MennoLink Books and Music

Copyright 2008 Springfield Publishers

This book deals with the first century of Russian Mennonite settlement, and the dynamics of change in Mennonite communities in Russia between 18789 and 1889. It chronicles the establishment in southern Russia of prosperous agrarian colonies, the foundation of religious congregations and the creation of new economic, social, and political institutions. Mennonites in Russia had to face the dual challenge of the emergence of a modern, industrial society and the increasing power of the Russian state. As Mennonites responded to these challenges, and some grew rich and successful, tensions and conflict in their communities increased. This resulted in the division of congregations and communities and the further emigration of many Mennonites to North America.

Revised 2007 Pandora Press

Copyright 2003 Pandora Press.

The Mennonites who settled in Russia kept their language, their religion, and their culture intact. But as the nineteenth century drew to a close, Mennonite community identity was increasingly seen as a threat. There was first a drive for russification under the Czars; there then was increasing suspicion of all things German with the outbreak of the First World War; and finally the Bolshevik Revolution brought Christianity and prosperity into question. The Second World War and its brutal Stalinist aftermath succeeded in destroying life in the Mennonite colonies.

The first person accounts translated here tell the stories of people who almost miraculously survived successive waves of revolution, civil war, assassination, economic and political purges, and arbitrary arrest and banishment. The stories of these survivors are just now beginning to be published, in both German and Russian.

Sarah Dyck's selection and skillful translation of these memoirs opens a rare window through which English readers can begin to grasp the reality of life in the Soviet empire for those judged to be enemies of the People. These stories provide graphic and personal documentation of a land and a people in turmoil.