History of the Russian Mennonites

Adina (Neufeld) Bräul has an early childhood memory of the flight to Moscow in Fall 1929 and her first train ride; she was only three years old. Her family started the journey from Sparrau, Molotschna to Moscow in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to emigrate. The family however was turned back with hopes dashed ( note 1 ). Memoirs from nearby Marienthal also note that they had departed for Moscow only to be turned back en route . The cost was high; they returned “not only poor but couldn’t get work and were punished for trying to leave the country” ( note 2 ). A relative from Paulsheim told me that they were preparing to leave for Moscow as well, but told by returning families that no exit visas were being granted ( note 3 ). Most of the Mennonites who successfully fled the USSR in 1929 via Moscow with the assistance of the German embassy came from western Siberia, the settlements near the Ural Mountains, and also from Crimea ( note 4 ). Noticeably only few were from the largest Menno...

The 1930 booklet  Bauer Giesbrecht was published by the Communist Party press in Germany —some months after most of the 3,885 Mennonite refugees at Moscow had been transported from Germany to Canada, Paraguay and Brazil ( note 1 ). In Fall 1929 Germany set aside an astonishingly large sum of money and flexed its full diplomatic muscle to extract these “German Farmers” (mostly Mennonites) who had fled the Soviet countryside for Moscow in a last ditch attempt to flee the "Soviet Paradise". About 9,000 however were forcibly turned back. Communists in Germany saw their country’s aid operation—which their crushed economy could ill afford—as a blatant propaganda attempt to embarrass Stalin with formerly wealthy ethnic German farmers and preachers willing to tell the world’s press the worst "lies." With Heinrich Kornelius Giesbrecht from the former Mennonite Barnaul Colony in Western Siberia they finally had a poster-boy to make their point: in Germany he had seen an...

In the last century, tens of thousands of Mennonites were homeless, stateless refugees at the mercy and generosity of others. In Fall 1929, as many as 10 to 13,000 Soviet Mennonites left all behind to flee to Moscow in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to escape the USSR. The German government played the crucial role in a high stakes, international confrontation with Stalin in those months. They successfully extracted 3,885 Mennonite, 1,260 Lutheran, 468 Catholic, 51 Baptist and 7 Adventist "German farmers" in November and December 1929, and served as a transit nation and assisted refugees not accepted by Canada to settle in South America. The experience of Christmas 1929 was a stark contrast to Christmas (1928), which had been a nightmare for Mennonites: “The conditions which existed in Russia at that time had the effect of practically destroying all the traditional joys of Christmas for our children,” for whom “all public participation in the celebration of Christmas wa...

In news (2022) from Ukraine we see some women active in the resistance against Russia.Is there any record of Mennonite women “rebels” against Moscow-based repression? In 1930 there were more than 3,700 recorded anti-Soviet, anti-collective farm, anti-kulakization “mass disturbances” in the USSR undertaken almost exclusively by women . “Vigrous action” … “some armed with pitchforks, sticks, stakes, and knives” with disturbances that would last several days ( note 1 ). Did Mennonites participate or lead in any such “rebellions”? Thousands had been turned back home after hoping to flee via Moscow in Fall 1929 and immigrate to Canada. Many of these refused to plant crops in 1930 and were intent on trying again to leave. There is a record of one Mennonite rebellion in 1930—and with a woman leader ( note 2 ). There may have been others. The following fascinating account is based on the work of Abram A. Fast, written in Russian ( note 3 ). Johann Martin Winter, a “kulak” emigration leader fro...