Travel Journal 1

A passing reference in a footnote of David Moon’s The Plough That Broke the Steppes (2013, 263 n. 92) led to an interesting contemporary description of our Mennonite ancestors. Moon references a work by a German baron, August von Haxthausen, titled The Russian Empire: Its People, Institutions and Resources (1856). It turns out that this work, which sounds very much like an academic survey of various aspects of life during imperial Russia, is at first a travel journal that Baron von Haxthausen kept as he traveled throughout Russia in 1843, followed by a more systematic description of Russian life.

Baron von Haxthausen’s travels are of greatest interest to us; he describes his route as follows:

the Author took his departure from Moscow in the Spring of 1843. He travelled first to the north, traversed a part of the immense region of forests, and then returning to the Volga, penetrated eastward as far as Kazan, and southward to Saratof, visiting the rich corn districts of Penza, Tambof, Voronezh, and Kharkof, and then traversed the Steppes by Ekaterinoslaf to Kertch in the Crimea. Thence he made a short excursion into the southern countries of the Caucasus, at the conclusion of which he travelled over the Crimea, and, proceeding along the coast, arrived at Odessa. He then traversed Podolia and Volhynia, reached Kief, and, passing through the Governments of Tchernigof, Orel, and Tula, returned to Moscow in the month of November. (1856, 1:xi)

Two locations mentioned are worth special attention. First, the city of Ekaterinoslaf, or Ekaterinoslav (modern Dnipro), is roughly 50 miles north-northwest of Molotschna, so the steppe by that city is, as we will shortly learn, an area of importance to us. Second, on his return trip von Haxthausen passed through Volhynia, so we will also want to see what he reports of that area.

To set the historical context as far as our family is concerned, in 1843 Benjamin Buller and family were in Molotschna, specifically in Waldheim, where they had moved in 1839. Several years later they relocated to the north (Heinrichsdorf), but the point here is that our ancestors were in Molotschna when von Haxthausen came through the area.

Baron von Haxthausen was an inquisitive, interesting, multitalented fellow. In addition to being an economist and lawyer, he was an agricultural scientist with a particular interest in “the study of rural institutions, or, in other words, the different relations of the peasant class to the cultivation of the land, their families, the landowners, their Communes, and the State” (1856, 1:ix). His travels through Russia were directly related to that interest.

All that is background to the real point of this post (and several that follow): von Haxthausen writes extensively about the Mennonites of New Russia, especially about those of the Molotschna colony. Baron von Haxthausen’s two volumes are freely available online (see below), but his description of the Mennonites is worth quoting extensively just the same. Most of his narrative is self-explanatory, but we will add commentary and bracketed clarification as needed. The important thing to keep in mind throughout is that we are reading a contemporary description of Mennonite life in nineteenth-century Russia. Our narrative begins as follows:

Early in the morning of the 23rd we reached the banks of the Dnieper, and were transported across in a Ger­man ferry-boat.… Some German colonists had charge of this ferry, and we soon reached the colony of Rosen­thal, belonging to the great German Mennonite settle­ment in the Circle of Khortitz [Chortitza]. We felt at once trans­ported to the valleys of the Vistula, in West Prussia, so thoroughly German was everything around us: not merely the people, their language, dress, and dwellings, but every plate and vessel, nay even the domestic ani­mals, the dog, cow, and goat, were German. These co­lonists have even succeeded in giving a German aspect to nature itself throughout the whole district; a land[421]scape-painter might very well call the scenery German. The same mode of dividing and cultivating the fields prevails as in Germany; the meadows are enclosed with German hedges. The plan of the villages, and the de­tached farmhouses, with gardens, plants, vegetables, and above all potatoes, are all German. This was not at all the case with the colony on the Volga, the inhabitants of which had remained Germans only in language, dress, and manners. Everything about them had much more of a Russian character, with the addition of German conveniences.

This flourishing German settlement, consisting of se­venteen villages, was founded solely by Mennonites, who now inhabit them. (420–21)

Von Haxthausen then provides a history of the origins of the Mennonite “sect” that we can skip over. We pick up the story with his account of the Mennonite immigration to Poland.

Simon Menno, in spite of suffering and persecution, had a numerous body of adherents, particularly in Friesland and Holland. As early as 1540 and 1550 perse[423]cution drove a large number of them out of these countries into Western Prussia, where they established themselves on the low grounds of the Vistula. The Kings of Poland at first issued several ordinances against them; but the Mennonites subsequently obtained some privileges. The warlike Kings of Prussia were displeased with them for the objection they had, on religious grounds, to become soldiers. They were tolerated and protected, but were compelled to purchase their exemption from military service by paying a tax to the cadet-houses, and were not permitted to acquire more land than they already possessed, it being feared that, from their industry and love of order, they might acquire undue extension. Any one however who was willing to waive this religious scruple, and consent to serve in the army, was freed from all these restraints.

The strict Mennonites regard agriculture as a religious duty, from which no one is exempted, unless by absolute necessity, according to the words of Scripture, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” As the difficulty of acquiring land increased greatly, and their numbers likewise, the Mennonites determined that those among them should emigrate who could not find a suitable settlement at home. On payment of a certain tax, and petitioning the Government, they readily obtained permission to emigrate.

We will pick up at this point in the next post in the series, but before we close, several statements are worth highlighting.

1. Von Haxthausen’s emphasis on the Germanic character of the Mennonite colony no doubt reflects reality to some extent, but as we will learn later on it cannot be regarded as disinterested, objective reporting. The baron has a clear reason for beginning his description of the Mennonites this way, one that will become obvious a few pages later on.

2. The comparison with other Germans, specifically those on the Volga River (i.e., roughly 500 miles northeast) refers to von Haxthausen’s earlier discussion of a group of German Lutheran colonists (1:349–51). The explicit comparison of the two groups seems clearly to favor the Mennonites, who are thoroughly German in all their ways, not a mix of German and Russian, as the other group was.

3. The description of the Mennonite vegetable garden singles out potatoes. If you recall, Benjamin was recorded as planting 12 bushels of potatoes in 1839 (here). David Moon also discusses potatoes as a diet staple in his 1999 work The Russian Peasantry 1600–1930: The World the Peasants Made. We will return to this subject in the near future.

4. One might suspect von Haxthausen of overstating the case somewhat when he writes that “strict Mennonites regard agriculture as a religious duty, from which no one is exempted, unless by absolute necessity, according to the words of Scripture.” He will make the same point later on, although with a bit more nuance than he displays here. Regardless of the overstatement, von Haxthausen is certainly correct that the Russian Mennonite communities whom he encountered (as opposed to the Danzig Mennonites who may or may not have been known to him) were agriculture-centered, even if not all members worked the soil.

As we read on in von Haxthausen’s travel journal we will not only discover on-the-ground details about life in the Mennonite colonies but will hear his glowing admiration of the Mennonite way of life. This positive assessment and high regard was not von Haxthausen’s alone but was shared by many others outside of the community who observed how the Mennonites prospered on the Russian steppe.

Works Cited

Haxthausen, August von. 1856. The Russian Empire: Its People, Institutions and Resources. Translated by Robert Farie. 2 vols. London: Chapman & Hall. Available online: vol. 1, vol. 2.

Moon, David. 1999. The Russian Peasantry 1600–1930: The World the Peasants Made. London: Longman.

———. 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.