Pilgrimage to Ukraine

UKRAINE TRIP (6-13 July 2009)

Jul 6 - Travel Day (Frankfurt to Dnepropetrovsk (via Vienna) to Zaporozsche)

Jul 7 - Chortitza

• strong demonstration of the sophistication of the Mennonite Commonwealth
• Maedchenschule
• boys school
• Motherchurch
• teachers' college
• Lepp-Wahlman factory
• Hildebrand-Pries factory
• Lepp house
• Kroeger clock factory
• cemetery (incl Jakob Hoeppner's burial spot - covered with old logs)

July 8

Petersdorf

• named after Daniel Peters, Fred's maternal grandfather's great-great grandfather
• Nov 5/19 - 9 men killed
• all 9 were relatives of Ingrid Peters
• Fred found gravestones of Johann Peters and Helena Peters - had been overturned and left in field during construction of dam
  
  Eichenfeld
• monument (2001) to 82 people (76 men, 6 women) slaughtered by Machnov in Nov/19
• survivors fled to Adelsheim (home of Barb's paternal grandmother)
  
  Nicholaifeld
• church (built 1869) - now used as gym by school next door
• next to school is teachers' residence
• cemetery:
  - Daniel Peters
  - Isaak Friesen (b. 23 mar 1820; d. 23 Apr 1904)
  - Katharina Friesen (geb Eckert). (b 23 jun 1806; d. 30 jun 1888)
  
  Neuendorf
• #140-3 - Menn housebarn, and school given by collective to family
• small barn for chickens
  
  Schoenhorst
• granary
• root cellar
  
  Osterwick
• railroad
• one of more industrially progressive villages in Chortitza
• #1134/33 - - cemetery (Dad S's grandfather??)
• #1120-17 - school - attended by Barb's grandfather? - front hall had townplan, dated 1942 - many Sawatzkys, Koops, Harders, Loewens, Klassens
• photo of Kate and Hannah with local kids and puppy
• Schulz factory - agric machinery
• #1116 - Schulz house
• Rempel factory - ploughs, reapers, etc
  
  Kronstal
  
  Rosengart
• on ridge overlooking valley and Zaporozche
• school
  
  Cossack performance
• riding excellence and hijinks
• I gave up my Mennonite heritage and allowed myself to be conscripted into service as a volunteer to have the whips-man snap the hat off my head
• success was rewarded with traditional Cossack hospitality (a few shots of vodka)
  

July 9

Olga joined us as tourguide. Among the interesting points she made in her introductory comments: Russians only smile when they mean it.

Alexandrovsk

• est 1770 as fortress
• WWII - 80% of housing destroyed
• large, beautiful cathedral - destroyed in 1930; being rebuilt now
• cross Muskovka River
  
  Schoenwiese
• est 1797
• land not good; some people moved to Molotchna
• pharmacy built by Tivonius still standing
• house owned by Huebert next door
• complex of Mennonite buildings, incl home of mayor, Julius Siemens - now the office of Julia Timushenko (Ukraine's PM)
• #935 - Janzen's brewery (now a chocolate factory)
• many Menno factories became munitions factories during WWI
• post-WWI - first soviet combine produced at one of these factories - a Dueck was i/c of the factory; Hildebrand and Gerhard Hamm were key leaders as well
• first combine sent to Kremlin for display
• Hildebrand and Hamm rec'd Order of Lenin
• factory converted to auto production in 1960
• Lepp-Wahlmann factory plus Lepp house (Wahlmann house was in Chortitza with their factory there)
• their company also had distribution and sales branches elsewhere in Russia (and Europe?)
• #927-6 - Abraham Koop - industrialist - big beautiful house
• Herman Niebuhr's flour mill - next door
• had similar mills in Chortitza
• patterned after what Niebuhr had seen in America
  
  Museum of Local History
• role of Menn's in forestry
• photo of Johann Cornies
• photo of 1914 Forsteidienst - c. 100 Menn men
• 1999 - Harvey Dyck organized conference and exhibition at this Museum to commemorate Menn contribution to Russia
• includes model of Neuendorf
• bottles from Janzen Brewery
• Nestor Machnov exhibit

July 10

• 100 km drive to Halbstadt
• beautiful rolling countryside
  
  Fuerstenau
• Oma Klassen's village
• searched in vain for cemetery
• William Neufeld estate
  
  Schoensee
• wonderful church in which Opa and Oma Wall were married
• hired Italian painter to paint frescoes on ceiling
• roof now destroyed - but found roof tiles with name of Menn factory (Fabrikenwiese) and owners (Toews and Enns)
• inside of church is now completely overgrown with trees
• #834 - church
  
  Liebenau
• #834-827
• photos of original Menn fences
• home of Johann Klassen - early MB leader
  
  Klippenfeld
• #826-811 - photos of village from top of valley, then of women milking cows in a field
• walked street where Oma and Opa Wall grew up
• saw train station at Stulnevo where they probably left from in 192?
  
