies wrote (November 6, 1826): “Through the grace of Jesus, we endeavour to preach with our hands and otherwise to keep silent, which is better than the opposite" (note 8). The German missionary Ludwig Bezner noted that Cornies—one of the few Mennonites to learn the Nogai language—spoke winningly to his chief herdsman, a Nogai, convinced that God speaks through the conscience. For example, Cornies dissuaded the herdsman from using a horsewhip to “train” his wife, and made him promise to treat his wife with patience and love (note 9). A 1838 visitor’s report surmised that there was “still more affection and love between Tartars and Germans than between these two and the Russians” (note 10). Schlatter however saw a different side and judged that Mennonites generally “lacked the gift of communication, or the sense and willingness to influence others for the good,” and their “unfriendly” attitude and behaviour towards the Nogai did “not exactly evoke respect and love" (note 11). Mennonites seemed “to have reason enough to make fun of the Nogai without ever dreaming that they themselves [i.e., the Mennonites] are also uneducated and in many respects just as far behind,” in Schlatter’s estimation (note 12).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Pic of Nogai man from Hermann Roskoschny, Rußland Land und Leute (Leipzig: Greßner und Schramm, 1883), vol. 1, https://archive.org/details/russland-land-und-leute-bd-1-1883/page/n7/mode/2up.

Note 1: See the finding guide: Ingrid I. Epp and Harvey L. Dyck, The Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, 1803–1920 [PJBRMA]: A Research Guide (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), https://www.mharchives.ca/holdings/papers/pdfs/PJBRussMennArchiveFA2.pdf. Copies of the collection are also in Waterloo, Winnipeg and Abbotsford.

Note 2: See pic, from PJBRMA file 1828, “Philipp Wiebe—Large varieties of documents,” 1845-1864; see also file 1498: “Akkerman—Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859."

Note 3: Cornies, “The Nogai Tatars, 1825,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, vol. 1: 1812–1835, translated by Ingrid I. Epp; edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 489. See sample pages starting at 455ff. https://books.google.ca/books?id=oHQ2CwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA468&dq=koran%20johann%20cornies&pg=PA458#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Note 4: This argument is made in detail by John Staples, “‘On Civilizing the Nogais’: Mennonite–Nogai Economic Relations, 1825–1860,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 74, no. 2 (April 2000), 229–256, https://www.goshen.edu/mqr/2000/06/april-2000-staples/.

Note 5 (pic): “Johann Cornies—Catalogue of Books, 1841 [1845],” in Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, file 797, reel 34. From Robarts Library, University of Toronto.

Note 6: Cornies, “The Nogai Tartars,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe, vol. 1.

Note 7: David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Colonies in New Russia. A study of their settlement and economic development from 1789–1914” (PhD dissertation, Stanford University, 1933), 174f., https://archive.org/details/themennonitecoloniesinnewrussiaastudyoftheirsettlementandeconomicdevelopmentfrom1789to1914ocr/page/n193/mode/2up?q=koran.

Note 8: Cornies “No. 80, To Daniel Schlatter, 6 November 1826,” Transformation I, 97.

Note 9: Karl-Günther Jung and Heinold Fast, “Bericht Ludwig Bezner über seinen Besuch bei Johann Cornies, 1821,” Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter (1988), 74f.

Note 10: “Mennoniten an der Molotschna,” Hausfreund, no. 25 (June 23, 1838), col. 393.

Note 11: Georg von Reiswitz and Friedrich Wadzeck, Beiträge zur Kenntniß der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Europa und Amerika, Part I (Berlin, 1821), 371f., https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009717700. See in more detail Heinrich Dirks,“Aus den Aufzeichnungen eines Alten.” Mennonitisches Jahrbuch 1906/7 4 (1907), 92-97, https://chortitza.org/Buch/MJ/MJ06-4.pdf.

Note 12: Daniel Schlatter, Bruchstücke aus einigen Reisen nach dem südlichen Rußland in den Jahren 1822 bis 1828 (St. Gallen: Huber, 1830), 367, https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11008440_00005.html.

Comments

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...

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 ...

Eduard Wüst: A “Second Menno”?

Arguably the most significant outside religious influence on Mennonite s in the 19th century was the revivalist preaching of Eduard Wüst, a university-trained Württemberg Pietist minister installed by the separatist Evangelical Brethren Church in New Russia in 1843 ( note 1 ). With the end-time prophesies of a previous generation of Pietists (and many Mennonites) coming to naught, Wüst introduced Germans in this area of New Russia to the “New Pietism” and its more individualistic, emotional conversion experience and sermons on the free grace of God centred on the cross of Christ ( note 2 ). Wüst’s 1851 Christmas sermon series give a good picture of what was changing ( note 3 ). His core agenda was to dispel gloom (which maybe could describe more traditional Mennonites) and induce Christian joy. This is the root impulse of the Mennonite Brethren beginnings years later in 1860. “Satan is not entitled to present his own as the most joyful.” His people “sing, jump, leap ( hüpfen ) ...

Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor), 1932-1933

In 2008 the Canadian Parliament passed an act declaring the fourth Saturday in November as “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (‘Holodomor’) Memorial Day” ( note 1 ). Southern Ukraine was arguably the worst affected region of the famine of 1932–33, where 30,000 to 40,000 Mennonites lived ( note 2 ). The number of famine-related deaths in Ukraine during this period are conservatively estimated at 3.5 million ( note 3 ). In the early 1930s Stalin feared growing “Ukrainian nationalism” and the possibility of “losing Ukraine” ( note 4 ). He was also suspicious of ethnic Poles and Germans—like Mennonites—in Ukraine, convinced of the “existence of an organized counter-revolutionary insurgent underground” in support of Ukrainian national independence ( note 5 ). Ukraine was targeted with a “lengthy schooling” designed to ruthlessly break the threat of Ukrainian nationalism and resistance, and this included Ukraine’s Mennonites (viewed simply as “Germans”). Various causes combined to bring on w...

Becoming German: Ludendorff Festivals in Molotschna, 1918

During the friendly German military occupation of Ukraine at the end of WWI, patriotic “Ludendorff Festivals” were encouraged by German forces to raise funds to support injured German soldiers. A first such festival in the Molotschna was held on June 25, 1918 in Ohrloff, and was attended by “a great many German officers, soldiers and colonists with music, [patriotic] speeches and social interaction” From the perspective of the German army press, the event was “extremely enjoyable;” it was accompanied with music by a 30-piece regiment orchestra, and beer, sausage, sandwiches, ice-cream, raspberries and cherries were sold. It closed with a “small dance,” raising 7,387 rubles or 9,850 German marks in donations ( note 1 ). Later that summer, a Ludendorff Festival in Halbstadt began with Sunday worship, followed by an early concert, games and performances by the Selbstschutz , as well as “entertainment and merriment of every kind,” with short plays and dancing into the morning ( note ...

The Tinkelstein Family of Chortitza-Rosenthal (Ukraine)

Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in "New Russia" (later Ukraine), est. 1789. The last Mennonites left in 1943 ( note 1 ). During the Stalin years in Ukraine (after 1928), marriage with Jewish neighbours—especially among better educated Mennonites in cities—had become somewhat more common. When the Germans arrived mid-August 1941, however, it meant certain death for the Jewish partner and usually for the children of those marriages. A family friend, Peter Harder, died in 2022 at age 96. Peter was born in Osterwick to a teacher and grew up in Chortitza. As a 16-year-old in 1942, Peter was compelled by occupying German forces to participate in the war effort. Ukrainians and Russians (prisoners of war?) were used by the Germans to rebuild the massive dam at Einlage near Zaporizhzhia, and Peter was engaged as a translator. In the next year he changed focus and started teachers college, which included significant Nazi indoctrination. In 2017 I interviewed Peter Ha...

Four-Part Singing in Mennonite Schools and Church in Russia

The significance of singing instruction may seem trite, but it became a key vehicle in the Mennonite school curriculum for fostering a basic appreciation of the arts and for faith formation. In Johann Cornies’ circulated guidelines for teachers, singing was recommended as a means “to stimulate and enliven pious feelings” in the children—a guideline he copied directly from a German Catholic pedagogue and circulated freely under his own name ( note 1 ). On January 26, 1846 Cornies distributed a curriculum regulation to all schools that mandated “singing by numbers ( Zahlen ) from the church hymnal” ( note 2 ). Attention to singing instruction in the schools precipitated significant and controversial changes in Mennonite liturgy. An 1854 visiting observer to the Bergthal Colony—a Chortitza daughter colony outside of Cornies’ purview—wrote: “Endlessly long hymns from the Gesangbuch (hymnal) were begun by the Vorsänger (song leader) of the congregation, and sung with so many flo...

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 ...

Why Danzig and Poland?

In the late 16th century, Poland became a haven for a variety of non-conformists which included Jews, Anti-Trinitarians from Italy and Bohemia, Quakers and Calvinists from Great Britain, south German Schwenkfelders, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Greek Catholic Christians, some Muslim Tatars, as well as other peaceful sectarians like the Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists. Unlike the Low Countries and most of western Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a “state without stakes,” and as such fittingly described as “God’s playground” ( note 1 ). In the view of 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, it was “the ‘Promised Land,’ where the refugee could forget all his sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land” ( note 2 ). Over the next two centuries an important strand of Mennonite life and spirituality evolved into a mature tradition in this relatively hospitable context ( note 3 ). Anabaptists from the Low Countries began to arrive in Danzig and region as early as 15...

1871: "Mennonite Tough Luck"

In 1868, a delegation of Prussian Mennonite elders met with Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Berlin. The topic was universal conscription--now also for Mennonites. They were informed that “what has happened here is coming soon to Russia as well” ( note 1 ). In Berlin the secret was already out. Three years later this political cartoon appeared in a satirical Berlin newspaper. It captures the predicament of Russian Mennonites (some enticed in recent decades from Prussia), with the announcement of a new policy of compulsory, universal military service. “‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire—or: Mennonite tough luck.’ The Mennonites, who immigrated to Russia in order to avoid becoming soldiers in Prussia, are now subject to newly introduced compulsory military service.” ( Note 2 ) The man caught in between looks more like a Prussian than Russian Mennonite—but that’s beside the point. With the “Great Reforms” of the 1860s (including emancipation of serfs) the fundamentals were c...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog