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| rels = [[Anabaptist]]
| scrips = [[The Bible]]
| langs = [[Plautdietsch]], [[
}}
{{Anabaptist vertical}}
The '''Russian Mennonites''' ({{lang-de|Russlandmennoniten}} [lit. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire], occasionally '''Ukrainian Mennonites'''<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/U397.html |title=Ukrainian Mennonite General Conference – GAMEO |date=1926-10-08 |publisher=Gameo.org |access-date=2012-11-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mbherald.com/44/01/news-7.en.html |title=January 7, 2005: Service celebrates Ukrainian-Mennonite experience |publisher=MB Herald |access-date=2012-11-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Nestor Makhno and the Eichenfeld Massacre: A Civil War Tragedy in a Ukrainian Mennonite Village |last1=Staples, and |first1=John R. |last2=Toews |first2=John B.}}</ref>) are a group of [[Mennonite]]s who are the descendants of Dutch and North German [[Anabaptists]] who settled in the [[Vistula]] delta in [[West Prussia]] for about 250 years and established colonies in the [[Russian Empire]] (present-day [[Ukraine]] and Russia's [[Volga region]], [[Orenburg Governorate]], and [[Western Siberia]]) beginning in 1789. Since the late 19th century, many of them have emigrated to countries which are located throughout the [[Western Hemisphere]]. The rest of them were forcibly relocated, so very few of their descendants currently live in the locations of the original colonies. Russian Mennonites are traditionally [[multilingual]] but [[Plautdietsch language|Plautdietsch]] (Mennonite Low German) is their [[first language]] as well as their [[lingua franca]]. In 2014, there were several hundred thousand Russian Mennonites: about 200,000 live in Germany, [[Mennonites in Mexico|74,122 live in Mexico]],<ref name="anabaptistworld.org">{{cite web | url=https://anabaptistworld.org/mexico-colony-census-brings-surprises/ | title=Mexico colony census brings surprises | date=27 October 2022 }}</ref> [[Mennonites in Bolivia|
The term "Russian Mennonite" refers to the country which they resided in before their immigration to the Americas rather than their ethnic heritage.<ref name="Russia">{{Cite web |url=https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Russia |title=Russia |date=2011-02-02 |publisher=Gameo.org |access-date=2018-12-28}}</ref> The term "Low-German Mennonites" is also used in order to avoid this conflation.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mennonitedna.com/lowgerman.html|title=Russia |date=2017-01-20 |publisher=Mennonite DNA Project |access-date=2020-08-04}}</ref>
==History==
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=== Migration to Russia ===
{{main|Chortitza|Molotschna|Neu Samara Colony}}
[[Catherine the Great]] of Russia issued a manifesto in 1763 inviting all Europeans to come and settle various pieces of land within [[Novorossiya|New Russia]] (today [[Southern Ukraine]]) and especially in the [[Volga region]]. Mennonites from the Vistula delta region sent delegates to negotiate an extension of this manifesto and, in 1789, [[Paul I of Russia|Crown Prince Paul]] signed a new agreement with them.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://members.aol.com/jktsn/manifest.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308040645/http://members.aol.com/jktsn/manifest.htm |title=Catherine's Manifesto and Paul's Mennonite Agreement |publisher=Members.aol.com |access-date=
Mennonites lived alongside [[Nogais]]—semi-[[nomad]]ic pastoralists—in the [[Molotschna]] region of southern Ukraine starting from 1803, when Mennonites first arrived, until 1860, when the Nogai Tatars departed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2007spring/staples.php |title=Mennonite Life |date=2004-06-03 |publisher=Bethelks.edu |access-date=2012-11-13}}</ref> Mennonites provided agricultural jobs to Nogais and rented pasture from them. Nogai raids on Mennonite herds were a constant problem in the first two decades of settlement.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.goshen.edu/mqr/pastissues/apr00staples.html |title="On Civilizing the Nogais": Mennonite-Nogai Economic Relations, 1825–1860 |publisher=Goshen.edu |access-date=2012-11-13}}</ref>
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==== Life in Russia ====
===== Economy =====
The colonists formed villages of fifteen to thirty families, each with 70 ha (175 acres) of land. The settlements retained some communal land and a common granary for use by the poor in lean years. Income from communal property provided funding for large projects, such as forming daughter colonies for the growing population. Insurance was also organized separately and outside of the control of the Russian government.<ref>{{runeberg |url=
Initially the settlers raised cattle, sheep and general crops to provide for their household. The barren steppes were much drier than their Vistula delta homeland and it took years to work out the proper dry-land farming practices. They grew [[mulberries]] for the silk industry, produced honey, flax and [[tobacco]], and marketed fruits and vegetables for city markets. By the 1830s wheat became the dominant crop.<ref>Smith, p. 263.</ref>