  Ladekopp
• #792 -
  
  Petershagen
• #790 - Mrs. H. H. Koop's church
  
  Halbstadt
• fabulous lunch (borscht, chicken, mashed potatoes) at the Menn Center (former Maedchenschule, attended by Oma Fransen)
• #776-774-municipal offices
• #773 - gas lines
• #772-1 - Willms flour mill
• #770 - Neufeld brewery
  
  Juschanlee
• #769-50
• Johann Cornies/Heinrich Reimer estate and tree nursery
  
  Kleefeld
• totally destroyed during WWII; nothing but a field
  
  Alexanderkrone
• windmill
• visit with Margarita Pankratz (90 yrs old) - '41 - to Archangel - work camp - two daughters with her
  - '51 - siblings invited her to Kazakztan
  - '61 - returned to Alexanderkrone
  

July 11

Mariawohl

• #579-499
• spent 3 hours touring village
• first, visited man we thought was Kuntz; turned out he was Anatoly Yemets
• AY was born in '36 - lived in this house all his life, except for few years after '43 when Germans burned down all buildings except his summer kitchen
• village was very simple rural village, only one street approx 1 mile long; a school and, later, a small chapel; no church, no offices, factories or estates
• found where the school had been - now a pile of rubble
• talked to a pregnant woman living in an old "german" home who told us where the cemetery had been and, now, was a garden
• we took a group photo at his site (#559)
• next, we looked for the house where Opa had lived, thought we had found it, but no
• AS had different recollection from Opa of where Opa's house had been
  
  Schardau
• #580-583
• village in which Johann Dueck's mother was born
• currently, nothing but an empty field
• Barb and Harold helped Johann look for any signs of settlement
  
  Alexanderthal
• Paul Toews' father born here
• MB church - half gone - people raiding it for bricks
  
  Elizabeththal
• home of Abraham Cornelson, where first MB communion was served and where the "Document of Secession" was signed
  
  Steinbach
• # - 657
• Klass Wiens, excommunicated by , came to this land in the southeast corner of Molotscha; now, a vast estate with many very grand buildings, owned by the state
• Tsar Alexander I, visited in 1818; enroute, in Lindenau, he had dinner at home of Rev Hiebert; in gratitude, gave Mrs. Hiebert a diamond ring
• in Steinbach he was greeted by a line of 400 horses and riders in a row so that he could make royal procession; Tsar Alexander was so impressed that he gave Wiens 1000 dessiatines (2700 acres)
• Wiens continued to acquire land to extent of 10,000 acres
• Wiens had only one child, a daughter; she married a Schmidt; at that point, it became known as the Schmidt estate
• 1900-1914 - Peter Schmidt held annual Bible conferences for MB ministers from all over Russia and Siberia
• currently, estate is used by Ukrainian state to warehouse handicapped children from birth to 18 yrs old; at that age, they are sent to Ohrloff, where they are housed in a former Menn church
  

July 12

Herb, Edith, Harold, Fred, Angelika and Johann went to Gnadenfeld with Viktor Penner

The rest of us (Jeff, Sharon, Hannah, Kate, Suzanne, Barb and I) stayed in town. In the morning, we went with Paul and Olga to the market to enjoy the sights and smells of a bountiful marketplace full of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish.

In the afternoon, we went to the circus, a 2 hour extravaganza of dancing girls, clowns, acrobats, a triple-jointed girl, a lady with a wide assortment of animals (variety of bears, lion, dogs, monkeys, lemurs, porcupines, ponies, donkey, llama, fox).

Highlight of the show was Jeff standing up with arms lifted to the sky telling the audience proudly, "I speak English". The crowd laughed, sympathetically.

For dinner, Johann Dueck took us to the Zaporozche Sich (Cossack) Restaurant on Chortitza Island. The restaurant was decorated in Cossack theme, including a water mill and a few wooden, life-size carvings of Cossacks. Once again, many of us enjoyed vareniky.

