Cardinal Richelieu, the sinister clergyman portrayed in Disney’s “Three Musketeers” film, was the great-grand-uncle of Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, the Duke of Richelieu. The Duke knew the Mennonites of New Russia very well and was a key figure in their early health and success.
In exile from France, Richelieu volunteered in Catherine the
Great’s Imperial army and was decorated for his 1789 leadership in fighting the
Turkish Ottoman Empire. In 1803, Alexander I appointed Richelieu as Governor of
newly founded city of Odessa, and then as Governor General of all New Russia in
1804. He would later return to France where he served twice as Prime Minister (note
1).
Richelieu was viewed as the “colonizer of genius” (note 2),
and his most trusted colonization official was Samuel Contenius, who was most
directly involved in the successful settlement and early economic development
of Mennonites in Russia.
Contenius (b. 1748) was the son of a German pastor; he came
to Russia at age 25 where he became the “Chief Judge” of the Guardianship
Commission for Foreign Settlers (note 3). In that role and until his death in
1830, he was a most influential mentor, promoter and supporter of the young
Johann Cornies.
Contenius reported directly to Richelieu from 1804 to 1815;
recently some 88 letters between the two were published—mostly in French,
though both were also fluent in Russian and German (note 4). Contenius worked
out of Ekaterinoslav (today Dnipro) and Richelieu from Odessa, and both visited
the colonies frequently.
An older Molotschna history includes an April 1804 letter by
Richelieu to newly arrived Mennonites still at Chortitza. They had notified
officials that they were reconsidering a decision to settle along the
Molotschna River. In a patient response, Richelieu reviewed the advantages of
that land, but then simply gave an order to which he expected full obedience.
“I hope that the above reasons will suffice to convince the
reasonable men among you that nowhere else can the diligence of your hands
expect more blessing than in the place of your destination, the Molotschna. On
the other hand, to those of you who, out of simple-mindedness or stubbornness,
keep changing your minds, who are not wise enough to see what can be good or
harmful for you and your descendants in the future, or who allow themselves to
be led astray by the pernicious counsels of ill-intentioned people, I order you
to solemnly indicate that you will settle down there, because such a thing,
according to your wishes, is now the Supreme Will and Command of His Imperial
Majesty. I expect a report from you on this subject by first mail as a test of
your compliance, otherwise I would see myself compelled to take measures that
would give you a bad reputation and would have unpleasant consequences for you.
…”
From this start settlers learnt both to fear and respect
Richelieu. Richelieu however concluded his letter with paternalistic,
“fatherly” gentleness:
“By the way, I assure all good and righteous men among you
of my willingness to promote everything that could serve your essential benefit
and well-being, and (God bless) I will try to remedy your distress, if it
should happen to you.” (Note 5)
Because of an early and harsh Winter in 1804, for example, most settlers were unhoused and wintered in earthen shelters. Concerned for their general health, Richelieu recommended simple “small iron stoves,” constructed of four sheets of iron “joined like a house of cards and well nailed, with a pipe also made of iron. This gives great heat from just a handful of weeds” (note 6).
The Mennonites settlers did not disappoint Richelieu. By the
end of the first year he could report:
“Of all the settlers, those who deserve preference in all
respects are the Mennonites. They are the kind of capitalists who bring not
only money and a great deal of industry and beautiful breeds of cattle, but
even better, good principles and a high level of morality. It was neither
inconstancy of character nor bad behaviour in their fatherland which obliged
them to leave, but because of restrictions placed on their freedom of
conscience and their rights of property ownership. These settlers are very valuable
and we must not neglect any means to attract as many of them as possible. In
1804, 152 families or 942 individuals arrived, bringing 52,591 Ducats in
cash.” (Note 7)
Richelieu, Contenius and Mennonites shared the assumption
that morality—including sobriety, mutual support, industriousness and obedience—were
key not only to a good life, but to prosperity. Under Richelieu’s direction,
the state donated 6,000 rubles to Molotschna Mennonites for the construction of
their churches (“prayer houses”); in 1809 the community built a church in
Ohrloff and in 1810 another in Petershagen. Faith leadership in each foreign colony—each
according to their tradition—was important to Richelieu for the “moral
edification,” and to become “better,” more “civilized” people (note 8).
