Although our immediate family left Russia (the Ukraine) in the latter part of the nineteenth century—1879, to be exact—more Mennonites remained in Molotschna, Chortitza, and their daughter colonies than emigrated to North America during the 1870s. Among those who remained, of course, were a number of Bullers.
Buller Time will identify Bullers who remained in Russia when we are able, but beyond that we will also seek to learn more about the context in which these Bullers and other Mennonites lived long after our own family left Molotschna. A time of particular interest, due to its temporal proximity and its reputation for terror, is the period of the Soviet Union. We might narrow this down further to the years during which Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron will and a clenched fist.
The Mennonite experience during Stalin’s reign was known to some extent, thanks to the letters that those living within the Soviet Union sent to loved ones in North America. Still, as valuable as these letters are for forming an accurate impression of that time and place, they are no substitute for the evidence and data on which historical reconstruction depends. Fortunately, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Mennonite and other historians began to enjoy greater access to documentary evidence of life—and death—in the Soviet Union.
Recently I stumbled upon a work that draws extensively from that body of newly available evidence to reconstruct in significant detail the Mennonite experience in the early years of Stalin’s Soviet Union. The work is a PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Alberta: Colin Peter Neufeldt’s “The Fate of Mennonites in Ukraine and the Crimea during Soviet Collectivization and the Famine (1930–1933)” (Neufeldt 1999). The dissertation abstract offers a helpful summary of its content:
This study investigates the Soviet Mennonite experience in Ukraine and the Crimea during Soviet collectivization, dekulakization, and the famine between 1930 and 1933.
The first chapter of this dissertation provides a historical setting of Mennonite life in Tsarist Russia and during the first years of Soviet rule. It briefly examines the establishment of the Mennonite community in Ukraine and the Crimea and the Soviet regime’s initial attempts to collectivize the Mennonite community in 1928 and 1929. There is also an analysis of Mennonite responses to early Soviet policies as well as the last-ditch efforts of thousands of Mennonites to emigrate to the West in the late 1920s.
What happened to Mennonites who were dekulakized between 1930 and 1933 is the focus of Chapter 2. More specifically, this chapter examines how dekulakization programs were administered in Mennonite-populated regions, the plight of Mennonite households that were disenfranchised and dispossessed of their property, the experiences of Mennonites who were imprisoned or forcibly moved onto kulak settlements, and the living conditions of Mennonites who were banished to exile camps across the Soviet Union. This chapter also sheds a revealing light on Mennonite participation in the dekulakization of their communities—it investigates the extent to which Mennonites were recruited into Soviet agencies and the Community party, and what roles they played in the exile and imprisonment of their coreligionists. There is also a discussion of the cost of dekulakization for Soviet Mennonite communities and whether their ethnic identity played a role in determining how severely the dekulakization process affected them.
How the Mennonite countryside was collectivized between 1930 and 1933 is analysed in Chapter 3. There is an examination of how Mennonite farmers were coerced into joining collective farms, and a description of their living and working conditions. The dissertation also explores how collectivization destroyed political, economic, social, and religious institutions in Mennonite communities, how new Soviet institutions usurped control of Mennonite settlements, and how some Soviet Mennonites adapted quickly to the new political reality and obtained positions of influence within these new institutions. At the same time, this study proposes that Soviet collectivization had accomplished that which wars, revolutions, and government Russification programs had previously failed to do: it succeeded in forcing many Mennonites to abandon their traditional way of life, which had often isolated them from the surrounding Slavic countryside, and to integrate into the surrounding Ukrainian and Russian populations in an unprecedented manner.
What happened to Mennonites during the famine of 1932–1933 is addressed in Chapter 4. This section discusses the food shortages and grain expropriation campaigns experienced by collectivized Mennonites. It also examines the relief efforts of European and North American Mennonites, the work of B. H. Unruh, and the material aid provided by Hitler’s government and German relief agencies that prevented the deaths of thousands of Soviet Mennonites. This work also challenges the applicability of the “genocide” theory to many of the regions populated by Mennonites. The thesis proposes that substantial financial and material aid from North America and Europe, high dekulakization rates in some villages, and the absence of actual famine conditions in other settlements, proved to be significant factors in contributing to the lower tallies of Mennonite deaths due to starvation than those often cited for the Ukrainian population. In short, this study proposes that: 1) many of the conclusions of the genocide theory do not apply to the Mennonite experience in 1932 and 1933; and 2) there was no “famine” per se in some Mennonite communities.
The final chapter summarizes the conclusions of the dissertation and also provides a discussion of the long-term ramifications of collectivization, dekulakization, and the famine on the political, economic, social, and religious institutions of the Soviet Mennonite community.
