Konstantinovka 4

We continue our brief series on Konstantinovka (I promise we will return to Franztal soon), which was prompted by the discovery of Heinrich Buller, who formerly lived in that village (see Trutanow 2015). This called to mind that a much earlier Heinrich Buller, son of David Buller and his second wife (after Helena Zielke Buller died), had moved to the same area in 1907. In fact, it seems that the earlier Heinrich lived in a village roughly 20 miles to the east of Konstantinovka, where the later Heinrich lived. 

We are using the occasion to learn a bit more about the Mennonite settlements in Siberia, to use the designation loosely. In fact, Siberia is technically the area of Russia east of the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean: the Asian portion of Russia. Kazakhstan is not part of Russia proper, although it was part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. However, the term Siberia was used to refer to the general area that included the Kazakh Steppe in the northern part of Kazakhstan, which is where our interest lies.

As noted in the previous post, chronologically speaking, the Mennonite residency in Siberia spanned roughly a century: from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the majority of Mennonites left the region for Germany. The Mennonite presence also extended across a considerable area of land. Helmut T. Huebert offers a helpful overview of the Mennonite settlements in Siberia:

Thousands of Mennonites know of Siberia only as a place of brutal exile, but it should not be forgotten that there were over 100 villages of Mennonites who voluntarily moved to this vast region. Principal areas of settlement were near Omsk (29 villages plus many estates), the Barnaul (Slavgorod) (58 villages) and Pavlodar (12 villages) colonies south east of Omsk, Minusinsk (2 villages) in Yenisei province, and later settlements along the Amur River (20 villages) in the far east. (Schroeder and Huebert 1996, 131).

Three of the areas mentioned above are shown in the map below.

Omsk, in the upper left, grew into a significant transportation hub when the Trans-Siberian Railroad passed through it in the 1890s. Mennonites were part of the growth of industry in Omsk. The arrow to the right points to the Barnaul, or Slavgorod, Mennonite colony. We encountered that area in a post on Oma Buller (here). 

The center of our immediate interest is the Pavlodar Mennonite colony, which consisted, according to Huebert, of twelve villages. As we noted earlier, Konstantinovka is marked by the yellow pin on the left; Miloradovka is the pin on the right.

According to Cornelius Krahn, the settlement

was established in 1906 by Mennonites coming from the various European settlements. The first settler to come to this area was David Cornies, who bought the equivalent of three quarters of a section of land on the Irtysh River near the city of Pavlodar. … The first settlement, Rebrovka, was established on the west side of the Irtysh River on purchased land opposite Pavlodar, which is located on the east side. During the 1920s the village Rebrovka was transplanted to the east side of the Irtysh in the vicinity of the Mennonite villages of Tursun-Bay and Mosde-Kul. The rest of the land was located on the right [east] side of the Irtysh and was obtained through the government free of charge similar to that of the Slavgorod settlement. The land was sandy. When the settlers came they found no trees. They raised wheat, oats, barley, linseed, and watermelons in abundance. (Krahn 1959)

Krahn goes on to list thirteen villages in the settlement, not the twelve one would expect based on the Huebert report. Comparison with a list prepared by Tim Janzen (here) leads me to conclude that Krahn includes several villages that should be assigned to the Barnaul/Slavgorod colony and excludes one village that was part of Pavlodar, Heinrich Buller’s village: Miloradovka.

Thus the complete list of twelve villages in Pavlodar included Sabarovka, Tschistipol (Reinfeld), Sofieyevka, Rayevka, Rovnopol, Olgino, Nadarovka, Miloradovka, Konstantinovka, Domninskoye, Borissovka, and Rebrovka. Miloradovka and Konstantinovka were, in fact, part of the same colony, which only raises the intrigue about whether the more recent Heinrich Buller was not so distantly related to the earlier Heinrich, son of David. We shall see.

Before leaving this overview, it is worthwhile to read more of Krahn’s description of the Pavlodar settlement:

Most of the settlers were poor and the pioneering difficulties were great. The winter was severe and the summer hot and dusty. The Mennonites planted trees around their homes. When P. F. Froese visited the settlement during the summer of 1924 he stated that a Mennonite settlement could be recognized from a great distance. He describes four types of villages in the area. The native Kirghiz population lives during the summer in a special summer aul, and during the winter in a dugout. The Russian village consists of whitewashed adobe houses without any trees or shrubs. The Mennonite houses were also built of adobe or unburned brick patterned after their European architectural styles, but they were surrounded by trees. …

In 1925 the population of the Pavlodar settlement was 2,736. A report of the administration of the co-operative, named the Cornies-Verband…, gives an insight as to what happened to the settlement during the Revolution and after. … Even in 1926 only eight of 12 village schools were operating because of lack of teachers, in spite of the fact that the settlement had a Zentralschule in Sabarovka started in 1918, which was supported by private individuals until 1924, at which time the Cornies-Verband took it over.…

The Cornies-Verband was represented in all villages, and its 450 members constituted 90 per cent of the families. A report states that many had only one horse and some did not even have one cow. The primary objective of the co-operative was to obtain loans through the government to improve the seed and the cattle and do business for the community. Four dairies, one in each of the settlements, were in operation in 1925. The reporter reveals in his concluding remark that the Cornies-Verband was being influenced by the Marxian terminology when he stated, “We would like to urge all readers loyally and without weariness to continue the work of the co-operative so that we can achieve the goal desired by our forerunner, N. J. [sic: W. I.] Lenin.” (Krahn 1959)

The report that Krahn references in the second paragraph and from which he draws is, remarkably enough, available online (here). The article, titled “Der Cornies-Verband, Pawlodarer Ansiedlung,” appeared in a periodical named Der praktische Landwirt, published in Moscow. This particular article carries no personal byline but is rather attributed to the administration of the association. 

The article probably contains additional nuggets about the Pavlodar settlement, but that must await a future post. For now we end with the arresting recognition that this Mennonite settlement, less than a decade after the 1917 revolution, was already compelled to profess their loyalty to the leadership and the vision of one Wladimir Iljitsch Lenin, leader of the Soviet Union until his death in 1924.

Works Cited

Krahn, Cornelius. 1959. Pavlodar Mennonite Settlement (Pavlodar Province, Kazakhstan). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.

Schroeder, William, and Helmut T. Huebert. 1996. Mennonite Historical Atlas. 2nd ed. Winnipeg: Springfield.

Trutanow, Igor. 2015. Konstantinovka—A Mennonite Village in the Soviet Empire: The Last Chapter of the History of the Mennonites in Russia. Toronto: Lulu.