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Realizing that 40,000 of Russia's most industrious farmers were preparing to leave for North America, the Russian government sent [[Eduard Totleben]] to the colonies in May 1874. Meeting with community leaders, he exaggerated the difficulties that would be encountered in North America and offered an alternative [[national service]] that would not be connected in any way to the military. His intervention convinced the more liberal Mennonites to stay.<ref>Smith, p. 291.</ref>
Between 1874 and 1880, of the approximately 45,000 Mennonites in South Russia,
=== World War I ===
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The chaos that followed the collapse of the [[Russian Provisional Government]] was devastating to much of Ukraine, including the Mennonite colonies. The [[Red Army|Red]] and [[White movement|White armies]] moved through the region, confiscating food and livestock. [[Nestor Makhno]]'s anarchist army generally targeted Mennonites because they were thought of as "[[Kulak]]s" and an entity generally more advanced and wealthy than the surrounding Ukrainian peasants. The Mennonites' Germanic background also served to inflame negative sentiment during the period of revolution. It is also rumored that Makhno himself had served on a Mennonite estate in childhood and harbored negative feelings based on treatment he received while employed there. Hundreds of Mennonites were murdered, robbed, imprisoned and raped during this period,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> and villages including (and around) Chortitza, Zagradovka and Nikolaipol were damaged and destroyed. Many more people died from [[typhus]], [[cholera]] and [[sexually transmitted disease]]s, spread by the anarchist army warring throughout the colonies.<ref>Smith, p. 314-315.</ref><ref>The Makhnos of Memory: Mennonite and Makhnovist Narratives of the Civil War in Ukraine, 1917–1921 by Sean David Patterson pages 4–5</ref><ref>University of Alberta THE FATE OF MENNONIT ES IN UKRAINE AND THE CRIMEA DURING SOVIET COLLECTIVIZATION AND THE FAMINE (1930–1933) COLIN PETER NEUFELDT σελ 13-4</ref><ref>Historian Mennonite] A PUBLICATION OF THE MENNONITE HERITAGE CENTRE and THE CENTRE FOR MB STUDIES IN CANADA, Eichenfeld Massacre Revisited by Sean Patterson page 2</ref>
Based on the tragedy unfolding around them, some of the avowed pacifist Mennonites turned to self-defense and established militia units ([[Selbstschutz]]) to ward off raiding forces with the help of the German Army.
The impacts of the trauma experienced during World War I and the Russian Revolution had lasting impacts on Russian Mennonites. Even though Mennonites who emigrated to North America experienced drastically less violence and the privilege of land ownership, many still showed very high levels of psychological distress. First through third generation Mennonites in North America were found to have high levels of depression, hysteria, psychasthenia, post traumatic stress disorder, ego strength, anxiety, repression, and over-controlled hostility.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
=== Famine ===
Mennonites of Molotschna sent a commission to North America in the summer of 1920 to alert American Mennonites of the dire conditions of war-torn Ukraine. Their plight succeeded in uniting various branches of Mennonites to form the [[Mennonite Central Committee]] in an effort to coordinate aid.
The new organization planned to provide aid to Ukraine via existing Mennonite relief work in [[Istanbul]]. The Istanbul group, mainly [[Goshen College]] graduates, produced three volunteers, who at great risk entered Ukraine during the ongoing [[Russian Civil War]]. They arrived in the Mennonite village of Halbstadt in the [[Molotschna|Molotschna settlement]] just as [[Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel|General Wrangel]] of the White Army was retreating. Two of the volunteers withdrew with the Wrangel army, while [[Clayton Kratz]], who remained in Halbstadt as it was overrun by the Red Army, was never heard from again.
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In 1937 and 1938 the [[NKVD]] carried out ethnically motivated purges of German descendants and German language speakers, including Mennonites.<ref name="fresno1">{{Cite web |url=http://news.fresno.edu/04/16/2014/lecturer-tells-story-mennonites-siberia |title=Lecturer tells the story of Mennonites in Siberia | FPU News |publisher=News.fresno.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529103451/http://news.fresno.edu/04/16/2014/lecturer-tells-story-mennonites-siberia |archive-date=2014-05-29 |access-date=2014-05-28}}</ref> As [[Stalin]] fomented cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church in World War II, Mennonites and Protestants were seen as more dangerous.<ref name="fresno1" /> During the [[Holodomor]] in Ukraine, there was active persecution of German-speaking people as a potential threat to the state, and a ban on organized religion. The hostilities of World War I had increased tensions with ethnic Ukrainians, and Mennonites with family members living abroad were targeted during the [[Great Purge]].