The first chapter of this dissertation provides a historical setting of Mennonite life in Tsarist Russia and during the first years of Soviet rule. It briefly examines the establishment of the Mennonite community in Ukraine and the Crimea and the Soviet regime’s initial attempts to collectivize the Mennonite community in 1928 and 1929. There is also an analysis of Mennonite responses to early Soviet policies as well as the last-ditch efforts of thousands of Mennonites to emigrate to the West in the late 1920s.
What happened to Mennonites who were dekulakized between 1930 and 1933 is the focus of Chapter 2. More specifically, this chapter examines how dekulakization programs were administered in Mennonite-populated regions, the plight of Mennonite households that were disenfranchised and dispossessed of their property, the experiences of Mennonites who were imprisoned or forcibly moved onto kulak settlements, and the living conditions of Mennonites who were banished to exile camps across the Soviet Union. This chapter also sheds a revealing light on Mennonite participation in the dekulakization of their communities—it investigates the extent to which Mennonites were recruited into Soviet agencies and the Community party, and what roles they played in the exile and imprisonment of their coreligionists. There is also a discussion of the cost of dekulakization for Soviet Mennonite communities and whether their ethnic identity played a role in determining how severely the dekulakization process affected them.
How the Mennonite countryside was collectivized between 1930 and 1933 is analysed in Chapter 3. There is an examination of how Mennonite farmers were coerced into joining collective farms, and a description of their living and working conditions. The dissertation also explores how collectivization destroyed political, economic, social, and religious institutions in Mennonite communities, how new Soviet institutions usurped control of Mennonite settlements, and how some Soviet Mennonites adapted quickly to the new political reality and obtained positions of influence within these new institutions. At the same time, this study proposes that Soviet collectivization had accomplished that which wars, revolutions, and government Russification programs had previously failed to do: it succeeded in forcing many Mennonites to abandon their traditional way of life, which had often isolated them from the surrounding Slavic countryside, and to integrate into the surrounding Ukrainian and Russian populations in an unprecedented manner.
What happened to Mennonites during the famine of 1932–1933 is addressed in Chapter 4. This section discusses the food shortages and grain expropriation campaigns experienced by collectivized Mennonites. It also examines the relief efforts of European and North American Mennonites, the work of B. H. Unruh, and the material aid provided by Hitler’s government and German relief agencies that prevented the deaths of thousands of Soviet Mennonites. This work also challenges the applicability of the “genocide” theory to many of the regions populated by Mennonites. The thesis proposes that substantial financial and material aid from North America and Europe, high dekulakization rates in some villages, and the absence of actual famine conditions in other settlements, proved to be significant factors in contributing to the lower tallies of Mennonite deaths due to starvation than those often cited for the Ukrainian population. In short, this study proposes that: 1) many of the conclusions of the genocide theory do not apply to the Mennonite experience in 1932 and 1933; and 2) there was no “famine” per se in some Mennonite communities.
The final chapter summarizes the conclusions of the dissertation and also provides a discussion of the long-term ramifications of collectivization, dekulakization, and the famine on the political, economic, social, and religious institutions of the Soviet Mennonite community.
As far as I can determine, the dissertation has never been published; fortunately, it is freely available online here, so that anyone who wishes can download and read it. I highly recommend that any Buller Time reader interested in the Soviet Mennonite experience read this work. It may be a dissertation, but it is clearly written and does not presume an expert’s knowledge of Mennonite or Soviet history. It is actually an enjoyable read.
I am roughly a quarter of the way through the work, and it has already challenged me to think about the Soviet Mennonite experience in new ways. During the dekulakization program, for example, Mennonites were both victims and victimizers; some Mennonites, whether out of self-preservation or ideological fervor, voted to dispossess and even exile their neighbors. Further, throughout the Soviet period some Mennonites joined the Communist Party and even served in leadership positions. We might be troubled by this reality, but it does no good to deny it; rather, we should seek to understand and appreciate the conditions that would lead many (including at least one Buller) to such a decision. Finally, anyone interested in Soviet Mennonite history would do well to read carefully the accounts of the “red wagons” that carried away so many Mennonite families under the most brutal conditions to live out their days, few though they often were, toiling in a work camp or gulag. If nothing else, reading of such horrors will engender gratitude toward our own ancestors for doing what they did to improve their, and their descendants’, lives.
In short, if you have any interest in understanding the Soviet Mennonite experience during the early 1930s, Neufeldt’s dissertation is an excellent place to start.
Work Cited
Neufeldt, Colin Peter. 1999. The Fate of Mennonites in Ukraine and the Crimea during Soviet Collectivization and the Famine (1930–1933). PhD diss., University of Alberta.
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