By 1870, there were close to two million Germans living in Russia. For the most part they lived in self-governing colonies, exempt from taxation, military service and other obligations of Russian citizenship. They had their own German language schools, regulated their own affairs and kept apart from the Ukrainian and Russian people. Is it any wonder that the Russian people began to resent these foreign lumps in their midst?

It seems the possibility that their circumstances might change never occurred to the Germans, despite hints from the Russian authorities that they might at least make an effort to learn Russian. In 1881 Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and succeeded by his son Alexander III, who immediately began the process of russification of the German colonies. He began by eliminating most of their tax exemptions. In 1874 he rescinded their exemption from military service, though after protests from the Mennonites he allowed them to choose alternate service, such as forestry or hospital work. In 1881 Alexander III eliminated all remaining privileges and required the teaching of Russian in the schools attended by the Germans.

This abrupt change in their status caused many of the Germans to consider emigration. Beginning around 1874, large numbers of German Catholics in Russia left for Brazil and Argentina. Over the 40 years following, up to the beginning of World War I, about 115,000 Germans from Russia emigrated to the USA, mostly the Great Plains states, and 150,000 to Canada, mostly the Prairie provinces. Catholics were still the majority of the Russian Germans who came to Canada, but there were also large numbers of Lutherans and Mennonites, plus small groups of Baptists, Adventists and members of the Moravian Church (Unity of the Brethren).

The Mennonites who came to Canada were able to negotiate an arrangement where they could once again establish their own colonies, operate their own schools and have minimal contact with the people around them. They were not called colonies in Canada, but the government set aside blocks of land exclusively for settlement by Mennonites from Russia. The first were the East Reserve (east of the Red River) and the West Reserve (west of the Red River) in Manitoba. Later came the Hague-Osler Reserve north of Saskatoon and the Swift Current Reserve south of Swift Current, both in Saskatchewan.

These Mennonites soon began to divide into a number of different denominations over disagreements in matters of outward practice. In later years a leader of one of these groups said “We left Russia because of our faith, but we couldn’t share our faith with our neighbours because we didn’t know the language. Now we have learned the language but we have forgotten what it was we were supposed to say.” That is the rosy lens of nostalgia, Did the Mennonites in Russia, and their descendents in Canada, have any desire to share their faith, or any faith to share?

My mother’s parents were members of one such church. In her youth, Mom memorized the catechism and was baptized. It was an old Mennonite catechism that originated im Elbing, Prussia in 1778 and was faithful to the historic Mennonite faith, but she was the only one in her baptismal class who memorized the complete catechism. Mom was the sixth child in a family of 14 amd the last to learn German. The family spoke Plautdietsch and English at home but the church services were entirely in German. Once the government shut down the independent schools in 1920 the church had no idea what to do, German was the one non-negotiable element of their faith.

My grandmother was a dear sweet lady who never talked about her faith, but gave all of her grandchildren a German primer so that we could learn German in order to become Christians. Of my grandparents 14 children, 5 were Mennonites (belonging to 4 different denominations), 2 were Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1 belonged to the Anglican Church, 1 to the United Church of Canada and 1 was a Pentecostal. I don’t know if the other 4 attended any church.

The 1835 decree of the church leaders in Russia seems to still be in effect among those who call themselves Mennonites in Canada. The great majority have never read anything he wrote, have no clue whether the faith taught by their church has any resemblance to the faith of Menno Simons. Some churches call themselves Mennonite but their doctrine is evangelical Protestant. Others hold strictly to some outward form but lack inward and spiritual grace. Others yet have no doctrine but the latest form of the social gospel. Many people call themselves Mennonite as an ethnic label and are affiliated with a wide variety of churches, or no church at all.

In other words, most Mennonites today are completely disconnected from the spiritual heritage of their forefathers and seem to have no awareness that they have lost something. Where then does one look for the faith that was a bright and shining light many years ago? I will go into that in a future post.