History of the Russian Mennonites

In the late 16th century, Poland became a haven for a variety of non-conformists which included Jews, Anti-Trinitarians from Italy and Bohemia, Quakers and Calvinists from Great Britain, south German Schwenkfelders, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Greek Catholic Christians, some Muslim Tatars, as well as other peaceful sectarians like the Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists. Unlike the Low Countries and most of western Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a “state without stakes,” and as such fittingly described as “God’s playground” ( note 1 ). In the view of 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, it was “the ‘Promised Land,’ where the refugee could forget all his sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land” ( note 2 ). Over the next two centuries an important strand of Mennonite life and spirituality evolved into a mature tradition in this relatively hospitable context ( note 3 ). Anabaptists from the Low Countries began to arrive in Danzig and region as early as 15...

A picture can be worth a thousand words. We do not have photographs, but we have a few colour paintings of life in and around Danzig in the late 1600s and early 1700s, as well as maps. We also have a limited number of "textual snapshots" of Mennonites at this time and place, which offer an instructive window into that foreign world. These snapshots of work, worship, health, education, community relationships, smaller repressions, and security can contribute to the creation of a larger collage of Mennonite life in Danzig and Polish Prussia.  Snapshot 1 : In 1681 there were approximately 180 Mennonite families who lived in the “gardens” or villages outside Danzig, with 113 of those families within the jurisdiction of the city. At this time Mennonites were barred from owning houses within the walls of the city. Of these 113 family heads, we know: 43 were retailers of spirits, 24 merchants, 9 lacemakers, 7 dyers, 3 silk dyers, 3 pressers, 2 brokers, 2 treasurers, 2 waitresses, et...

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 ...

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...

The following accounts of Mennonite Christmases before the Revolution are from the unpublished diary of Jacob P. Janzen ( note 1 ). His entries are “real,” in the sense that they include all the complexities and messiness of life, with interesting detail. These accounts are from a single man in his thirties (b. 1880) in Rudnerweide, Molotschna. His entries show him as a sensitive, humble, and curious man, who was certainly well-informed about life in the community.          --Arnold Neufeldt-Fast -- Christmas 1911 (Janzen was working at "Bethania Mental Hospital" on the Dnjeper River near Einlage, note 2 ) “Some of the staff went to [director Peter] Schellenbergs to practice Christmas songs. I did not go. Aganetha Woelk [patient] had broken several window panes; I had to replace them and it got quite late. But while working in the female patients’ quarters I had a chance to see how they made beautiful, but inexpensive ornaments for the Christmas tree. Nur...

In 2022 I asked Katharine Bräul Fast (b.1937), if she had any memories of Christmas 1944 in Warthegau--Nazi German annexed Poland. She turned 7 just before the Advent season began. The “1 millionth ethnic German” resettler in Warthegau had arrived earlier that year from the east, and to accommodate them hundreds of thousands of Warthegau’s Poles had been disenfranchised or removed, while 385,000 Jews from the region were placed in ghettos and eventually sent to concentration camps.  Katharine's family had been evacuated from German-occupied Ukraine together with some other 35,000 ethnic Mennonites. In March 1944 they were resettled in Waldtal/Schwarzerde in Warthegau, and here she had her first experience of school. Her teacher was a Mennonite, Aron Becker--now officially "Arnold," a non-Jewish sounding name--but by the Fall he too was conscripted. School continued, but she does not recall the details. They had a Christmas celebration in the school; she remembers walkin...