History of the Russian Mennonites

It is well known that Soviet secret police (GPU) spied and reported extensively on Mennonite communities in Ukraine from the early 1920s on ( note 1 ).  Less well known is that the German consulates in Kharkiv and Odessa were also gathering information confidential information on, and formulating opinions for, the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin about Mennonites. This included not only demographic information, but also Mennonite receptivity or resistance to the Bolshevist Revolution, on the Revolution’s impact on the economic, cultural and religious aspects of ethnic German settlements, their current attitudes and on Germany’s options for maintaining and strengthening “the German cultural islands” in Ukraine ( note 2 ). Berlin had its own priorities in the Soviet Union; the impact of Bolshevism on the German-speaking Mennonites in Ukraine was important gauge to determine its strategies for intervention, support or non-involvement. A Soviet Secret Police (GPU) report in 1925, fo...