Peter Letkemann of University of Winnipeg characterizes the casualties and abuses of this period as "victims of terror and repression in the Soviet Union during the 40-year period from 1917–1956."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/viewFile/1282/1273 |title=Archived copy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529084318/https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/viewFile/1282/1273 |archive-date=2014-05-29 |access-date=2014-05-28}}</ref> This would overlap somewhat with the "Siberian Germans" deported to that region who have lost touch entirely with the Mennonite mainstream worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.everyculture.com/Russia-Eurasia-China/Siberian-Germans-Orientation.html |title=Orientation – Siberian Germans |publisher=Everyculture.com |access-date=2014-05-28}}</ref>
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Russian Mennonites settled much of South Central [[Kansas]], which owes its reputation as a wheat-producing state in large measure to its early Mennonite settlers. Winter wheat was introduced to Kansas in 1873. The following year the Mennonites, who had experience with dry land farming in Russia, quickly took advantage of its characteristics, resulting in rapid expansion of the milling industry in the state.<ref>[http://www.kshs.org/teachers/trunks/pdfs/wheat_00b_background.pdf Origins of winter wheat in Kansas] (Kansas State Historical Society)</ref> It is planted in the fall and harvested in June and July of the following summer, and is therefore ideally suited to cold winters and the hot, dry Kansas summers. Kansas remains a top producer of wheat in America to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ipmcenters.org/cropprofiles/docs/kswheat.pdf |title=Crop Profile for Wheat in Kansas |website=Regional IPM Centers – National IPM Database |publisher=NSF Center for Integrated Pest Management located at North Carolina State University |access-date=August 31, 2016}}</ref>
The more conservative [[Old Colony Mennonites|Old Colony]], [[Bergthal Colony|Bergthal Mennonites]] and [[Kleine Gemeinde]] went to Canada which promised privileges equal to those previously held in Russia (no conscription into military service and German language private schools) and a large tract of land divided into two "Reserves". The Mennonites settled mostly in [[Manitoba]] in areas east and west of the [[Red River of the North|Red River]], called [[East Reserve]] and [[West Reserve]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/mennonitesbrie00smit/mennonitesbrie00smit_djvu.txt |title=The Mennonites: A Brief History of Their Origin and Later Development in Both Europe and America |
They brought with them many of their institutions and practices, especially their traditional settling pattern which meant that they settled in vast exclusively Mennonite areas where they formed villages with German names such as [[Blumenort, Manitoba|Blumenort]], [[Steinbach, Manitoba|Steinbach]] and [[Grunthal, Manitoba|Grünthal]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/pdf/crow_wing_4.pdf |title=The Heritage Landscape of the Crow Wing Study Region |last=Edward M. Ledohowski |date=2003 |publisher=Historic Resources Branch. Manitoba Culture, Heritage & Tourism |quote=Most of the villages in both the East and West reserves have disappeared over the years. Today, in the former East Reserve, communities such as Kleefeld, New Bothwell, Grunthal and Blumenort are still in existence, but the traditional 'Strassendorf' community plan no longer survives... The Steinbach village became the commercial centre for the East Reserve villages...}}</ref>
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Beginning in 1954 conservative Mennonites settled in East-Bolivia, in the [[Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia)|Santa Cruz Department]]. Bolivia soon became the refuge for Mennonites who wanted to flee the influences of modern society. In 2006 there were 41 Mennonite colonies in Bolivia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/world/americas/21bolivia.html |title=Bolivian Reforms Raise Anxiety on Mennonite Frontier |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=21 December 2006 |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=11 January 2018}}</ref> Old Colony Mennonites went from Mexico to Belize in 1959<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Belize&oldid=122447 |title=Belize – GAMEO |website=Gameo.org |access-date=11 January 2018}}</ref> and to Argentina in 1986.