Some 342 Mennonite families from West Prussia emigrated to
Russia in 1803, 1804 and 1805 as first settlers along the Molotschna (note 9),
and by 1806 Richelieu could say: “The Mennonites are astonishing, the
Bulgarians incomparable and the Germans intolerable” (note 10).
Richelieu sent “seeds for vegetables, like cabbage carrots,
etc.,” encouraged markets for the sale of Mennonite “butter and tallow” (for
candles and soap), and urged with incentives the planting of mulberry trees and
development of a silk industry. Importantly, the breeding of fine-fleeced sheep
among Mennonites in Chortitza and Molotschna owed its beginning and success to
Richelieu. Upon the recommendation of Richelieu, in 1808 the state bought 4,000
merino sheep for distribution among the villages and colonies of the region (note
11).
In June 1808 Richelieu wrote to Contenius: “I am surprised
that no Mennonites are coming;” and in September 1809, “I am delighted that you
have succeeded in determining 180 families to go to Molotschna. … May they soon
be followed by others” (note 12).
After meeting again with the Mennonites in November 1808,
Richelieu was livid with their unwillingness to help house newly arrived
German-speaking Lutherans for the winter. He wrote Contenius that “the bad
disposition of the Mennonites does them no honour. I forbid you to pay any
attention to them; declare to them on my behalf that those who do not wish to
accommodate newly arrived colonists will have four grenadiers of the Estonian
Regiment to accommodate, to whom I will send an order.” But then later in
the same letter he states that Mennonites “are good people whose numbers I
wish with all my heart to see increase among us” (note 13).
New Russia was an effective police state with constant
surveillance and the restriction of movement. Supervision, incentives,
discipline and the bureaucratic counting of all things were deemed essential by
Richelieu to creating useful subjects (note 14).
Richelieu’s response to “problem” German colonists displays
well his paternalism:
“Diseases and deaths continue among the Germans. Their
houses are cold, they don’t get out of bed … I have sent for sheep skins, and I
am having these iron stoves made in their houses. When that is complete, I will
settle there and stay there for a month, if necessary. I will make them work,
clean, and wash. I will do a roll call and establish a military regime, with
the help of two or three of my young men, and some low-ranking officers. It is
necessary to save them by force—otherwise all be lost. … If I have the
misfortune to witness the loss of these people, at least afterwards I will not
have to reproach myself for neglecting to do enough to save them.” (Note
15)
But the Mennonites too were problems—at least on occasion.
In May 1808 Richelieu reflected on the “stubbornness of the Mennonites” who
were resisting Richelieu’s directives to plant mulberry trees.
“It seems that this comes from the independent spirit of
those who established themselves with their own funds; but even if they have
received no money from the Crown, they have received lands and it seems to me
that in making such a gift the government has the right to exact a little
obedience and docility on the part of the settlers—especially when what is
required is absolutely to their benefit. I am very determined to use all my
authority to succeed in our plans concerning silk, and I was thinking of writing
to these people in such a way as to persuade them … Then when I visit them I
will speak strongly to them.” (Note 16)
The villagers of Altona were perhaps the most problematic
for Richelieu. In 1807 they chose not to participate in the building of a state-initiated
community distillery, and also refused attempts to comply with the command to
supply 14 wagons per village to haul wood and supplies for the military to
Molotschna, to pay for renovations of the state overseer’s house (note 17). Not
only was this a self-confident and serious testing of the Mennonite charter of
privileges, from Richelieu’s perspective the attitude could spread and
undermine his authority.
Richelieu's deep care for the colonists comes through in
some of the letters. The high rate of death and illness had a deep impact on
Richelieu. In October 1805 he wrote to Contenius: “Have the goodness to create
a table with all the German settlers and Mennonites who have come since the
beginning of 1803 with mortality and birth rates, so that one can judge what
has been lost!” (note 18). Then three months later: “It makes one shudder, and
you cannot believe how much I am affected by it. It is like a punishment from
heaven that in truth I do not deserve” (note 19).
One of his initiatives that same year was to promote cowpox
vaccination of children in his colonies, which had good success in
Chortitza and Molotschna.
On March 28, 1806, Richelieu wrote to Contenius: “The
Emperor has approved a plan I proposed to him to establish a Vaccination Committee
in Ekaterinoslav. … The Emperor attaches great importance to the success of
this operation which in fact is of extreme importance for a region with so few
people, and where cowpox wreaks so much havoc. We will use these means to
spread the vaccine in our colonies as well.” (Note 20)
Three years later Richelieu wrote to Contenius: “How's
the vaccine going? Here it expands little by little. There are so few diseases
among the German colonists that in the month of June the number of births is
double that of deaths. Farewell, my dear friend, God preserve you for the good
of our colonies.” (Note 21, including the 1809 and 1814 vaccines lists for
Chortitza)
In 1810 Contenius could boast to the German press: “This
region on the Molotschna River is one of the healthiest in the Russian Empire.
This is evident from the fact that for several years after the introduction of
cowpox vaccination, the number of births to deaths has been 4 and 3 to 1” (note
22).
We can thank Richelieu for his policy and practice of expansive
and precise data collection on which policy decisions were made.
Mennonites were only one settlement group under Richelieu’s
oversight. He proudly summarized his larger achievement to the Tsar with the
following statement: “Never, Sire, in any part of the world, have there been
nations so different in manners, language, customs and dress living within so
restricted a space” (note 23).
In Spring 1808 Richelieu’s visiting nephew Louis
Rochechouart went on a tour of the colonies with the Governor General of New
Russia, his uncle. In his memoir, the nephew wrote the following:
“The Mennonites interested us greatly. This colony, composed
of agricultural capitalists, had prospered within a very short time, partly on
account of the capital they had brought in, but chiefly on account of their
sobriety and purity of life. Their religion was based on Christian charity,
hence they had no quarrels or lawsuits, but a patriarchal life as depicted in
the Bible. At the time of the inspection, they had just begun a great work of
clearing the land, which would add immensely to their well-being” (Note 24).
While this strong impression is no doubt only half the
story, it was certainly shaped by the judgement of his uncle the Duke, who
ruled over the Russian Mennonites for more than a decade. After the defeat of
Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, Richelieu returned to France where he was elected
Prime Minister twice, before dying in 1822.
---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast
---Notes---
Note 1: See the Wikipedia entry for general information
on his life: https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Armand-Emmanuel_de_Vignerot....
Note 2: See reference in preface to Richelieu-Contenius
correspondence by Elena Polevchtchikova and Dominique Triaire, eds., Lettres
d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 1803-1814 (Ferney-Voltaire: Center
international du xviiie siècle, 2014), 73.
Note 3: Cf. GAMEO, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Kontenius,_Samuel_(1749-1830) .
His biography was reprinted by Mennonites in Russia in 1928 with the subtitle:
"An Unforgettable Benefactor of the Colonies in South Russia": A. D.
Fedaav (edited by D. H. Epp), “Samuel Contenius: ein unvergeßlicher Wohltäter
der Kolonien Südrußlands,” Unser Blatt 3, no. 5 (Feb. 1928),
107-109, https://chortitza.org/Pis/UB27_05.pdf. See Richelieu's
defense and praise of Contenius in an 1812 letter to Tsar: Letter No. 83, Duke
of Richelieu to Tsar Alexander I, [Spring?] 1812, in Le duc de Richelieu :
Correspondance et documents, 1766-1822, edited by Anatol Victorovitch
Polovtsov (St. Petersburg: Skorokhodov, 1887), 336f., https://archive.org/.../leducderichelie.../page/336/mode/2up.
Note 4: Polevchtchikova and Triaire, Lettres d’Odessa
du duc de Richelieu. Microfilmed files (summaries) of the Guardianship
Commission which Richelieu oversaw are now also available; Cf. Odessa
Archive, https://www.mharchives.ca/.../OdessaArchiveF6/F6-1.htm.
Note 5: Richelieu to newly arrived Mennonites in Chortitza,
April 2, 1804, letter, in Franz Isaac, Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten. Ein
Beitrag zur Geschichte derselben (Halbstadt, Taurien: H. J. Braun, 1908),
8-10, https://archive.org/.../die-molotschnaer.../page/8/mode/2up.
Note 6: Richelieu to Contenius, letter, October 14, 1804,
in Lettres d'Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 93. Cf. 1848 village histories
for Muntau, Lindenau and Altona, Molotschna, in Margarete Woltner, ed., Die
Gemeindeberichte von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer (Leipzig:
Hirzel, 1941), 94, 99, 113, https://opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de/title/BV014463862.
Note 7: Report by Richelieu, December 1804, in Lettres
d'Odessa du duc de Richelieu, pp. 78f. n.28.
Note 8: Cf. Isaac, Molotschnaer Mennoniten, 91. This
concern was not just for Mennonites. In the same year he tells Contenius that
he has supported a search for “for six good priests, both Catholic and
Lutheran.” Cf. letter from Richelieu to Contenius, September 1809, in Lettres
d'Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 124.
Note 9: Cf. Isaac, Molotschnaer Mennoniten, 8.
Note 10: Cited in Roger Bartlett, Human Capital. The
Settlement of Foreigners in Russia 1762–1804 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1979), 211.
Note 11: David Rempel, “The Mennonite Colonies in New
Russia. A study of their settlement and economic development from 1789–1914,”
PhD dissertation (Stanford University, 1933), 124, note 4, https://archive.org/.../themennoniteco.../page/n141/mode/2up.
Each Chortitza village, for example, received 16 pairs; cf. St.
Petersburgische Zeitschrift 3, no. 2 (1824), 177f., http://opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de/.../108.../ft/bsb10617431....
See also Woltner, Gemeindeberichte von 1848, 21.
Note 12: Richelieu to Contenius, June 25, 1808 and Sept. 3,
1809, in Lettres d'Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 114; 124.
Note 13: Richelieu to Contenius, September 20, 1809, in Lettres d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 125f. For a Mennonite perspective on the same events, Abraham Braun recalled: “When new Lutheran and Catholic German colonists were directed to winter with Mennonites, not a few viewed them “as descendants of their persecutors in the martyr period.” Curiously, “the martyr books, which many families at that time owned, seemed to show this…Some Mennonites went so far as not even to greet [German] colonists of other confessions when they entered their homes etc.” “When I think back to my childhood, I must say that the separation of Mennonites from other-minded Germans went too far” (“Kleine Chronik der Mennoniten an der Molotschna seit ihrer Ansiedlung bis in mein 80. Jahr,” Mennonitisches Jahrbuch 1907 5 [1908], 66–79, https://chortitza.org/kb/mj1907.pdf; ET: https://www.mharchives.ca/download/3638/). Richelieu’s threat worked, though years later those German colonists remembered with some bitterness the lack of hospitality, even for one night’s lodging. Mennonites however were convinced that—however reluctantly—they had had an uplifting impact on the morals of the newly arrived German colonists, provided them guidance for settlement, and acquainted them “with thrifty household management and purposeful field cultivation.”
Note 14: Cf. Meryl Lavenant, “Gouverner les colons en
Nouvelle Russie. Théories et pratiques de l’administration coloniale dans le
sud de l’Empire tsariste (1803-1814),” Bulletin de l'Institut Pierre
Renouvin 51, no. 1 (2020), 139-149, https://www.cairn.info/revue-bulletin-de-l-institut....
Note 15: Richelieu to Contenius, letter, October 14, 1804,
in Lettres d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 94.
Note 16: Richelieu to Contenius, letter, May 19, 1808,
in Lettres d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 113f.
Note 17: Cf. Dmytro Myeshkov, Die Schwarzmeerdeutschen
und ihre Welten: 1781–1871 (Essen: Klartext, 2008), 399-401.
Note 18: Richelieu to Contenius, letter, October 16, 1805,
in Lettres d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 101.
Note 19: Richelieu to Contenius, letter, January 27, 1806,
in Lettres d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 104.
Note 20: Richelieu to Contenius, letter, March 28, 1806,
in Lettres d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 106.
Note 21: Richelieu to Contenius, letter, July 23, 1809,
in Lettres d’Odessa du duc de Richelieu, 121. See 1809 immunization list
for the Chortitza Settlement, https://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/russia/1809.htm, as well
as the 1814 list: https://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/russia/1814c.htm. See
previous post: https://www.facebook.com/.../Menn.../posts/4891075360926462/.
Note 22: Samuel Contenius, “Ueber den Zustand Neureußens im
südlichen Rußland, und die dortigen ausländischen Colonien im J. 1809,” Allgemeiner
Anzeiger der Deutschen, no. 149 (June 4 1810), col. 1609–1620; 1616, https://api.digitale-sammlungen.de/.../canvas/829/view.
Note 23: Cited in Louis Rochechouart, Memoirs of the
Count de Rochechouart, translated by Frances Jackson (New York: Dutton, 1920),
80f., https://archive.org/details/memoirsofcountde00roch.
Note 24: Rochechouart, Memoirs of the Count de
Rochechouart, 80f.
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