Molotschna's 50th Anniversary Celebration Plans, 1854

There is no mention of this celebrative event in Hildebrand’s Chronologischer Zeittafel, no report in the newly launched Prussian church paper Mennonitische Blätter, or in the Unterhaltungsblatt for German colonists in South Russia.

But plans to celebrate five decades of Mennonite settlement on the Molotschna River were well underway in 1853; detailed draft notes for the event are found in the Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive (note 1). Perhaps most importantly the file includes the list of names of the first settlers in each of the first nine Molotschna villages (est. 1804). While each village had been mandated a few years earlier to write its own village history (note 2; pics), eight of these nine did not list their first settler families by name. The lists with the male family heads are attached below.

By 1854 Molotoschna’s population had increased to about 17,000; more than half of those living in the original nine villages were landless Anwohner (note 3). Celebration plans were sketched out in detail for May 1, 1854. The event was to take place outdoors on the Johann Cornies (Jr.) family-owned Juschanlee Estate on the southern edge of the Molotschna Colony on the Juschanlee tributary.

The file includes a sketch of the seating arrangement (see pic). The district (political) elders and church elders were to sit on the podium which would include a speaker’s chair. In front of the podium in semi-circles were, first, the “veterans” (presumably the still-living pioneers) as most honoured guests; then behind them the village mayors and church ministers; behind them the school teachers, and then the other festival guests.

Schedule

1 pm Gathering
2 pm Begin of Celebration

Introduction
Song
Keynote Speech
Song
Reports and Memories

4:30 pm: Banquet

Conversations (freie Unterhaltung).

Conclusion

Short closing speeches
Closing songs

However when looking for a report on this milestone event, the record appears to be silent. What happened? The Crimean War had started December 1853--and there was an historic flood of the Jushanlee just weeks before the scheduled celebration.

The Unterhaltungsblatt offers an interesting report on the immediate impact of wartime activity and the flooding on the Molotschna Mennonites in those months.

"The Colonists and Mennonites of the Melitopol- and Berdjansk-districts willingly agreed to provide the troops of the 17th Infantry Division with the necessary horse-drawn wagons during their passage through the colonies, and actually provided 630 three- and four-horse carts at each station.

The landowner, Mennonite Johann Cornies (Jr.) built a temporary bridge across the Tashchenak valley on German wagons, the material of which cost him 1000 silver rubles.

Without this bridge the crossing of two brigades of the 17th Infantry Division, as well as artillery, would have encountered an unforeseen obstacle due to the unprecedented flooding of this valley at that time. Mr. Cornies personally supervised the successful crossing of troops over this bridge.

During the unusual flooding of the Juschanlee River, which on the morning of March 27 [1854] had swelled to 150 Faden (933 feet), and in some places it was even 5.5 versts (5.9 km) wide. Over the course of 70 versts (75 km) all bridges and dams flooded so that there seemed to be no possibility of crossing, and the second detachment of the Tarutinski Regiment was restrained by the water in the colonies of Altonau and Lindenau. With the choice of either waiting some 10 days until the water receded, or to return (north) to Halbstadt where all bridges and dams were inaccessible, Mennonites and colonists spared no sacrifice to erect floating bridges in those places that offered the detachment the possibility to cross safely to Melitopol …" (Note 4)

By spring 1854 not only were troops moving through these established, original nine Molotschna villages, but Mennonites had joined the war effort with large donations of food, wagons and horses. Mennonites also invested their time and equipment to transport food to the Crimean war zone; and Mennonites brought back wounded Russian soldiers into their once secluded colony, villages and homes for care (note 5). This, plus historic flooding that likely covered the venue grounds—the show piece for the prosperity Molotschna had achieved—meant that the planned 50th anniversary celebrations were probably cancelled.

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: File 1762, microfilm reel 51, Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, 1803-1920. Robarts Library, University of Toronto. See research guide translated and edited by Ingrid I. Epp and Harvey L. Dyck, https://www.mharchives.ca/holdings/papers/pdfs/PJBRussMennArchiveFA2.pdf.

