History of the Russian Mennonites

Russian Mennonites have traditionally had a dim or mixed view of dancing. Below is a brief history. When it comes to moral infractions, the diaries or chronicles of Mennonite ministers are our best sources. In 1797 in Tiegenhagen, West Prussia—around the time that hundreds of Mennonite families left Prussia for Russia—the respected Frisian Elder Heinrich Donner noted that he would not baptize two young people because the one played a violin at a wedding, and the sister to the bride danced to this music together with Lutherans ( note 1 ). New disciplinary rules were confirmed by the congregation in 1805: “No Mennonite innkeeper shall allow music in his guesthouse.” And regarding dancing: “With a first offence, the person must come before the ministerial and apologize. The second time, they will be brought before the congregation. The third time, if there is no intention to amend behaviour, he will be excluded from the congregation” ( note 2 ). His Flemish colleague Gerhard Wiebe w...

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse...

“We must swarm our vast wastelands with people. I do not think that in order to achieve this it would be useful to compel our non-Christians to accept our faith--polygamy for example, is even more useful for the multiplication of the population. … "Russia does not have enough inhabitants, …but still possesses a large expanse of land, which is neither inhabited nor cultivated. … The fields that could nourish the whole nation, barely feeds one family..." – Catherine II (Note 1 ) “We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement. Most of the lands hold hidden in their depth an inexhaustible wealth of all kinds of precious ores and metals, and because they are well provided with forests, rivers and lakes, and located close to the sea for purpose of trade, they are also most convenient for the development and growth of many kinds ...