In discussing business prospects in the current economic crisis, Johann noted that many of his customers would be prevented from putting in orders because of dramatically reduced production (hence revenues), difficulty in getting credit, and the stifling, costly role of Russian intermediaries.

July 13

Leaving Zaporozche

• Harvey Dyck (U of T) arrived in town to work on preparation of monument for Choirtitza; HD came to bus to say goodbye
• Johann also came to bus to wish us Glueckliche reise
  - he was remaining behind to conduct business
• met at Dresden Airport by Edeltraut, Matthias, Kata, and Nicholas

Paul Toews Lecture - Jul 7

"Promise and Perils of the Russian Mennonite Story"

• Peter Rempel (Chortitza photographer), Henry Pauls (artist)
  - scenes of comfort and confidence, tragedy and destruction
  - 3 sets of lenses:
  1. power and promise
  2. pathos and tragedy
  3.
  
  Dnepropetrovsk (Ekatarinoslav)
• Mennos sat on City Council, and as members of key boards, and as members of national duma
• Johann Esau - mayor for 6 years in first decade of 20thC
• re-installed as mayor by Germans in 1918
• other prominent individuals - Howard Bergman, Johann Thiessen
• by 1900, Mennos had many political connections in many cities
  
  Peter Martinovitch Friesen
• intellectual
• founded Union of Freedom party in 1905
• avowedly Christian principles
  
  Chortitza (1789)
• 89,000 acres
• grows to 405,000 acres
• early settlers not well prepared
• mostly craftsmen, not ready for agric work
• lots of acrimony
  
  Molochna (1804)
• 324,000 acres
• grows to more than 2M acres
• 1804 - tsar directive - creating The New Russia - a place of innovation; only those prepared are to be allowed
• Mennos did not disappoint
  
  Issues that required resolution
  
  1. struggles between civil and ecclesiastical leadership
  - Aeltester vs Oberschulz
  
  2. Dispute over land access
  - 65 dessiatines/settler family
  - by mid-19thC - 50% of Chortitza and 60% of Molochna families were landless

3. Religious fracturing
- originally, Frisian vs Flemish
- by end of 19thC: 9 different bodies
- dividing issue: what to do with "innovation"?

4. Russian Govt Reforms of 1860s & 1870s
- threats to political/cultural/religious autonomy

Opportunities

• refining mechanisms of self govt
• creative leaders like Johann Cornies
  
  Coming of Age of Mennonite Power and Promise
• by 1914-controlled over 3M acres
• 400-500 families controlled 1/3 of these acres
• 50% of milling in S Russia
• agric machinery
• Menno banks/credit unions
  
  How to account for Menno success?
• Russian govt largesse
• social discipline of Mennos
  
  Econ success led to flourishing culture and society
• schools, teachers' colleges, hospitals, seniors' residences
• students begin to attend universities in Russia, Baltic and Western Europe
• publishing
• had an educated clergy much earlier than in North America
  
  BUT...all was not idyllic
• class tensions
• dispersion to daughter settlements
• tensions with non-Menno villagers
  
  Johann Cornies (1789-1848)
  
  What does all this mean?
• aesthetic sensibility
• reflected aspirations
• neo-Gothic - building monuments that revived classical ages
• thus, Menn elite mirrored aspirations and pretensions of industrial elite
• thriving enterprises
• religious influence
• political sophistication
• poised to create a Mennonite Commonwealth
• catalysts of change and innovation

Paul Toews Lecture - Jul 9

"Pathos and Tragedy in the Russian Mennonite Story"

• Apr 1918 - train full of German troops arrived at Halbstadt
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Mar '18)
• declared Ukraine an independent state
• Kiev Nationalist govt vs Bolsheviks
• Germans deposed Kiev Nationalist govt
• German troops were welcomed by Menn women with zwieback
• enormous tactical blunder - the welcome was witnessed by Ukrainians and Russians
  
