History of the Russian Mennonites

Heinrich Balzer (1800-1846) has been called "the philosopher” of the Molotschna. In a unique 1833 treatise Balzer provided “a possible philosophical foundation for the Mennonite faith as it was developed by the early Swiss Brethren and Menno Simons," as assessed by Anabaptist historian Robert Friedman. Its 10 pages appear to be "entirely in the spirit of early Anabaptism"( note 1 ). J. Denny Weaver—who like Friedmann is most at home with American Swiss Mennonite thought—summarized it as a “philosophical” argument for conservative Mennonitism and community maintenance ( note 2 ). Even James Urry, our best Russian Mennonite historian, does not strongly challenge this reading. Urry’s essay on Balzer however is important for understanding the social and religious world of the text in the 1820s and 1830s. Balzer’s distinctive contribution, according to Urry,  “... was to add a new dimension built on reaction to post-Reformation developments in theology and secular ph...

After four decades in Russia, the president of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Colonists, Andrei Fadeev, considered only eight of 116 Mennonite teachers in the two larger regions of Katerynoslav and Tauria—which included the Molotschna—fit to teach ( note 1 ). Jakob Bräul’s Rudnerweide schoolhouse was given the same status as Heinrich Heese’s Ohrloff Agricultural Society School with regard to policies and “especially for the teaching of Russian” ( note 2 ). Fadeev triggered great angst when by “imperial decree” he distributed a book to church elders written by German Mennonite Abraham Hunzinger on the modernization of Mennonite schools and church. It was a friendly gesture and poke. The Molotschna was already a tinderbox, and this spark introduced by a state official to strengthen the community ignited a fire in the colony. Fadeev wrote to Johann Cornies on January 12, 1832: “Most valued Cornies ... I advise you to acquire and read a booklet sent to your church leaders f...