For example, Moon’s introduction describes the steppe in general and places it within the context of the larger Russian Empire. To that end, Moon helpfully includes a map showing the extent of the the different regions, or environmental zones, of Russia.
 |
| Map 2 in Moon 2013, 9; adapted from Pallot and Shaw 1990, xv. |
The map is fairly straightforward: far to the north is the coniferous forest, with a substantial area of mixed forest below (around Moscow), then a thin layer of forest-steppe to the south and east of that and a thicker strip of pure steppe land even farther south.
Obviously, the steppe is of interest to us because Molotschna was located squarely within it. Learning about the steppe will thus help us to understand better the setting in which Benjamin Buller and other Mennonites of his day sought to carve out a living.
However, perhaps the map tells us far more than that Molotschna was located in the steppe. Perhaps the map helps us understand why some of the original residents of Waldheim abandoned their new home within a few years of settling there. It has been a while since we have talked about this event, so a brief refresher is in order.
The village Waldheim was established in 1838 with the arrival of eight families; additional families moved to Waldheim in the following two years, so that at the end of 1840 all forty Wirtschaften (or plots) had been assigned. All of Waldheim’s settlers had moved there from Volhynia, which lay to the northwest. In 1845, for reasons that have never been adequately explained, a sizable number of Waldheim residents—thirty-three families, to be exact—petitioned to leave Waldheim to move back to Volhynia. The map may suggest a reason for their change of heart. To help us visualize, the map below has a small red dot where Molotschna is located and a larger red dot roughly in the center of Volhynia.
Looking at the map this way may bring to light an important consideration. Benjamin and the other original Waldheim residents had previously lived well within the mixed forest. As Moon notes several times, this region was significantly different from the steppe. For example, the mixed forest was less susceptible to the droughts that plagued the steppe, and the temperatures were less extreme in the mixed forest than in the steppe, which suffered bitter cold in the winter and blazing heat in the summer. The two areas, although separated by only several hundred miles, truly offered substantially different environments.
Knowing this, one must wonder whether the Waldheim residents wanted to move back to Volhynia because, after five, six, or seven years, they had grown disenchanted with their prospects for success in the middle of the Russian (Ukrainian) steppe. We certainly do not know this, but it seems at least a reasonable possibility. As we have already learned (here), the claim that the returnees had been kept from owning land is demonstrably false; most of the returnees did own farmland, which they sold and left behind when they returned to Volhynia.
Something else must have motivated their decision to leave Waldheim behind. Maybe it was simply a matter of realizing that they preferred to farm in the mixed forest of Volhynia than the treeless steppe of Molotschna. Perhaps they had faced droughts in those few years or had suffered crop failures or at least disappointing harvests. Again, we do not know this, but it would not be surprising for people to want to return to a former way of life in the mixed forest if life on the steppe was going badly. At the least, we should keep this possibility in mind as we learn more about the steppe during the coming weeks.
Works Cited
Moon, David. 2013. The Plough That Broke the Steppes: Agriculture and Environment on Russia’s Grasslands, 1700–1914. Oxford Studies in Modern European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment