|
The Ukraine at the time the Volksdeutsche arrived was a art of the Tsarist Empire, seized from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ottoman Empire. Russian Emperess Catherine the Great, of German origins, issued a Manifesto inviting Europeans to come and settle land within Russia, especially in the poorly developed Volga River region (1763). Germans more than any other nationality responded in large numbers. The attraction was rich farm land. Mennonites in the Vistula delta approached Russian officials to negotiate an extension of Catherine's 1763 Manifesto. Crown Prince Paul signed a new agreement with the Mennonites (1789). This began the Mennonite migration to the southern regions of the Tsarist Empire. Jacob Hoeppner and Johann Bartsch led the migration. The first Mennonite settlements were northwest of the Sea of Azov, an almost enclosed sea northeast of the Black Sea. The Russians had just acquired the area from Ottoman Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War (1768-74). A substantial part of the Vistula Menninites accepted the Tsarist invitation. Their first colony was Chortitza on the Dnieper (1789). They founded a second, larger colony at Molotschna (1803). Beginning in the late-19th century as a result of Alexander III russification effort, some of the Mennoites began emigrating to countries offering more political freedom. We do not yet know much about happened to the Mennonites during the Russian Civil War and early Soviet period. Nor do we know what transpired durung Stalin's collectivization campaign (early-1930s). As far as we can tell, they ewere affected, but not destroyed like the Ukranian peasantry. Mennionite leaders in particular were arrested as part of the Atheism camapaign and largely perished in the Gulag.
Some of the Mennonites who survivd remained were forcibly deported to the East by Stalin after the German World War II invasion of the Soviet Union (1941). The Mennonites were not specifically targeted, but were part of the larger Soviet action against ethnic Germans. Some were untouched and during the NAZI occupation of the Ukrraine (1941-43) were treated favorably by the NAZIs and featured prominently in NAZI propaganda trying to incrrease interest in the East. NAZI occupoation officials made a concoderable effort to NAZIfy the Mennonites. We are unsure how sucessful they were, but is likely that the Mennonits saw the NAZIs as libedrators after several decades od Soviet oppression. After Stalingrad and the Red Army drive west, most of the Mennonites, familar with Stalinist policies, evacuated west with the German Army. Very few Mennonites ore Germans in general are now found in the Ukraine.
The Ukraine at the time the Volksdeutsche arrived was a art of the Tsarist Empire, seized from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ottoman Empire. Russian Emperess Catherine the Great, of German origins, issued a Manifesto inviting Europeans to come and settle land within Russia, especially in the poorly developed Volga River region (1763). Germans more than any other nationality responded in large numbers. The attraction was rich farm land. Mennonites in the Vistula delta approached Russian officials to negotiate an extension of Catherine's 1763 Manifesto. Crown Prince Paul signed a new agreement with the Mennonites (1789). This began the Mennonite migration to the southern regions of the Tsarist Empire. Jacob Hoeppner and Johann Bartsch led the migration. The first Mennonite settlements were northwest of the Sea of Azov, an almost enclosed sea northeast of the Black Sea. The Russians had just acquired the area from Ottoman Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War (1768-74). A substantial part of the Vistula Mennonites accepted the Tsarist invitation. Their first colony was Chortitza on the Dnieper (1789). They founded a second, larger colony at Molotschna (1803). [Stumpp] One report estimates rgat there were some 1,600 Mennonite families located in 72 colonies in Katerynoslav gubernia and Tavriia gubernia (1835). Therre were a smaller number of Mennonite colonies further east Samara Governorate (Volga region) and Caucasia region. By all accounts, the Mennonites prospered in Ukraine. They acquired substantial landholdings and were model farmers, introducung modern farming methods. In addition to farming, they openedf milling interests in southern Ukraine as well as the manufacture of agricultural tools and implements. The Mennonites did not assimilated into Ukrainian society mujch like the Amish in America. The Mennonites largely for religious reasons wanted to have a cohesive society of their own. Unlike the Amish in America, Tsarist officials saw isolatioin in positive terms so as not to affect the wider Ukranian population. Their primary interaction with Ukrainians was employing farm workers. As far as can tell, Ukrainians generally regarded the Mennonites as being fair in their hiring and commercial dealings. And the Ukranian benefitted indirectly from the productive farming techniques which they learned from them. [Rempel]
Russia was a key player in the mainenance of conservative rule in Europe after the Napoleonic era. They prevented liberal revolutiondd from suceeding on in central Europe during the Revolutions of 1848. The Crimea War (1854-56) changed this dynamic. Nationalist sentiment was becoming invreaingky impotant and Tsarist Russia was a vast multi-natioinal empire. While Britain and France were the primary countries involved. Austria ultumately joined. And Russian with itys pan-Slavonic policy increasingly came in contact with the Austrians. Prissia had not joined the allied cialition, but the unificvatiin of Germamy under Prussia ctrted a powerful new fordce on Russia's western boundary (1871). Bismarck was able to manage relatiins with Tdarist Russia, even so, attitudes behan to change. All of these developments swirled around the basiocally apolitical Mennonites who despite their origins were not attracted to the Germans. Even so, the Sussians were. The Tsarist Government revoked many of the legal protectioins that had allowed the Mennonites to flourish (1871). Their administrative autonomy was ended. And they were required to use Russian as the language of instruction in their schools. Abd then their exempotion from military comscription was ended (1874), They were expected to perform noncombatant military service. This was a major comvern to the pacifist Mennonites. And they understood that it was not dome as a matter of military necesity. The Mennionites were such a small part of the population that military concerns were not the issue, but assimilatiin was the undelying goal. Mennoites began emigrating to countries offering more political and religious freedom. Almost by drefinitiin, this meant North America. [Smith] It is precisely at this time that mass European migration bregan to America and Canada where the the Western prarrie lands were being ipned up by the railroads and government policies. A large part of the Ukranin Mennonite population emigrated to North America at this time .[Epp] For some reason, probably earlier settlers, Mennoniytess from the Khortytsia Island area generally migrate to Canada. Those from the Molochna River valley mostly migrated to America. There was also some movement to more remote areas of the Russian Empire. These trends intensified with the assension of Tsar Alexander III (1881-94) who launched a major russification effort. The major victim od this effort were the Jews and terrible pogtoms were orgnized, but other minorities were not unaffected. Even so, many Mennoties remained.
One reoort estimates that just before World War I that there were 104,000 Mennonites in Southern Ukraine (1911). This would have been nearly 20 percent of the Volk Deutsch population in the southern Ukraine.
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-Siviet War, essentially a Ukranian civil war. The pacifist Mennonites did no partticvipoate 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 tthe 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 communitids in the West enabled some of Mennonites to emigrate from the Soviet Union before Stalin sas in complete cintrol (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, especoally 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 whivh 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, therewere 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.
Some of the Mennonites who survivd remained were forcibly deported to the East by Stalin after the German World War II Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union (1941). The Mennonites were not specifically targeted, but were part of the larger Soviet action against ethnic Germans. Some but not all of the Mennonites were deported eastward in 1941 before advancing German troops. We are not sure how the NKVD selected who to deport. We believe it was primarily a matter of time. The Mennonites were mostly located in the central Ukraine and the Germans got to them before they could be deported. For the race obsessed NAZIs, the Mennonites were a rare find of what they saw as gentically valuable material in a sea of Untermench. Rather than being supressed, in the remamining Mennoite communities were promoted and awarded special privliges and treatment. Artucles about the Mennites appeared in NAZI newspapers and magazines stressing liberatiin from Soviet supression. A historian paraphases a typical article, "Children’s eyes sparkled in the candlelight. This was the first time many had seen a Christmas tree, aglow in the Einlage kindergarten in December 1942. Soldiers handed out wooden toys. They had spent weeks carving them—model houses, schools, churches, city halls, trucks, and trains—while convalescing at the military hospital in this Mennonite village in southeastern Ukraine. The group joined in song, filling the hall with old German Christmas carols. The tunes, which had not been heard openly during the recent years of Bolshevik rule, reminded all those present of the momentous changes wrought since Hitler’s armies had taken control of Ukraine. ["Die Brücke...] Apparently the NKVD had veen able to deoort many of the German Volk Dutsch from the southern Ukraine. One repoorts indiucates that there were 10,000 Kindergarten-age children, meaning there was avery sizeabkle German population. Reich authorities assigned special teams to asess the genetuc value of the Volk Deutshe. Apparenbtly these were SA men as brown shirts were mentioned. They were alo to conduct the NAZIification of a largely apolitical, highly religious community. Here the Volk Deitsche were a particularlyh vulnerable groups because of their percecution during the Stalinist era and antipsthy toward Soviet Communism.
Most of the Mennonites in the Ukraine evacuated estward with the retreatung German Army as after SAtakingradm the Red Army began its frive westward. The Mennonite colonies in Ukraine were effectively dismembered in the process and never reconstituted.
Some of the Mennonite refugees who found themselves in Germany after the war were resettled in North and South America. The majority, however, were repatriated and either imprisoned or resettled in Western Siberia and Central Asia. Tose who survived were released in the mid-1950s but denied permission to return to Ukraine. Most Mennonites had emigrated from the SDoviet Uniionby 1985. But a few remained and can still be found in the Ukraine.
Epp, Frank. Mennonite Exodus (Altona 1962).
Pauls, Karen. "Inearthing the vanished: Dossiers from KGB archives answeer decadeds old mysteries," (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: 2018).
Rempel, David. The Mennonite Colonies in Russia: A Study of Their Settlement and Economic Development from 1789 to 1914 (PH D dissertatiom: Stanford University, 1933).
Smith, C. Henry. The Coming of the Russian Mennonites: An Episode in the Settling of the Last Frontier, 1874–1884.
Stumpp, Karl. The German-Russians: Two Centuries of Pioneering Trans. Joseph Height (New York: 1978).
“Die Brücke zur Heimat,” Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, January 9, 1943, 8; “Soldaten erfreuen volksdeutsche Kinder,” Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, December 29, 1942, 3.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Main Mennonite Russian Empire page]
[Main Mennonite country page]
[About Us]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing national pages:
[Return to the Main Ukranian religions page]
[Return to the Main Ukranian page]
[Afghanistan]
[Belgium]
[Czechoslovakia]
[England]
[Estonia]
[France]
[Germany]
[Hungary]
[Italy]
[Japan]
[Latvia]
[Lithuania]
[Mexico]
[New Zealand]
[Norway]
[Poland]
[Romania]
[Russia]
[Tajikistan]
[Turkey]
[United States]
[Uzbekistan]
Navigate Children in History Website:
[About Us]
[Introduction]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Climatology]
[Clothing]
[Disease and Health]
[Economics]
[Freedom]
[Geography]
[History]
[Human Nature]
[Law]
[Nationalism]
[Presidents]
[Religion]
[Royalty]
[Science]
[Social Class]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Children in History Home]
