The Russian Mennonites are a group of Mennonites descended from Dutch and mainly Germanic Prussian Anabaptists who established colonies in South Russia (present-day Ukraine) beginning in 1789. Since the late 1800s, many of them have come to countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist (Re-baptizers) denominations named after and influenced by the teachings and tradition of Menno Simons (1496-1561). ... The national name Prussia (in Prussian: Prusa, German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian Prusai, Latin: Prussia or Borussia) was used by a wide variety of political factions during the 2nd millennium. ... Anabaptists (re-baptizers, from Greek ana and baptizo; in German: Wiedertäufer) are Christians of the so-called radical wing of the Protestant Reformation. ...

In the early-to-mid 1500s, Mennonites began to move from the Low Countries (especially Friesland) and Flanders to the Vistula delta region in Royal Prussia, seeking religious freedom and exemption from military service. They gradually replaced their Dutch and Frisian languages with the East Low German dialect spoken in the area, blending into it elements of their native tongues. Plautdietsch is the distinct Mennonite language which developed over a period of 300 years in the Vistula delta region and south Russia. The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ... Capital Leeuwarden Queens Commissioner drs. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... The Vistula (Polish: Wisła) is the longest river in Poland. ... Map of Royal Prussia Royal Prussia (Polish: Prusy Królewskie, German: Königliches Preussen) was the western part of two parts of Prussia, which previously were governed as one Lands of the Teutonic Order. ... Military service is the period a person is serving in an army (or other military organisation), either as a chosen job, either as the result of an involuntary draft (in that case usually termed conscription). ... Frisian is a Germanic group of closely related languages, spoken by around half a million members of an ethnic group living on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. ... East Low German dialects are spoken in north eastern parts of Germany as well as by minorities in northern Poland. ... Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, is a language spoken by the Mennonites, who are ethnically Dutch, but who adopted an East Low German dialect while they were refugees in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), beginning in the early-to-mid 1500s. ...

In 1772, most of the Mennonites' land in the Vistula area became part of Prussia in the first of the Partitions of Poland. Frederick William II of Prussia ascended the throne in 1786 and imposed heavy fees on the Mennonites in exchange for continued military exemption. The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (Old Prussian: Prūsa, German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad... The Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, commonly known as the Partitions of Poland (Polish: Rozbiór Polski or Rozbiory Polski; Lithuanian: Padalijimas) took place in the 18th century and ended the existence of the sovereign Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. ... Frederick William II (September 25, 1744 – November 16, 1797), king of Prussia, was known in German as Friedrich Wilhelm II. Frederick William was the son of Augustus William, Prince of Prussia (the second son of King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia) and of Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, sister...

In the same year, Catherine the Great of Russia sent a special invitation to the Mennonites, offering them land where they could have partial autonomy and military exemption. The territory was northwest of the Sea of Azov, and had just been acquired from the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774. Many of the Mennonites in Prussia accepted this invitation, establishing Chortitza on the Dnieper River as their first colony in 1789. The other primary colony, Molotschna, was founded in 1803. Catherine II (Екатерина II Алексеевна: Yekaterína II Alekséyevna, April 21, 1729 - November 6, 1796), born Sophie Augusta Fredericka, known as Catherine the Great, reigned as empress of Russia from June 28, 1762, to her death on November 6, 1796. ... The shallow Sea of Azov is clearly distinguished from the deeper Black Sea. ... Imperial motto (Ottoman Turkish) دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power (1683) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital Söğüt (1299-1326), Bursa (1326-1365), Edirne (1365-1453), Ä°stanbul (1453-1922) Imperial anthem Ottoman imperial anthem Sovereigns Padishah of the Osmanl... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Chortitza is a settlement on Dnieper River in Zaporizhia Oblast. ... The Dnieper River (also: Dnepr, Dniapro, or Dnipro) is a river (2,290 km length) which flows from Russia through Belarus and then Ukraine. ...

In 1814, the Kleine Gemeinde, which would become the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, separated from the main body of the church in Molotschna. The Mennonite Brethren Churches (Brüder Gemeinde) was formed in 1860. The Evangelical Mennonite Conference is a Canadian Mennonite body of evangelical Christians, not to be confused with the Evangelical Mennonite Church, a body in the midwestern United States. ... On January 6, 1860 a small group of Mennonites in Ukraine (a province of the Russian Empire at that time), influenced somewhat by the Moravian Brethren, and to a greater degree by Lutheran Pietism through the influential preaching of Eduard Wuest, met in the village of Elisabeththal, Molotschna and formed...

The introduction of a conscription law in 1871 was one of a number changes ending special privileges, prompting community leaders to seek immigration options. In 1873 a delegation twelve explored North America, seeking large tracts of fertile farmland. This group consisted of Leonhard Sudermann and Jacob Buller representing the Molotschna settlement; Tobias Unruh from Volhynia settlements; Andreas Schrag of the Swiss Volhynia congregations; Heinrich Wiebe, Jacob Peters and Cornelius Buhr from the Bergthal Colony; William Ewert from West Prussia; Cornelius Toews and David Classen of the Kleine Gemeinde and Paul Tschetter and Lawrence Tschetter representing the Hutterites.^[1] This group returned with positive reports of good land available in Manitoba, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. Consequently between 1874 and 1880, 18,000 of the approximately 45,000 Mennonites in South Russia left for North America. Hutterites are a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century. ...

See also

• Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church
• General Conference Mennonite Church
• German minority in Russia and Soviet Union

The Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church of Goessel, Kansas is a congregation affiliated with the Mennonite Church USA. The church has a long and illustrious history going back to the 16th century in Europe. ... The General Conference Mennonite Church was an association of Mennonite congregations based in North America from 1860 to 2002. ... The Volga Germans are ethnic Germans living near the Volga River and the Black Sea, maintaining German culture, German language, German traditions and religions: Evangelical Lutherans or Roman Catholic. ...

Notes

1. ^ Kaufman p. 78.

References

• Kaufman, Edmund G. (1973), General Conference Mennonite Pioneers, Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas.

Bibliography

• Dyck, Cornelius J. An Introduction to Mennonite History, Herald Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8361-3620-9
• Huebert, Helmut T. Molotschna Historical Atlas, Springfield Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-920643-08-6
• 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
• Schroeder, William, Huebert, Helmut T. Mennonite Historical Atlas, Springfield Publishers, 1996. ISBN 0-920643-04-3
• Toews, Aron A. Mennonite Martyrs: People Who Suffered for Their Faith 1920-1940, Kindred Press,1990. ISBN 0-919797098-9
• Toews, John B. Journeys: Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalin's Russia, Kindred Press, 1998. ISBN 0-921788-48-7
• Voth, Norma Jost, Mennonite Foods & Folkways from South Russia, Volumes I & II, Good Books, 1990 & 1991. ISBN 0-934672-89-X & ISBN 1-56148-012-6

External links

• Early Russian Mennonite History
• Plautdietsch-Freunde e.V. (Russian Mennonites in Germany)
• California Mennonite Historical Society GRANDMA (The Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry)