The year was 1833. It is apparent from Cornies’s response that David Epp of Heubuden in Poland had written asking Cornies to confirm or correct a report that Epp had heard, that the Russian government was prohibiting the immigration of Prussian Mennonites into Russia (i.e., the Ukraine). According to GAMEO, David Epp was an influential minister of the Heubuden congregation from 1817 through 1862, when he finally emigrated to Russia. Heubuden was located in northern Poland, only 25 miles southeast of Gdańsk (Danzig).
With that as background, we are ready to read Cornies’s letter to Epp:
Honourable David Epp, Heubuden, beloved friend,
Yesterday, 25 September, I received a response to my inquiry of 22 July about a prohibition against the immigration of Mennonites to Russia. The reply of 18 August came from State Counsellor Fadeev in Penza, who administers the majority of the southern German colonies. He knows of no Russian prohibition on immigration by Mennonites from Prussia. On the contrary, consent was expressly given for migration of 270 families (with acceptance of the specified conditions). Our District Office has been informed accordingly.
If those desiring to emigrate can show proof at the Consulate that they possess 800 rubles, the consul can still give them [entry] passes. The families wanting to emigrate should then come straight to this area where permissions can be negotiated, provided that the sum of money they possess has been declared truthfully, no more and no less. Each family must declare only its own possessions. Joint declarations are not allowed that would drag along someone with the family that is not part of it. Such subterfuges can cause us great harm, as have similar actions in the past. Declarations must be attested to by the signatures of the elders from Prussia.
First, as of 1833 Russia was willing to admit an additional 270 families to settle within its borders. Whether this number represents all immigrants or just Mennonites is not specified.
However, the borders were not open to just anyone; only those who could show proof of possession of 800 rubles were eligible to emigrate. It is difficult to calculate accurately how much money today this would represent; the most we can say from the context is that nine years earlier Cornies sought to purchase sheep for Molotschna colony: the anticipated price for a ram was 250 rubles and for a ewe 125 rubles. Thus, 800 rubles was slightly more money than would be needed to buy one ram and four ewes. All that to say, the 800-ruble requirement presumably did not limit emigration only to the rich, although it no doubt was intended to keep out the destitute.
Someone who had 800 rubles was to present proof of possession to the Russian consulate in Prussia. It seems that this proof consisted of a signed declaration of possession that was countersigned by the Mennonite elders of the area from which a family was emigrating.
Upon receipt of a fully executed declaration, the Russian consul would issue an entry pass that gave the émigré the right to cross the border into Russia. To be clear: those who wished to emigrate had to secure permission from Russia before they sought to enter the country. Left unsaid is that they also had to secure permission from the Prussian authorities to leave—and pay that government as well for the right to do so.
Once in Russia, the immigrant family was to travel directly to their final destination (here Cornies has Molotschna in mind) so they could negotiate permissions. One wishes that Cornies had elaborated on this a little further, since a number of details are left unexplained: With whom were the immigrants to negotiate: Russian governmental officials? local officials, perhaps a village mayor? What specifically was to be negotiated: where the new arrivals would live? what they would do? whether they would receive a land allotment? Answers to those questions will need to come from somewhere else.
One final detail is worth mentioning: Cornies warns against the practice of unrelated persons pooling their resources together to reach the 800 rubles minimum. So, for example, one can easily imagine a family with 600 rubles allowing an unrelated person with 200 rubles to “join” the family so that the composite group could then emigrate together. In fact, we have probably already seen an instance of just such a practice.
A little over a year ago we recounted how sixty-nine-year-old Heinrich Buller of Brenkenhoffswalde (remember him? the likely father of out-of-wedlock Heinrich Buller; see here) joined himself to the Ludwig Boettcher family in 1834 or 1835 (one or two years after Cornies’s letter) and immigrated to Russia with them. We knew then why Heinrich would have needed to join some family: immigration was permitted only to families of five or more people. What was less clear was why the Boettchers would have permitted him to join, since they numbered seven without him. Looking back, it seems reasonable to think that they allowed Heinrich to join their family, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because his contribution enabled them to reach the 800 rubles threshold. We do not know this for certain, but it seems highly likely. Clearly Cornies did not approve of these arrangements, but they took place nonetheless.
Little by little we continue to connect the dots and fill in the details. The more we explore and learn, the more we understand. Based on Cornies’s letter, we now have not only a clearer idea of the terms and the requirements that those who wished to emigrate had to meet but also why a member of our larger Buller family (not a direct ancestor) joined with another family when he emigrated to Russia in the mid-1830s.
Works Cited
Cornies, Johann. 2015. Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies. Volume 1: 1812–1835. Translated by Ingrid I. Epp. Edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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