History of the Russian Mennonites

It is a largely unwritten story—the massive Mennonite food aid sent to the USSR from Canada and the United States during the great famine in Ukraine, 1933 ( note 1 ). The the following materials were photographed at the Mennonite Heritage Archives in Winnipeg  In a previous post, I examined a selection of thousands of petition letters sent to Mennonite offices from Ukraine (mostly), begging family, friends and co-religionists generally to help with food, lest they perish  ( note 2 ). Between January and April 1933, for example, the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (CMBC) received over 7,000 letters such letters. It was stunning for me to find a letter by my grandmother’s sister in the mix; if she and her family were starving in Schardau, I know my grandparents and their children would have been at the edge in Marienthal as well. But the real alarm bells went off on February 15, 1933 with a telegram to David Toews (CMBC chair) in Rosthern from Benjamin Unruh...

 Around 1800 the Chortitza Flemish ministerial ordered Russian Mennonite former land scout/ deputy Johann Bartsch to destroy several family musical instruments including his violin.  Playing an instrument was feared by leaders to be flirtation with the demonic. Bartsch apparently broke his violin in two and threw the pieces at the feet of “the guardians of the purity of faith” ( note 1 ). The Mennonite Historical Archives in Winnipeg has a painting of this dramatic incident created by descendent Henry Pauls, as well as a family document written about the event some generations later. Here is a little more background. Bartsch had a more refined or sensitive side than many of the first settlers, including his fellow deputy Jacob Höppner. The letters he wrote to his wife while he and Höppner were scouting land in Russia, 1786-87 have survived; they are eloquent, beautifully written, and indicate a high level of literacy ( note 2 ). Not long after settlement, Chortitza’s fir...

In early July 1914, Mennonites knew war with Germany was imminent. Jacob Janzen’s diary (Rudnerweide) captures the feeling. “Rumour has it that we will soon have war with Germany! On the 18th everybody had to take their horses to a farmyard at the end of the village, where they were registered and examined. Some were led aside right there and then. … The next day all available teams and wagons from Rudnerweide, Großweide, Konteniusfeld and Sparrau had to take 700 men of draft age, Russians, to the station, where they boarded a train for Melitopol. Our hired man went too.” ( Note 1 ) Suspicious about Mennonite loyalties, 2,350 guns were seized from 1,850 Russian Mennonite households—including 600 handguns or revolvers—in 1914 ( note 2 ). A. A. Khvostov, Chair of the Russian Council of Ministers, surmised that “such large quantities of revolvers [seized] suggest that Mennonites intend to use their weapons for purposes other than hunting … ” ( note 3 ). Russia declared war on Germany...