Mennonites of Russia.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17964, 8 March 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

Mennonites of Russia.

THE Mennonites are on the move again. Or rather the restlessness that has been manifest among their scattered communities smee _ the World War is spurting again, with migrations hither and yon.. Russia is; the soui . of to-day’s concerted movement. Ca ™da and Brazil are Us objectives. manv has received 5800 Russian Mennonites "a large number of whom hope to jou - nev on to Canada and another group to Brazil with funds advanced by the Ge man Government and by Mennonite organisations From Canada, too, the Mennonites are moving further south. Upon this movement bear dispatches saying that 13,000 Mennonites had trekked all the way from their home on the lower Volga to Moscow to ask leave to emigrate that harelv 1000 succeeded fitter many hardships in getting into G e rrna ny and tha 9000 were herded on convoy trams and Shipped Back to Their Abandoned Villages. The story of the Mennonites for foui centuries has been one of recurring conflict with their surroundings. In the beginning their denial of the Christian cl « acter'of the existing church anrt the ci authority brought down upon them the bit ter persecutions of Protestants and Cat lies wherever they lifted their heads in Europe. Their endeavour to carry out literally what they believe to be the cachings of the New Testament has met been at"such odds with the ways of the modern world that every haven they ha\e found has proved, sooner or later, a haven no more. Their doctrine of non-resistance has left, them but one recourse, to seek another. And so they have moved on, one generation of them after another in the quest of a home free from wars, where they may be excused without question Horn military service. , Wherever they have gone they have atempted to guard their strict conservatism by formal agreement with the of the country, excusing them from oathtaking and guaranteeing to them the right to maintain their own community apart from the rest of the world, speaking their own language, conducting their own schoo s and following their own primitive customs. But invariably Difficulties have been Encountered and the Mennonites have departed. Prior to tlie twentieth century three major Mennonite migrations are traced. Freedomloving America long represented the promised land to these reformers whom Europe harassed, and hither they turned from •southern Germany, Switzerland, the Palatinate and Alsace. This vast movement falls into two distinct periods: one from 1690 up to the Revolutionary War, to the neighbourhood of Franconia and Lancaster Pa.; the other from 1820 to 1860 to Berne, Ind., Bluffton, Ohio, Fulton County, Ohio, Central Illinois and lowa. Altogether it is estimated that between 7000 and 9000 came in this migration and in time they spread from their original destinations to other localities* ___ —* ’ —•

Again on the Move: Seeking a New Home.

The second great movement of Mennonites was from Eastern and Western Prussja to Southern Russia in the years between 1789 and 1840. Catherine the Great no doubt seeing in these industrious folk an example to all peasant people, invited them to settle territory along the lower Ao'ga that had recently been wrested from the Turks. She assured them freedom from military service, the right to their own schools and semi-autonomy for their communities. , t . . Some 9000 availed themselves of iheinducements she offered, and so did they thrive that by 1917 their progeny had multiplied to 100,000 or so, in spite of the fact that this colony was the supply source _of the third great Mennonite migration, which took place between 1873 and 1880, with America the goal. The major migration, however, was ‘initiated by the World War. In the decade from 1917 to 1927, it is said, more Mennonites Changed Their National Home than in the four centuries preceding. But barely 500 managed to get through the yates of the United States before the new quota laws barred them. Canada proved more friendly. Altogether some 20,000 went, there. For many, however, disappointment was the reward of venturing. Even those w'ho had come before were far from happy. People who not only refused a part in the war, which was of much importance to Canada, but even expressed indifference to its outcome and insisted blindly upon adhering to the German tongue, naturally had none too good a name. Some of them in disrepute, determined to pull up stakes and go to Mexico. Others had gone there before them —those unable to pass the stringent health tests. A colony of several hundred had been established In Chihuahua, 300 miles south of El Paso, and another at Irapuato, 300 miles north of Mexico City. These had had their troubles from internal disagreement and thieving of neighbours. Nevertheless, 5000 more Mennonites turned _to Mexico from Canada, and in a valley thirty miles long by fifteen miles wide twentyfour villages were established. Meantime, the Mennonites of Canada were still casting about for a country that might truly Prove to be The Promised Land. One day about three years ago a strangelooking contingent of men with long coats and long beards and women in swishing skirts and bright shawls passed through New York. They were bound for South America. Thousands have followed them under an arrangement that has allowed them to trade in their Canadian holdings for transportation, land and equipment in the new country, the idea being that the deserted farms of Manitoba would be readily taken over by more Mennonites coming from Russia* ———