History of the Russian Mennonites

Stable political arrangements are rarely permanent and can unravel rapidly—and they did for tens of thousands of Mennonites a century ago in the Russian Empire. Not a few asked: “Why is this happening to us?” Russia was a multicultural colonial empire with sense of a manifest destiny, a long history of serfdom and displacement of non-settler populations, and a yawning disparity of wealth. A few hundred Mennonite owners of sprawling estates with extensive landholdings suffered most severely in the first period of lawlessness, chaos and revolution in Ukraine. During a period of civil war in 1919 when the villages in the Mennonite Molotschna colony were largely under White Army protection, Kornelius Bergmann, a teacher and Mennonite Brethren minister, addressed the question everyone was asking, “Why is this happening to us?” Bergmann wrote using the pseudonym "C. Orosander"—in order to speak freely ( note 1 ). He began by admonishing his fellow clergy for general failu...

In the Mennonite tradition, there is no communion without first making peace with your brother or sister. The diary of Jacob P. Janzen of Rudnerweide, Molotschna—a single adult, brother to a lay minister—gives regular examples: “Easter Sunday, April 10, 1911: We were also admonished to take part in communion; not many had attended [it] on Good Friday. With some it is because of small quarrels within the family or with neighbours, but others have felt deep hate for a long time and have stayed away for more than 20 years!” ( Note 1 ) Frequently Janzen also wrote down brief evaluations of the worship service, like on Good Friday 1911: “Today we had communion in the morning and also church services in the afternoon. Rev. [S.] preached the sermon. He had written everything down and looked now and then at his papers, but in between he often got stuck and then he would keep coughing until he found his place in his papers. It was very disturbing and I became quite annoyed.” These Good ...

Photographs of German troops in southern Ukraine, 1918, have recently come to light. These offer a new window on Mennonite life during the short period of "friendly" German occupation. A number of these photographs are attached to this post and complement previous posts on this period ( note 1 ). On February 17, 1918, Ukraine appealed to Germany and Austria-Hungary for assistance to repel “Bolshevik invaders,” to detach Ukraine from Russia, and to establish conditions of stability ( note 2 ). Anticipating the imminent arrival of German troops early in 1918, some Mennonites had already taken up arms in self-defense against the anarchist leader Nestor Makhnov; the “thunder” of the cannons in the vicinity gave strong indication that the German army was near ( note 3 ). Some 450,000 occupying German and Austrian troops changed the equation for the Bolsheviks and anarchists in Ukraine. Some German Mennonites were among those soldiers, including the brother-in-law to teacher ...

When revolutionary riots broke out in Moscow in February 1917 , large numbers of young Mennonite medics (alternative service units) were stationed in Moscow. The government was overthrown, and a new a democratically elected Russian Constituent Assembly was promised with elections in the Fall. The level of political awareness and debate was high. Back home, the Halbstadt Commerce School teacher Benjamin H. Unruh and Johann A. Willms penned a longer brochure entitled “How do we Mennonites Organize for a National Assembly?” ( March 3, 1917 ) ( note 1; pics ). Unruh and Willms were concerned about Mennonite self-preservation, self-protection and the advancement of group-interests in a competitive environment if Mennonites were not to be crushed, swept away or simply self-destruct. During the war, the state had moved to expropriate all farmlands owned by ethnic Germans; use of German in public places was restricted and even after the February Revolution they lacked freedom of the press. Unr...