Franztal 17

As we work through the final paragraph of the 1848 Franztal Gemeindebericht, we are reminded in this post that Franztal was not an island, that numerous other Mennonite villages in Molotschna went through similar, if not the same, experiences as the early residents of Franztal. Fortunately for us, this means that we can deepen our understanding of Franztal’s story by comparing it to those of the other villages in the colony.

As before, we repeat the entire paragraph before offering commentary on the next sentences.

Because of the late sowing, only a little millet was harvested in the first year. The following two summers yielded harvests of only three- to fourfold at high grain prices: 1 chetvert [?] rye cost 20 and wheat 24 paper rubles. In the three years that followed, the locusts destroyed blessed crops. The harsh winter of 1825 and the year 1833 with its famine and cattle epidemic are still fresh in the memory of the settlers. As a result of the earthquake on 11 January 1838, at half past ten in the evening, the water in the well has risen significantly. In 1838 the four-field system and fallow land were introduced. In 1845 there was no hay, only sowing of grain. The years 1846 and 1847 were blessed harvests, but on 17 June of last year a hailstorm destroyed the whole crop. The storm of 25 December 1847 to 16 January 1848 caused many houses to collapse, whereby the affected families came into great need.

locusts The German word Heuschrecke means grasshopper or locust, two English words that refer to the same insect. The only difference between the two is that grasshopper is the term used when that insect is acting independently, locust when a group of those insects swarms. According to the Franztal report, the first year (1820) the farmers raised millet, and the two following years (1821 and 1822) they had poor harvests. In the three following years, or 1823–1825, locusts destroyed their crops. The Gemeindeberichten from other Molotschna villages offered similar reports. Halbstadt, for example, stated, “In 1823 and 1824 large swarms of locusts destroyed the small harvests and in 1827 a hopeful harvest.” The Muntau report remarks, “From 1822 to 1827 the locusts caused more or less damage [i.e., great damage some years and lesser damage other years]. In 1827, after causing great damage, the locusts flew off with a strong southeasterly winds, and since then, thank God, have not returned.” The Pietershagen Gemeindebericht distinguishes between the small locusts in 1823 and a larger type in 1827. Ladekopp adds that “the locust devastation of 1822, 1823, and 1824 resulted in a lack of fodder.” Münsterberg, Lichtfelde, Alexanderwohl, Mariental, Alexandertal, Gnadenheim, Liebenau, Wernersdorf, and Friedensdorf also refer to the locust plagues, which demonstrates how widespread and devastating the swarms were to the Molotschna farmers.

blessed crops. The German phrase gesegnete Ernten has been translated literally here (in all of the Gemeindeberichten the phrase is used only twice here and once in the Pastwa report), but it clearly is a reference to a promising harvest, as in the Halbstadt report’s “hopeful harvest” above. It is possible that the word blessed hints at God’s goodness in providing a promising crop, but we should probably not take that thought too far, since the locusts destroyed the blessing before it was enjoyed.

famine. The Molotschna reports likewise offer additional information on the famine (Hungersnot) of 1833. In fact, we already covered many of them in our commentary on the Alexanderwohl report. Those comments are repeated here, since they apply equally to Franztal.

According to David Moon, the disaster of 1833 had begun a year earlier: “In 1832 the whole of the southern part of Russia and the Ukraine had been hit by a serious harvest failure. The problem was exacerbated in many areas when the harvest failed for a second year in succession in 1833” (Moon 1993, 41). Other sources indicate that some localized areas, including several villages in Molotschna, were also plagued by cattle diseases.

As Moon notes, the problem was not a localized phenomenon. In fact, “all the southern, and some central, provinces, stretching from the Carpathian mountains in the west to the Caucasus in the south-east” suffered under extreme drought, hot winds, and widespread harvest failure. “Reports indicated that all hope had been lost of harvests of winter and spring grain in Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, Tauride, Caucasus, Poltava, Slobodsko-Ukraine (later Khar’kov), Voronezh, and Penza provinces, and some districts of Saratov province” (2013, 66). The Molotschna colony was located in Taruide guberniya (governorate or province) and thus was in the area hardest hit. 

