Re-visiting Ukraine

In 1971 my father and I were flying over the Atlantic. The mission was two fold - to visit Mariawohl and to visit relatives whom my father had not seen in 46 years (1926). In those early years after 1926 contact had been lost but now in anticipation of this trip intense correspondence had been had between Vineland and Kant, Kirigisia, a Central Asian republic where some of the Fransens had settled after being "released " from Soviet captivity (Kazakhstan).

Our group on that trip in 1971 consisted of some forty Mennonite pilgrims who were basically a mixture of two generations- at least half of them had lived in the Soviet Union prior to the 1920s and had "vivid memories" of their past there and the other half were descendants of these travelers. There were at least three father/son combinations. In addition to my father and myself, my father-in-law and his son Paul, and PJ Reimer and his sons Al and Sid were in the group.
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises was the way in which Al Reimer took to the event and what for him was the first of many trips to Ukraine before publishing his now famous "My Harp Shall Turn to Mourning". Only Al can describe what the trip meant to him. Has anyone heard of a "Damascus experience?" In addition to the above family connections Frank Klassen (Uncle Frank to many of us) traveled with us and of course was particularly interested in visiting Fuerstenau where he had lived and attended school as a youngster. Our fearless leader was Gerhard Lohrenz, Winnipeg who led many such groups to the former Soviet Union. This was of course the time of the Cold War.

I do not know which of the two destinations, Mariawohl or Kant were of greater interest to my father. Both would have been beyond his imagination just a few years earlier.

No sooner had we arrived in Moscow when a Intourist representative came up to Lohrenz our group leader and said something to the effect:
"Oh, by the way please tell those two in your group (father and I) that the notion that they will be able to separate from the rest of the group and fly off to Kant on their own will not work".

When Lohrenz brought us this message my father's heart and mine too sank about as far as it could sink. Surely we would not be on this trip had we known this prior to leaving North America. Lohrenz did report to us however that he had told the Intourist representative that in no way was this acceptable, as these people had been granted permission for this special trip, that the relatives there (in Kant) were waiting for these people and indeed that they would go. Lohrenz was told to wait until the next day and sure enough the next day was told that things had been worked out and we would be able to travel to Kant. This was to be when the rest of the group traveled on to Alma Ata in Central Asia to visit other areas where they were to visit other "Mennonite" groups.

It was, as I recall approximately a five hour flight from Moscow to Frunze the capital of Kirigisia and less than an hour's drive to Kant where the Fransens lived. The excitement as we neared the Frunze airport and the anticipation of meeting the group of relatives was hard to imagine. But it did happen; a small group of relatives, including children, some with flowers and without knowing where we would stay (we had hotel reservations in Frunze but hoped beyond hope that somehow we could go to Kant directly) Jakob Fransen quietly and quickly whisked us off to a waiting taxi and before long we were on our way in the dark of night to Kant. We would worry about the consequences of this daring move the next day.

That night in a small hut that was the home of Jakob and Sara Fransen my father and I visited energetically until nearly four in the morning with his cousins and with Tante Susanna and Tante Katherina, widows of his father's brothers. He had last seen these ladies 46 years ago and the rest is history and not the subject of this story.

My next visit to Fuerstenau and Mariawohl in Ukraine was in 2007. This time it was with approximately 175 other mostly "Menno Travelers" aboard the Dnieper Princess as part of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise. Much had changed and of course the Cold War was long history and indeed Ukraine was now an independent country.

Now in 2009 a group of 15-16 North American Fransen family members traveled to Europe in order to attend a Fransen Treffen in Rehe, Germany and then continue on to Ukraine.
Two of the North American Fransens (Ted & Esther) were along in Rehe but since they had previously been to Ukraine did not take part in that part of the trip. Another "Fransen" (Suzanne Marie) could not come to Rehe but did join us in Frankfurt to travel on to Ukraine.

In Dnepropetrovsk we were met by Ludmilla, Intourist guide and a modern airconditioned 29 passenger bus that was to be our mode of transportation for the next seven days. Our immediate destination was the rather modern, comfortable Intourist hotel in Zaporosche a city of approximately 800,000 inhabitants and a city that used to be called Alexandrovsk when our ancestors lived in the area.

In our planning for this adventure our group had agreed that we would spend an entire week in Ukraine. In fact this would be exclusively in the Intourist hotel in Zaporosche . This would allow us to spend as much time as anyone would wish in a very specific number of former Mennonite villages in both the Chortitza and Molotschna colonies. It would also have the advantage of being able to settle in on one location and not have to pack and unpack each day and move to another location. This involved decisions such as where would we eat all of our meals etc. Because of research that we had done we ended up having our breakfasts in the hotel (very good standard European breakfast buffet) and visit a variety of restaurants within walking distance for our evening meals. For lunch we chose several cafes on our itinerary with one very good lunch provided for us at the Mennonite Centre in Halbstadt (Molochansk).This was the former Maedchenschule that my mother attended almost one hundred years ago.

By way of additional background let me explain a little more as to our planning for this part of our journey that was undertaken before leaving North America.

Larissa (who also happened to be our guide in Ukraine in 1971) was in charge of planning our Zaporoschia experience. We had chosen Ludmilla, Olga and Viktor as three of the Intourist guides that were to accompany us on different days in Ukraine. This worked out very well so that we were able to benefit from the strengths of each of these delightful people.

In addition we were most fortunate to have Dr. Paul Toews from Fresno and also Zaporoschia give us two illustrated lectures on the history of our Mennonite ancestors and particularly their approximately two hundred year stay in Ukraine; for us Fransens it was more like one hundred and twenty years (1806-1926). Paul graciously agreed to accompany us during the two day trip into the Molotschna; It was these days that his wife Olga was our Intourist guide.

In additon to serious study (lectures by Paul Toews and guided tours into the many Mennonite villages that we had selected) there was opportunity to get some familiarity with the city of Zaporoschia and the huge Dnieper Dam that has figured so prominately in the history of Ukraine, a cruise on the Dnieper around the Chortitza Insel, visit a museum in Zaporoschia that included a Mennonite display, attend a Cossack "rodeo" (if you think that isn't daring just ask David) and enjoy some of the different cuisines including the last evening when cousin Johann Dueck hosted all of us to a delicious Ukrainian meal in a first class Ukrainian restaurant on the "Chortitza Insel".

Written by Herb Fransen