Note 2: Margareta Woltner, ed., Die Gemeindeberichte von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1941), https://opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de/title/BV014463862.

Note 3: Delbert Plett, The Golden Years: The Mennonite Kleine Gemeinde in Russia, 1812–1849 (Steinbach, MB: Self-published, 1985), 89, https://www.mharchives.ca/download/1216/. On January 1, 1856, the Molotschna population was 18,148; 59% of families in the nine original villages were now Anwohner (renters). Source: J. Martens, “Statistische Mittheilungen über die Mennoniten-Gemeinden im südlichen Rußland (1. Januar 1856),” Mennonitische Blätter 4, no. 3 (1857), 30, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Blaetter/1854-1900/1857/DSCF0082.JPG.

Note 4: Unterhaltungsblatt für deutsche Ansiedler in südlichem Rußland 9, no. 8 (August 1854), 58, https://www.hfdr.de/sub/pdf/unterhaltungsblatt/1854_1-12.pdf. See previous post (forthcoming).

Note 5: See previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/mennonites-and-crimean-war-1853-56.html. See also James Urry and Lawrence Klippenstein, “Mennonites and the Crimean War, 1854–1856,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 7 (1989), 12, https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/view/748/747.

--Appendix (see attached lists)--

See attached lists of original settlers in Molotschna's first nine villages. As background, see 1848 village histories in Woltner, Gemeindeberichte von 1848. Much of the content is copied in Helmut Huebert, Molotschna Historical Atlas (Winnipeg, MB: Springfield, 2003), https://archive.org/details/MolotschnaHistoricalAtlasOCRopt.

Note a:

Altona: See Huebert, 109 (Woltner, 113-116): “13 Flemish families [only 7 named above] from the Marienburg area of Prussia settled to form Altona. … Only six families were able to build houses in the first summer because of the distance lumber had to be hauled, the rest over-wintered in earth huts.”
Münsterberg: Huebert, 161 (Woltner, 116f.) notes that 9 of these 21 families came from the Elbing area, 7 from the Tiegenhof jurisdiction, and 5 from the Marienburg region. “Besides the necessary team and wagon for transportation, most of the settlers had very little else …”
Fischau: See Woltner, 101.

Note b:

Halbstadt: See Woltner, 88-93.
Muntau: See Woltner, 94-96.
Blumstein: See Huebert, 113 (Woltner, 101f.): “Eight of the original families came from the Marienburg area, seven from the Elbing region and six from the Tiegenhof jurisdiction in Prussia. They came to Russia under the leadership of Gerhard Hildebrand, who, however, settled in Schoenau.”

Note c:

Schoenau: “21 settlers of Flemish background” (Huebert, 181; Woltner, 109f); the above list only has 18.
Lindenau: Woltner, 99, has the above plus: Martin Born, Isaak Löwen, Isaak Wiens, Franz Enns, Klaas Friesen, Peter Remfenning, David Hiebert, Jakob Klaassen, Klaas Fröse, Paul Klaassen. Huebert, 155: “The initial population of the village was 90, with 47 males and 43 females.”
Lichtenau: Initially “21 Flemish farmers” (Huebert, 149; Woltner, 98).

Comments

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse...

Why study and write about Russian Mennonite history?

David G. Rempel’s credentials as an historian of the Russian Mennonite story are impeccable—he was a mentor to James Urry in the 1980s, for example, which says it all. In 1974 Rempel wrote an article on Mennonite historical work for an issue of the Mennonite Quarterly Review commemorating the arrival of Russian Mennonites to North America 100 years earlier ( note 1). In one section of the essay Rempel reflected on Mennonites’ general “lack of interest in their history,” and why they were so “exceedingly slow” in reflecting on their historic development in Russia with so little scholarly rigour. Rempel noted that he was not alone in this observation; some prominent Mennonites of his generation who had noted the same pointed an “extreme spirit of individualism” among Mennonites in Russia; the absence of Mennonite “authoritative voices,” both in and outside the church; the “relative indifference” of Mennonites to the past; “intellectual laziness” among many who do not wish to be distu...

Mennonite Literacy in Polish-Prussia

At a Mennonite wedding in Deutsch Kazun in 1833 (pic), neither groom nor bride nor the witnesses could sign the wedding register. A Görtz, a Janzen, a Schröder—born a Görtzen – illiterate. “This act was read to the married couple and witnesses, but not signed because they were unable to write.” Similarly, with the certification of a Mennonite death in Culm (Chelmo), West Prussia, 1813-14: “This document was read and it was signed by us because the witnesses were illiterate.” Spouse and children were unable to read or write. Names like Gerz, Plenert, Kliewer, Kasper, Buller and others. 14 families of the 25 Mennonite deaths registered --or 56%--could not sign the paperwork ( note 1 ; pic ). This appears to be an anomaly. We know some pioneers to Russia were well educated. The letters of the land-scout to Russia, Johann Bartsch to his wife back home (1786-87) are eloquent, beautifully written and indicate a high level of literacy ( note 2 ). Even Klaas Reimer (b. 1770), the founder t...

"Between Monarchs" a lot can happen (like revolt). A Mennonite "Accession" Prayer for the Monarch

It is surprising for many to learn that Russian Mennonites sang the Russian national anthem "God save the Tsar" in special worship services ... frequently! We have a "Mennonite prayer" and sermon sample for the accession of the monarch ( Thronbesteigung ) or its anniversary, with closing prayer-- and another Mennonite sampler of a coronation ( Krönung ) prayer, sermon and closing prayer ( note 1 ). After 70 years with one monarch, the manual is made for a time like this--try sharing it with your Canadian Mennonite pastor ;) Technically there is no “between” monarchs: “The Queen is Dead. Long live the King!” But there is much that happens or can happen before the coronation of the new monarch. Including revolt. Mennonites in Molotschna had hosted Tsar Alexander I shortly before his death in 1825. Upon his death in December, Alexander's brother and heir Constantine declined succession, and prior to the coronation of the next brother Nicholas, some 3,000 rebel (mos...

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...

Russia: A Refuge for all True Christians Living in the Last Days

If only it were so. It was not only a fringe group of Russian Mennonites who believed that they were living the Last Days. This view was widely shared--though rejected by the minority conservative Kleine Gemeinde. In 1820 upon the recommendation of Rudnerweide (Frisian) Elder Franz Görz, the progressive and influential Mennonite leader Johann Cornies asked the Mennonite Tobias Voth (b. 1791) of Graudenz, Prussia to come and lead his Agricultural Association’s private high school in Ohrloff, in the Russian Mennonite colony of Molotschna. Voth understood this as nothing less than a divine call upon his life ( note 1; pic 3 ). In Ohrloff Voth grew not only a secondary school, but also a community lending library, book clubs, as well as mission prayer meetings, and Bible study evenings. Voth was the son of a Mennonite minister and his wife was raised Lutheran ( note 2 ). For some years, Voth had been strongly influenced by the warm, Pietist devotional fiction writings of Johann Heinrich Ju...

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 ) ...

A-Cases and O-Cases. After the Trek, 1944

Some 35,000 Mennonites evacuated from Ukraine by the retreating Reich German military in 1943-44 applied for naturalization /citizenship once in German-annexed Poland (mostly Warthegau). The applications made through the “EWZ” ( Einwandererzentralstelle ) are easy to attain today ( note 1 ). Much information may be new and useful for families; however just as much is disturbing, including the racial assessments, categorization, and separation of so-called “A-cases” from “O-cases.” What are they? The EWZ files contain the application for naturalization made by the head of a family unit, the certificate of naturalization, and sometimes correspondence/ claims regarding property and possessions left behind in Ukraine. Each form contains information about the applicant’s spouse and children, as well as a genealogy listing parents and grandparents, and those of their spouse as well; racial background is calculated by percentage (!). Applicants were asked about their citizenship, their e...

"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...

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