History of the Russian Mennonites

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...

School attendance for Russian Mennonite boys and girls aged (6)7 to 14 was obligatory. The attendance lists, for example, are keys that have unblocked many a genealogical impasse ( note 1 ). But an understanding of the developments in the Mennonite schools as such is also indispensable for the stories of those families, their villages and of Mennonites in their context. In short, the momentum of school reform did not abate with Johann Cornies’ death in 1848. However we soon enter a period of “archival darkness.” Only a few pieces exist from this era which I have transcribed (more below; see selected pics ). As we know, education in the Mennonite colonies happened from the outset, but was largely dismal or at least very uneven ( note 2 ). This changed when the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Colonists gave oversight of Molotschna’s schools to the powerful Agricultural Society and Cornies, its chairman for life in 1843. Many a school was reconstructed to become roomier and brighte...

Russia declared war on Germany on July 20, 1914. Mennonite ministers and civic leaders met on July 22, and called for the extension of their community’s alternative service agreement beyond forestry service: to form complete medical units to gather the wounded from the front and to transport them by hospital trains to interior hospitals; to establish special hospital facilities for the wounded in the colonies; to fundraise large sums for the Red Cross; and to grant financial aid to families of soldiers ( note 1 ). Mennonites knew that they would have to prove their patriotism in positive and tangible ways in order to retain property rights and privileges. Abraham Kröker, editor of the Friedensstimme , wrote just before the start of the war: “Do we not owe it our government and Russian neighbours to show that if a war … broke out, we would be ready to serve the interests of the Fatherland [Russia], and to help the needy?” D. H. Epp, editor of Der Botschafter , wrote: “We need to show ...