Sorry for the inactivity last week—too much work! The next Bullers in Molotschna installment is still being written, so please accept a few related observations in the meantime:
1. In 1861, the Nogai who lived in the area south of Molotschna completely abandoned New Russia and settled in Turkey instead. Of interest to us is that all their land suddenly became ownerless.
2. During the 1870s and 1880s, approximately 18,000 Mennonites left New Russia for life in North America. Although that seems like a large number, in fact it was only a third of the Mennonites living in New Russia at that time. In other words, two-thirds of the Mennonites stayed where they were.
3. By and large, Chortiza Mennonites (the Old Colony to the north; see here) emigrated to Canada, while those from Molotschna settled in the United States.
4. Mennonite advance parties met with both Canadian and U.S. governmental authorities before the wave of immigration began to ask for the religious and economic privileges they had enjoyed under the reign of the tsars. Canada granted most of their requests, but the U.S. declined them, explaining that all U.S. citizens enjoyed equal rights and responsibilities regardless of their religious affiliation.
In light of these observations, several questions come to mind:
• Why did all the Nogai emigrate to a new land but only a third of the Mennonites do so?
• What happened to all the Nogai land after they walked away from it?
• What motivated some Mennonites to leave New Russia and others to stay? What does this reveal about each group’s character? about its situation?
• How might the U.S. refusal to grant special privileges to the Mennonites who settled here help us to clarify the reasons for which some Mennonites left New Russia?
A final trivia question tailor-made for our family: Who was the first member of the Peter D Buller family to become a U.S. citizen?
More content and photographs or drawings (I hope) to come soon!
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