* [[Mennonites in Mexico|74,122 in Mexico]]<ref
* [[Mennonites in Bolivia|
* [[Mennonites in Paraguay|40,000 in Paraguay]]
* [[Mennonites in Belize|10,000 in Belize]]
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* [[Mennonites in Uruguay|1,000 in Uruguay]]
* [[Mennonites in Peru|900 in Peru]]
* [[Mennonites in Colombia|500 in Colombia]]<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2020.1855266 | doi=10.1080/1747423X.2020.1855266 | title=Pious pioneers: The expansion of Mennonite colonies in Latin America | year=2021 | last1=Le Polain De Waroux | first1=Yann | last2=Neumann | first2=Janice | last3=o'Driscoll | first3=Anna | last4=Schreiber | first4=Kerstin | journal=Journal of Land Use Science | volume=16 | issue=1 | pages=1–17 | bibcode=2021JLUS...16....1L | s2cid=230589810 }}</ref>
As of 2017, the population of Mennonites living in Mexico has declined sharply, according to some estimates. Worsening poverty, water shortages and drug-related violence across northern Mexico have provoked large numbers of Mennonites living in the Mexican states of [[Durango]] and [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]] to relocate abroad in recent years, especially to Canada and other regions of Latin America. Between 2012 and 2017 alone, it is estimated that at least 30,000 Mexican Mennonites emigrated to Canada.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/a-century-ago-our-families-left-the-prairies-and-moved-to-mexico-now-we-are-coming-home |title=A Century Ago, Our Families Left the Prairies and Moved to Mexico. Now We are Coming Home. |date=2017-07-27 |access-date=4 November 2019 |agency=National Post}}</ref>
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=== Church of God in Christ, Mennonite ===
{{main|Church of God in Christ, Mennonite}}
The Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, commonly referred to as [[John Holdeman|Holdeman]] Mennonites after the founder of the church, is a theologically
=== General Conference ===
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=== Old Colony ===
{{main|Old Colony Mennonites}}
Not to be confused with [[Old Order Mennonites]], who are primarily of Swiss-German origin, the name Old Colony Mennonites (German: Altkolonier-Mennoniten) refers to part of the Russian Mennonite movement that is descended from colonists who migrated from the [[Chortitza Colony]], as opposed to the slightly newer [[Molotschna]] colony, in Russia and are theologically
== Culture ==
{{further|Category:Russian Mennonite surnames|}}
Most [[ethnic Mennonite|ethnic Russian Mennonite]]s no longer reside in Russia, with the majority being spread across the Americas.<ref>{{cite book|title=Menno Moto|author=Cameron Dueck|publisher=Biblioasis|date=2020}}</ref> Russian Mennonites are diverse in terms of theology and dress, while many have assimilated into larger American, Canadian, or Mexican culture. Still shared by many Russian Mennonites, assimilated or not, is the [[Plautdietsch]] language, certain dishes [[Mennonite cuisine]] such as vereniki, zwieback, and farmer sausage<ref>{{cite web|title=A celebration of food and faith|date=17 August 2011 |publisher=Canadian Mennonite|url= https://canadianmennonite.org/articles/celebration-food-and-faith|access-date=July 24, 2020}}</ref> and certain common surnames such as Reimer, Friesen, Penner and dozens of others.<ref>{{cite web|title=Surnames|date=24 January 2014 |publisher=Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta|url=https://mennonitehistory.org/surnames/|
== Terminology ==
Many Mennonites, particularly in Western Canada, use the term "Russian Mennonite" as term of culture or [[ethnic Mennonite|ethnicity]] referring to their Dutch and Prussian ancestry and heritage, even if they never lived in Russia themselves.<ref
Russian Mennonites can be further divided into several groups and labels based on immigration history. The term "Kanadier" refers to Russian Mennonites who came to Canada in the 1870s, some of whom later moved to Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|title=Return of the Kanadier|publisher=University of Winnipeg|url=https://mennonitestudies.uwinnipeg.ca/events/kanadier.php|
== See also ==
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* Hildebrand, Peter. ''From Danzig to Russia'', CMBC Publications, Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2000. {{ISBN|0-920718-67-1}}
* Huebert, Helmut T. ''Molotschna Historical Atlas'', Springfield Publishers, 2003. {{ISBN|0-920643-08-6}}
* [[Pamela Klassen|Klassen, Pamela E.]] ''Going by the Moon and the Stars: Stories of Two Russian Mennonite Women'', 2010. {{ISBN|0-88920-244-3}}
* Kroeker, Wally ''An Introduction to the Russian Mennonites'', Good Books, 2005. {{ISBN|1-56148-391-5}}
* Peters, Victor, Thiessen, Jack. ''Mennonitische Namen / Mennoniite Names'', N. G. Elwert Verlag, 1987. {{ISBN|3-7708-0852-5}}
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* Sawatzky, Harry Leonard: ''Sie suchten eine Heimat : deutsch-mennonitische Kolonisierung in Mexiko, 1922 – 1984''. Marburg, 1986. (This book is not just a German translation of "They Sought a Country", as the title seems to indicate, but a work of its own.)
* Schroeder, William, Huebert, Helmut T. ''Mennonite Historical Atlas'', Springfield Publishers, 1996. {{ISBN|0-920643-04-3}}
* Siebert, Dorothy, ''Whatever It Takes'' Winnipeg, MB, Canada
* Toews, Aron A. ''[https://archive.org/details/MennoniteMartyrs19201940ocr1 Mennonite Martyrs: People Who Suffered for Their Faith 1920–1940]'', Kindred Press, 1990. {{ISBN|0-919797-98-9}}
* Toews, John B. ''Journeys: Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalin's Russia'', Kindred Press, 1998. {{ISBN|0-921788-48-7}}
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