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The Mennonites like others in the Tsarist Empire were affected by the tumault of World War I and the Eussuan Revolution and Civil War, including the Ukranian-Soiet War, essentially a Ukranian civil war. The pacifist Mennonites did not participate in the War, but were affected by it, includiung the armed bands needing food and sustance. It was after the Civil War, however that the Mennionites began to feel the repercussions of the Revolution. The new Soviet Government launched an atheism campaign. The Major target was the Orthodox Church, but other demominations and religions were affected. The Soviet Government assumed control of all education. They also closed down Mennonite churches which was the center point of community life. An effort by Mennonites communities in the West enabled some of Mennonites to emigrate from the Soviet Union before Stalin was in complete control (early-1920s). A group of some 20,000 managed to get out of the Soviet Union and settle in western Canada. The remaining Mennonites suffered further losses, especially after Stalin sized control of the Soviet state. Stalin's First Five-Year Plan priotorized the rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union (1928). It was to be financed by extracting ealyh from the agricultural sector which was still in the hands of the peasantry. This is when the Soviet state began to focus on the kulaks--the prosperous peasantry meaning the best farmers in the Soviet Union. And amomg those were the Mennonites who were already on the NKVD radar because of their religious beliefs. The Mennoinites also became caught up in the Soviet collectivization campaign (1931-32). As far as we can tell, they were severely affected, but not destroyed like the Ukranian peasantry. The Mennonites were some of the Soviet Union's most successful farmers. As many were condidered kulaks, there were arrests with many committed to the Gulag or deported to Siberia. There were further losses in the famine engineerd by Stalin. And then the Great Terror which included religiuous leaders and others. The NKVD asrested more than 9,000 Mennonitesd in Ukraine (1936-38). [Pauls] They were arrested on the pretence of treason. Most were never heard from again.
Pauls, Karen. "Unearthing the vanished: Dossiers from KGB archives answer decadeds old mysteries," (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: 2018).
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