  WWI as turning point
• when it began, Menn's saw themselves as loyal citizens of Russia
• "We want to help..."
• Forsteidienst
• Sanitaetsdienst
• trained at Red Cross hospital in Ekaterinoslav
• 12,000 enlisted
• 6000 - Red Cross, incl 3500-4000 on Red Cross trains (75 of them by 1917)
• but anti-German sentiment had been rising in Russia
• Mar '17 - Tsar Nicholas II abdicates
• debates about reform in Russian society were reflected within Menn society
• Menn advocates for reform sought:
  - elected, better educated Ministers
  - more welfare and cultural programs
  - more significant participation by laity in Menn conferences
  - more participation by national conferences in national programs
• 3 consecutive conferences in May, Jun, and August of 1917 bring heated debates
• October Revolution made these debates academic
• latent lust of ethnophobia, esp anti-German sentiment, was let loose
• Apr '18 - trainload of 700 German troops
• stayed in private Menn homes
• trained the Selbschutz
• carried out "disciplines" against Ukrainians and Russians identified by the Menns
• during the war, Menns' identification with Germany became political as well as cultural
• fall '18 - German forces withdraw
• from late '18 to late '20, Ukraine becomes battlefield between White and Red armies and organized banditry
• role of Nestor Machnov
• Germans clearly more targeted; Why?
• particular animus towards Menns
• Menns the wealthiest colonists
• role of the Selbstschutz
• debated at Lichtenau Conf - Jun/Jul '18; allowed selbschutz
• Menn losses during civil war:
  - murdered (est) - 1230
  - typhus (est) - 1500
• Menn tensions with Soviets:
  - loyalty to German troops, and then to White Army
• terrible famine of 1921-23
• 1920 - Study Commission sent to North America
  - their visit led to creation of MCC in Sep 1920
  - MCC supplies first arrived in Mar '22
• Union of Citizens of Dutch Lineage (BB Janz, the leader)
• Allrussicher Mennonitischer Landwirtschaflicher Verein
  - to rebuild agric operations
  - created the precedent for "draining off of surplus population"
  - used to justify, and gain Soviet approval of, later Menn emigration
• 1928-32:
  - collectivization
  - dekulakization
• harsher in Ukraine than elsewhere in Russia
  - resistance to collectivization
  - burning of crops
  - destroying cattle and inventory
• 1932-33 Second Great Famine
  - killed 5-7M people
  - 1932 - dekulakization replaced by Second Great Purges (or Great Terror)
• Menns dekulakized, arrested and exiled:
  - 1929-33 - 10,000
  - 1934-40 - 10,000
  
  Outbreak of WWII
• few west of Dnieper River were deported; east of the River, more were deployed
• fall of '41 - all of Molotschna were deported
• virtually all of Crimean Tatars were relocated - 25% mortality rate
• deported or conscripted into Trudarmee - 25,000
• 1943 - many fled west with retreating German army
  
  Post WWII Migrations
• total - 11,000
  - Canada - 5600
  - Paraguay - 4600
  
  Menn experience: tragedy or pathos?
• ie did they make choices that brought consequences?
  

Our Pilgrimage to Ukraine - Some Initial Impressions

1. Innovative entrepreneurial nature

- early(?) emergence of very successful, wealthy businessmen

2. Sophisticated architectural style

• even in the smaller villages, uniformly superior bricks, bricklaying style and overall style and construction

3. Mariawohl a very simple, poor village

4. Mennonites as instruments - and victims - of larger historical forces:

• the Tsar's desire to domesticate and colonize the south
• Germany's desire to expand eastward
• anarchists' desire to plunder
• Soviet ideology of collectivization and dekulakization
• Hitler`s desire to eliminate Communism and to embrace the volksdeutsche
• Stalin`s revenge

5. The imminent loss of the last vestiges of the Mennonite civilization in the Ukraine; very advanced state of decay

• land and buildings given to Ukrainians who don't know how, don't care, or can't afford to care for them

6. Impact on Mennonite faith of experiences of wealth, poverty, war, and authoritarianism

7. Impact on our modern lives of choices made by individuals whom we now "know" as never before by virtue of having visited their homes

8. Growing up in Vineland, had the conviction that the only things that mattered were my family and faith (ie a profoundly parochial view of life). Over time, have come to appreciate that all of the world's population feels the same way.

The point: we are creatures of context (the significance of ethnicity, language, faith, culture, land and place) and choice (ie how to respond to our particularities - do we proclaim them to the exclusion or diminution of others or do we embrace them as foundation stones upon which a lifetime of rich experiences and diversity can build?)

9. The similarity between the Ukrainian and North American western landscapes, eg. sunflowers, wheat, rolling hills, trees, rivers, creeks and sloughs, gardens

Pilgrimage to Ukraine - Some Unanswered Questions

Gravestones - what to do with gravestones in Petersdorf and Nicholaifeld in light of ongoing decay of villages?

Can the historically significant story of the Mennonite experience in the Ukraine be saved when all the remarkable physical elements are in advanced stages of seemingly inexorable decay?