History of the Russian Mennonites

Mennonite memoirs say little about the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. In the second half of that year Ukraine was dealing with a typhus epidemic, cholera epidemic and the Spanish Flu pandemic—all at the same time. Troubles were compounded by the withdrawal of protective German troops and increased but still sporadic attacks by anarchist bandits. In September and October 1918, the Mennonite newspaper Friedensstimme recorded outbreaks of the Spanish flu in the Molotschna, Sagradovka, Memrik, Fürstenland, and Naumenko Mennonite settlements. The Friedensstimme summarized that “the Spanish disease is running rampant everywhere in our colonies. Deaths are also resulting here and there” ( note 1 ). September 1918: In the Sagradovka Settlement, Katharina Unruh Thiessen died of the Spanish flu at the age of 69. She suffered 12 days ( note 2 ). Also in the Sagradovka Settlement, Gerhard Jakob Wiebe struggled with the Spanish flu for 10 days before dying at the age of 38 ( note 3 ). In the Memrik S...

Abraham Kröker (1863-1944) was the well-known editor of the Molotschna-based paper—variously named Volksfreund , Friedensstimme or Flugblatt , as well as the annual Familienkalender . He published through WW1 and the anarchy and early Bolshevist years, which included six months of friendly German occupation in 1918. His editorials from those times are all online and fascinating to read,  https://chortitza.org/FB/mennru.htm . Looking back on the collapse of Mennonite life in Ukraine, he pointed to the love of “mammon,” the “materialistic disposition” and “nationalistic arrogance” of Mennonites, and not least to the forgetfulness of the unique call of the community to “sacrifice, suffering and renunciation for the sake of others.” In 1918--a very dangerous context in which to publish news--Kröker reminded his readers that according to the example of the Apostle Paul who suffered under unjust authorities, the Christian is to pray and intercede “for kings and all those in authority, ...