The red arrow is pointing to the area of Molotschna colony. After Moon 1993, 27.

Alexanderwohl was not the only Molotschna village to single out 1833 as the worst year during the Mennonite sojourn in Molotschna. Other Gemeindeberichten gave a similar account. Halbstadt noted that 1833 was a year of complete crop failure (gänzlicher Mißwachs), and Muntau reported that “in the years 1833 and 1834 the distress exceeded all previous events.” Lindenau and Ladekopp also labeled 1833 as the Hungerjahr. Mariental, Alexandertal, Wernersdorf, and Sparrau described 1833 as a terrible year of hardship (schreckliche Notjahr).

Several of the community reports also reference the relief efforts undertaken by the government and wealthy individuals in the community to secure food and fodder to keep Molotschna’s residents and livestock alive. The Muntau report states:

The authorities established a chief commission over all the colonies, which made a loan so that they could purchase grain from distant regions. The commissions set up for the individual colonies were responsible to distribute the purchased grain among the destitute, but in such a way that they were obliged to repay everything later. 

The Halbstadt report describes a parallel relief effort: “Bread grains for the needy were purchased in Poland with funds borrowed from wealthy residents.” Moon confirms the Russian government’s intervention across the affected area, which included making loans to landowners, postponing the collection of taxes, allowing duty-free importation of grain, and giving peasants permission to hunt and sell wild game (1993, 42). In spite of all these efforts, many Russian peasants fled their estates illegally in hopes of escaping the famine. 

Johann Cornies, not surprisingly, offers us a thorough description of the situation. In a letter penned 26 August 1833, he writes:

This year’s total crop failure, particularly in all local guberniias, is causing serious shortages. Some of our neighbours are starving. In our community, starvation has been avoided by communal efforts and arrangements we find beneficial. It is still impossible, however, for us to sustain our livestock through the winter. Because no hay and virtually no pasturage is available, thousands of animals will be destroyed. This fodder shortage extends over an area of approximately 300 verstas [200 miles]. Several thousand head of livestock have been accommodated for the winter in distant guberniias at the frightfully high price of four to five rubles per sheep. But where will people without means take their livestock? I have provided for the livestock on my sheep farm by buying winter fodder. To protect almost 4,000 sheep with the Nogais and on my breeding farm, I have today also sent someone out to buy feed and pasturage in the Black Sea region near Kinburn, about 250 to 300 verstas away. We look towards the future with sadness. … The price of grain is currently at twenty-two to twenty-five rubles per chetvert for rye, twenty-six to twenty-eight for wheat, and twelve to fourteen for oats. Almost nothing is available of these grains and there is no barley. We expect that when deputies sent out by the community to purchase 5,000 to 6,000 chetverts of grain return, grain will be more readily available, but not at a lower price. (Cornies 2015, 336)

cattle epidemic. Along with famine, the community was plagued by an epidemic that ravaged their herds. In July 1833 Cornies reported to Andrei M. Fadeev, chairman of the Ekaterinoslav Bureau of the Guardianship Committee, “Cattle plague is raging in nine or ten villages, with great and painful losses” (Cornies 2015, 331). In February of the following year he wrote to a friend that in Molotschna as a whole, “A quarter of the horned cattle have died of cattle plague and, in a similarly tragic situation, pox has killed several thousand sheep” (2015, 357). It was not uncommon for livestock in the colony to suffer killing epidemics, either on a local or broader scale, but the famine of 1833 no doubt exacerbated the situation by taking its toll on already-weakened animals.

One can easily understand why such devastating setbacks were still fresh on the minds of the settlers even fifteen years later. The next memorable event was a natural phenomenon: an earthquake; we will examine it more closely in the following post.

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.

Moon, David. 1993. Russian Peasants and Tsarist Legislation on the Eve of Reform: Interaction between Peasants and Officialdom, 1825–1855. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

———. 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.