History of the Russian Mennonites

In January 1930, the Mennonite Central Committee was scrambling to get 3,885 Mennonites out of Germany and settled somewhere fast. These refugees had fled via Moscow in December 1929, and Germany was willing only to serve as first transit stop ( note 1 ). Canada was very reluctant to take any German-speaking Mennonites—the Great Depression had begun and a negative memory of war resistance still lingered. In the end Canada took 1,344 Mennonites and the USA took none born in Russia. Paraguay was the next best option ( note 2 ). The German government preferred Brazil, but Brazil would not guarantee freedom from military service, which was a problem for American Mennonite financiers. There were already some conservative "cousins" from Manitoba in Paraguay who had negotiated with the government and learned through trial and error how to survive in the "Green Hell" of the Paraguayan Chaco. MCC with the assistance of a German aid organization purchased and distribute...

The first attached photo vividly depicts a meeting of conservative Mennonite elders in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 1922 who intended to lead their communities to Paraguay. This was happening as hundreds of “Old Colony” Mennonites were leaving for Mexico. The “Old Colonists” from Manitoba’s West Reserve were in fact the first conservative Canadian Mennonites to scout out Paraguay for settlement land. In 1920 they were assisted in their search by New York financier and lawyer, General Samuel McRoberts, who had extensive holdings as well as political and business connections in Paraguay. The delegation travelled 90 km into the Chaco interior, west of the Paraguay River. They were however unimpressed with the land and ultimately recommended Mexico to their community ( note 1 ). Other conservative groups in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were however interested in sending their own scouts to assess the Chaco and the political climate in Paraguay vis-à-vis the list of privileges they were seek...

In February 1929—10 months before the “flight to Moscow" of thousands and the ensuing Mennonite refugee crisis—F. K. Hershey and A. Swartzentruber travelled to the colony of Canadian Mennonites in Gran Chaco, Paraguay to report to Mennonite Central Committee on conditions ( note 1 ). Below are some of the assumptions about the Indigenous Lengua people: "they own no land;" they "live on Mennonite land;" they are generously hard working for almost no pay; they have no culture. "... about 500 of the Lengua tribe Indians live on Mennonite land. They are a peaceable tribe and generally good workers. They work nine hours a day for the equivalent of 40 cents US. … they own no land live in huts made of weeds thrown over an extended limb of a tree … They are no trouble whatsoever to the Colonists, in fact they [the colonists] are glad for them, as the Indians are especially good at clearing off the land.” By January 1930 MCC was preparing to bring more than a t...

It is impossible to count the volunteer hours, the unregistered gifts and donations, “sweat equity,” and the incalculable contribution of indigenous peoples who shared the land and helped settle the post-WWII Mennonite refugees in Paraguay. But the larger financial expenditures can be tracked. All North American Mennonites were part of this story through the Mennonite Central Committee . 1. The total cost for transporting the 5,620 refugees was $650,000 US, or about $125 per person. MCC loaned $200,000 and the International Relief Organization carried the remainder of the costs ( note 1 ). MCC hoped that the refugees could soon repay their transportation debt in order to fund further refugee work. Before leaving Europe, MCC loaded the Volendam ship with boxes and bales filled with 32,000 items of donated clothing, shoes, and quilts for distribution. 2. Paraguay —a welcoming country. All Mennonite refugees were offered entry—including the sick, aged and those conscripted as German s...

My father was born less than a year after these 1931 wedding photos. Jacob Fast and Helen Janzen had been in Paraguay less than 8 months—see the MCC telegram—and tragedy had already struck both refugees families. Jacob’s first wife and a daughter became victims of the epidemic that ravaged the new colony of Fernheim in those first months. He was now a widower at age 39—with an infant and other children without a mother. Helene was single and 29 years old. Her mother too had died from the same epidemic; her father was partially crippled. They had come from southern Ukrainian community of Spat, Crimea; Fast was from Ural Mountains area in Russia where South Russian Mennonites had created a “daughter colony” a generation earlier.   Each had siblings who fled to Moscow in 1929 with them and who were accepted by Canada in 1930. My grandparents however were rejected—she was a single woman with frail parents; he was a man with an ill child. Perhaps in contexts like these the falli...

Only a very small percentage of Mennonites were estate owners, and each employed a small team of male and female servants, "German" and "Russian." The following comes from the memoir by Gerhard Wiens, who grew up on his maternal Schroeder family estate some 20 miles west of the Molotschna Colony. Wiens was born in 1900 and died in Minnesota on his 100th birthday. His detailed reflections ( note 1 ) are of a boy coming of age in the decade before World War I: “My mother presided over the household chores. She had a Mennonite cook and housemaid Marie Derksen who was employed with us as long as I can remember. She was assisted by two German girls either from the Molotschna Mennonite villages or from Lutheran villages some 20 miles from us. We also had two Russian girls who weeded the vegetables, washed the dishes and did some other work. The German girls did the dusting, cleaning and bed-making. They also had to do the washing with a hand-operated washing machine. Al...

As long as Johann Cornies was living (d. 1848), Mennonites in Russia received many distinguished visits and reports appeared in any variety of Imperial journals ( note 1 ). The following report was written by a British visitor in 1843 and appeared in a journal of international “commercial treaties, customs tariffs, port laws, etc.” ( note 2 ). The report makes reference to the newly established port city of Berdjansk, which was key to the wheat revolution in New Russia and the fantastic wealth of some like Johann Cornies ( note 3 ). The British editor warns that the description may be exaggerated, e.g., the statement on Cornies’ wealth—but likely the latter is accurate. For his British readers the writer converts Cornies’ net worth to 100,000 Pounds Sterling—what a 1,000 clerks in London might make together in a year ( note 4 ). While the account is not altogether unique or important for understanding Russian Mennonites, parts that stand out in the description include comments on...