Molotschna Livestock 2

In addition to the dairy cattle discussed in the prior post (here), Alexanderwohl landholders brought from Prussia or purchased horses to use in their farming operations. The cattle obviously produced milk, which was both consumed in liquid form and turned into butter and cheese, for consumption or sale. The horses were, of course, used as draft animals.

We cannot say as much about the horses as we did about the cattle. We do not know, for example, the exact breed(s) of the horses brought from Prussia; all we can say with certainty is that the twenty-six Alexanderwohl settlers for whom we have records brought thirty-three horses with them. In other words, horse ownership was slightly more common than cattle ownership, but only slightly.

Later in Molotschna’s history, during the second half of the nineteenth century, when grain cultivation became the central industry of the colony’s farms, horses played a crucial role. By 1900, Helmut Huebert writes, “the average 65 dessiatine farm [owned] eight to ten work horses” (Huebert 1986, 140). The situation was radically different in 1821, when Alexanderwohl was founded. At that time the settlers were only beginning to break prairie, and their initial fields were quite small. That explains in large part why the Russian government financed a maximum of two horses per farmstead (see here).

So where did the Molotschna settlers purchase the horses needed to sustain their farming operations? Two possibilities stand out as the most likely. The first is mentioned in several of Johann Cornies’s letters. In an August 1826 letter to a close friend Cornies reports:

In May, Builuk sold most of his livestock at the Tokmak yearly market for more than 300 rubles, and exchanged the white horse for a mare. This he now regrets. His grain is growing very well and he has mowed quite a lot of hay. But all of this has made him arrogant and hard to get along with, as you prophesied. Fourteen days ago, it was time for the horses to be taken to the yearly market, and matters reached a crisis, just as they had in Burkut about this time last year when you were here. (Cornies 2015,  73–74)

Apparently this yearly market, held in May, was the same one mentioned in the 1825 letter quoted in the previous post. Now we know the location of that annual livestock market: Tokmak, a large, non-Mennonite town adjoining Molotschna colony, roughly 8 miles northwest of Alexanderwohl (modern Svitle).

Cornies’s 5 October 1834 letter to the District Office reports:

In response to the District Office’s communication No. 3,149, dated 2 October 1834, I report that there are 120 old mares and twenty-one yearling mares for sale at the stud farm of my sheep farm in Iushanle. For several years I have sold my surplus mares and geldings at the annual market in Novo Vassilievka for an average price of 70 to 200 rubles per head. (Cornies 2015, 377)

I have not yet been able to locate Novo Vassilievka, but presumably it, too, was a Russian town not distant at which Mennonites and other farmers in the area bought and sold livestock. In all likelihood, this was an annual market in addition to the one at Tokmak; presumably farmers frequented the one closest to them. Regardless of the details, one thing is clear: the Alexanderwohl settlers had access to livestock markets where they could purchase horses.

A second possibility is that the settlers purchased horses directly from the Nogai, the seminomadic Muslim tribes that lived primarily to the south of Molotschna. Cornies knew more about the Nogai than anyone else of his day, and he described the various aspects of their life and culture in detail, including several sections on their dealings with horses:

The predominant occupation of the Nogais is livestock breeding, and horse breeding is most favoured though it is not very profitable. It was the predominant pursuit until last winter [1824–5], during which three-quarters of the horses were lost to starvation and snowstorms. They are passionate lovers of horses, knowledgeable about them, and they ride well. The Nogais are very skilled in handling horses, and especially in taming them, including also the wild horses that join their herds. Their saddles are very good, with upholstered leather cushions. Their Kalmyk-Kirghiz horse breed is only moderately handsome on the whole, but strong, enduring, and fast. The horse is very useful because of the great distances on the steppe, but on average the value of a horse is not more than thirty to forty rubles, and of a hide, one and a half rubles. At the same time, the horse requires a larger grazing area than other livestock. Large herds of horses, or tabuns, stay out on the steppe for the winter where they must seek their sustenance under the snow. Since the Nogais’ allotted land is not increasing anymore, as it did in the past, it could be much more advantageously used for field cultivation and sheep breeding. (Cornies 2015, 475–76)

Horse breeding leads thousands into a wild, wandering life, nurturing a delight in indolence and disinclination towards field cultivation. They pay little or no attention to the improvement of the breed. Horses of any value require large pastures, and this land itself could be used much more advantageously for increased and improved sheep breeding and field cultivation. (Cornies 2015, 488)

Although Cornies does not, to my knowledge, state directly that the Molotschna colonists purchased horses from the Nogai, it would be surprising if they did not. Granted, the Nogai did raise horses for food, as Cornies explains:

The Nogais much prefer animal foods to vegetables. They like horsemeat better than anything else and it is very warming in winter because of the heat it contains. The meat tastes slightly sweet and they eat the intestines as well. Usually they slaughter sick, old, emaciated horses, or those marked with some fault. Often, newly dead or fallen horses are beheaded and passed off as slaughtered ones. The men prepare a national dish known as Turama with sliced horsemeat, and it is consumed communally as a special sign of brotherhood and friendship. (Cornies 2015, 473)

According to Cornies, the Nogai ate primarily damaged horses, not the strong and the healthy. Thus it seems more likely than not that they sold some of the latter group to area residents, whether German colonists outside of Molotschna or the Mennonite settlers themselves. 

Alexanderwohl settlers did not purchase horses only in the year of their settlement; they also had to replace horses lost to disease or deadly weather, as Cornies recounted in November 1826:

Over the last four years, our region, and especially our community, has been afflicted by the almighty hand of our Heavenly Father. … Since 1822, swarms of grasshoppers have caused great devastation in our area. This has resulted in a serious shortage of food and fodder for man and beast. In 1823 and 1824, virtually nothing remained: no crops on the fields, no pastures for livestock, and very little hay. When I returned home from St. Petersburg in 1824, the livestock was so thin and wasted that I could not comprehend how it could still be alive. Swarms of grasshoppers darkened the sun, there arose dust clouds as dark as the darkest rain, and fierce winds kept anyone from walking along the street. … In February 1825, we had such a devastating snowstorm that all communications were cut and thousands of livestock died. The fodder shortage was so severe that many a villager removed the straw from his roof and fed it to his cattle. Because of the clouds of snow and dust, nothing could be bought at any price, even if it had been available at some distance from here. Such storms that varied in strength and duration continued from mid-February until late March. The temperature, at two to five degrees Reamur [36–43º F], was mild enough for the snow to stick so firmly to anything that it could be removed only with the greatest effort. The eyes of people and animals were glued shut almost immediately upon exposure to the storm. Horses in the yard on my sheep farm were covered with such a layer of snow that one needed to look closely to distinguish the front of a horse from its rear. I too felt the rod and judgment of our loving Father, losing more than 200 horses of my breeding herd, about 1,000 Spanish sheep, and several head of cattle. The damage came to no less than 30,000 rubles. (Cornies 2015, 93)

Of course, in the wake of such a significant loss of livestock, demand would have far oustripped the available supply, leading to higher prices for the scarcer-than-normal livestock.

Over time, Cornelius Krahn reports, the Molotschna colonists crossbred the horses they brought along from Prussia with local breeds, then increased the horse population substantially in order to meet the demands of their intensive grain-based farm economy. 

The horses that the immigrants had brought from West Prussia degenerated during the first decades in Russia. Efforts at improving them were made through the use of stallions of local breeds, which were obtained from the Don Cossacks and later from government studs. The product obtained through this crossing was a combination of farm and carriage horse. It was strongly built, of medium height and usually black or roan in color. With the increase of grain farming, the demand for draft power also increased. In 1836 the number of horses per farm in the Molotschna settlement amounted to 6.2; by 1841 it had increased to 8.4, by 1855 to 10.6. (Krahn 1955)

When Alexanderwohl was founded, each Wirtschaft owner presumably could survive with only two milk cows and two horses at his disposal. That would soon change, as both the farmers and their government supervisors sought to make maximum use of the formerly virgin land at their disposal.

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.

Huebert, Helmut T. 1986. Hierschau: An Example of Russian Mennonite Life. Winnipeg: Springfield.

Krahn, Cornelius. 1955. Agriculture among the Mennonites of Russia. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.