History of the Russian Mennonites

In mid-August 1917--two months before the Bolshevik Revolution, but in preparation of national elections--the first “All-Mennonite Congress” met in Ohrloff, Molotschna to organize and strategize Mennonite civil affairs (i.e., as separate from the church) with 198 representatives from various regions and interest groups. Significant debate around Mennonite non-resistance and military service was on the agenda, but also questions around more equitable land distribution and the compatibility of Christianity and socialism. The minutes ( note 1 ) record that there was clearly a group of Mennonites at this meeting who were both convinced socialists and Christians, and that delegates had a longer, protracted debate on the compatibility of socialism and Christianity. First they discussed what was most critical: more equitable land distribution (this topic was "in the air") and the right to private land ownership. There was broad agreement (even with the socialist leaning Mennon

Mennonite self-defence units  ( Selbstschutz ) did not simply arise through the encouragement and training of German military units leaving southern Ukraine in Fall 1918. This has sometimes been suggested to explain the unprecedented armed Mennonite response to the anarchy that followed. One Selbstschutz chaplain, and later elder in Waterloo, Canada ( Jacob H. Janzen )  turned blame away from 1918 Selbstschutz participants and pointed instead to the parents: they “were only what we had brought them up to be” ( note 1 ). A 1914 list of firearms confiscated from Mennonites by the state help s us to reconstruct the roots of one of the most problematic chapters in Mennonite history. Self-defence with a weapon was real option for some Mennonites long before the days of terror. Suspicious about Mennonite loyalties in an impending war with Germany, 2,350 firearms were seized from 1,850 Russian Mennonite households—including 600 handguns or revolvers—in 1914 ( note 2 ). These thre

They were in unchartered waters when the Neuland (Colony) Mennonite Church in Paraguay was organized on November 12, 1947 under the innovative leadership of Hans Rempel (1908-2001). Rempel was ordained during German occupation of Ukraine, when “simple, untrained men and women called the believers together, read the Word, sang, and prayed” ( note 1 ). And for the others? In resettlement camps in Warthegau (annexed Poland) Rempel was encouraged by Heinrich Winter, the "last elder of Chortitza" to “make a new beginning ... like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground” (Jeremiah 4:3). After the refugees arrived in Paraguay in 1947, the church issues were many and the need for innovation was urgent. First , what should be the role of women in church leadership ? The tradition was very restrictive. The men however were largely missing and many of the women had experience of leadership in the re-establishment of church services during the German occupation of Russia. Innov

It is well known that Soviet secret police (GPU) spied and reported extensively on Mennonite communities in Ukraine from the early 1920s on ( note 1 ).  Less well known is that the German consulates in Kharkiv and Odessa were also gathering information confidential information on, and formulating opinions for, the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin about Mennonites. This included not only demographic information, but also Mennonite receptivity or resistance to the Bolshevist Revolution, on the Revolution’s impact on the economic, cultural and religious aspects of ethnic German settlements, their current attitudes and on Germany’s options for maintaining and strengthening “the German cultural islands” in Ukraine ( note 2 ). Berlin had its own priorities in the Soviet Union; the impact of Bolshevism on the German-speaking Mennonites in Ukraine was important gauge to determine its strategies for intervention, support or non-involvement. A Soviet Secret Police (GPU) report in 1925, for ex

I recently viewed the 2023 Academy Award winning film, All Quiet   on the Western Front . As an undergraduate I read the novel in German and now watched it in German as well. It is rated R for “strong bloody war violence and grisly images”—which really is the case. It is not pro-war, however, but unfolds and displays the futility of patriotism and strong national pride. Though written by a German and published in Berlin, it was among the first books burned by the Nazis in 1933. While watching the film my ears popped up when the lead character shouted in German for a Sanitäter (medic); I had to think of Germany’s “eastern front”. Russia experienced as many military casualties as France (upwards of 1.5 million each) in WW1 and even more civilian casualties. Some 7,000 Russian Mennonites were on that front as Red Cross Sanitäter / medics, including both my grandfathers. Our best source for stories is the edited collection: “Onsi Tjedils”: Ersatzdienst der Mennoniten in Rußland unter

The 1942 village reports prepared for the German Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories document an almost complete breakdown of community life under Stalin in predominantly Mennonite communities. To read them is to take a step into a dystopian world ( note 1 ). Here is a small sample of responses to one of many questions; they are asked by the occupying German army to reflect on "socializing" ( Geseligkeit )—having fun, meeting socially with others—as they experienced it during the recently ended communist period: Adelsheim [Chortitza] : "Socializing during the period of collectivization came to a complete end. Because of the many frictions in the collective [farm], we became weary/wary ( überdrüssig ) of each other.” Blumengart [Chortitza] : "Regarding our social life after collectivization, neighbour no longer wished to see neighbour.” Also: "A lack of clothing hinders social life amongst the youth in particular". Chortitza [Town]: