Russian History 7: Alexander I

We began the Russian History series with the founder of the Romanov dynasty, Michael I, whose rule began in 1613, then moved quickly to the dynasty’s most significant early tsar and first emperor: Peter I, or Peter the Great (1682–1725). Our real interest lies, of course, with the Russian rulers from a later time, a time that began with Catherine II’s rule in 1762. Therefore, beginning with this post and continuing through the rest of the Romanov dynasty, we will use a timeline that reflects our main focus.

As far as the Romanov dynasty is concerned, we can limit our primary investigation to a mere seven tsars. We have already covered the first two: Catherine II and Paul I. This post begins our survey of the next tsar: Alexander I, who reigned from 1801 to until his death in 1825.

Before we turn our attention to Alexander’s life, it is worthwhile to recall his importance to our family. In short, Alexander I was tsar when our direct ancestors first settled in Russia. He was tsar in 1817, when Benjamin Buller, father of David (father of Peter D, father of Peter P, father of Grandpa Chris), settled in a Volynian village named Zofyovka; Alexander was also tsar in 1819, when Benjamin’s father, also named Benjamin, and other members of the Przechovka Mennonite community emigrated to Molotschna and there founded the village Alexanderwohl, named, of course, after the tsar and emperor of all Russia. In short, although Catherine II was the first Russian ruler to welcome Mennonites to Russia and her son Paul I formally decreed all the privileges that they were to receive, Alexander I was responsible for welcoming our family into the kingdom and thus played a significant role in our family history.

Who, then, was Alexander I? Alexander Pavlovich Romanov (note the custom of using the father’s first name as the son’s middle name) was born on 23 December 1777 and thus was twenty-three years old when his father was deposed and then assassinated in one fell swoop. He died slightly less than twenty-four years later, on 1 December 1825.

Alexander is most remembered as the tsar who defeated Napoleon, which is the subtitle of Marie-Pierre Rey’s engaging and authoritative 2012 biography of him. We need not detail those events here, but it is good to recount a few high points.

The Napoleonic wars extended from 1803 until 1815 and involved at least seven different coalitions formed against Napoleon and his powerful army. In 1812, Russian refusal to abide by the trade restrictions that Napoleon had imposed prompted him to invade Russia. Napoleon entered Russian territory in June with 450,000 troops. The Russian army engaged in a strategic retreat, leaving scorched earth behind them as they withdrew further into the Russian interior. Moscow was burned, and still Alexander and his forces retreated. Eventually Napoleon’s supply line failed and his troops began deserting in growing numbers. With the onset of winter in late October, Napoleon was forced to withdraw. By the time he left Russia in November, starvation, desertion, and Russian attacks had devastated his Grand Armée, which now numbered only 27,000 men.

Remarkably, Napoleon was not finished and soon rebuilt his army. Seizing the moment, Alexander formed an alliance with Prussia and then Austria, then stubbornly pushed this Seventh Coalition to pursue Napoleon deep into France until Napoleon surrendered on 11 April 1814. All of Europe hailed Alexander for his role in defeating Napoleon (although Napoleon would launch one final assault in 1815).

Alexander’s war with Napoleon probably had little direct effect on our family, since it appears that there were no conflicts near the Przechovka area, nor did the French or Russian armies pass directly through that locale. Nevertheless, Alexander’s defeat of Napoleon did have a profound effect on our family history. Precisely how Alexander shaped our family story will be taken up in the following post.


Work Cited

Rey, Marie-Pierre. 2012. Alexander I: The Tsar Who Defeated Napoleon. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.

Russian History 6: Paul I

By all accounts, Catherine II (the Great) did not intend to be succeeded by her son Paul; rather, she planned for Paul’s son Alexander, her grandson, to become tsar and emperor when she passed from this earth. However, after Catherine died, or so the story goes, Paul was first on the scene in his mother’s office and was able to locate and destroy her will and testament. 

In the absence of any documentary evidence of Catherine’s wishes, Paul, as the only son of Catherine and her husband, Peter III, could logically and legally assert his claim to be the rightful Romanov heir to Russia’s throne. Fortunately for Paul, his son Alexander made no attempt to challenge this claim.

As is evident in the timeline, Paul’s reign was short-lived, lasting only from 1796 to 1801. The brevity of his rule was due largely to the tumult that characterized it. To put it nicely, Paul was eccentric and demanding of those whom he ruled; more bluntly, one historian describes him as a “wildly insane despot” (Lowe 1895, 3).

Paul clearly was a troubled individual. His mother Catherine had claimed that he was not really the son of Peter III; however, Paul’s physical and psychological resemblance to Peter left little doubt about his parentage. Still, having his own mother make such a claim publicly presumably increased the tension that already existed between them.

Another sign of familial dysfunction had been Catherine’s taking control of Paul’s sons, Alexander and Constantine. Shoving Paul to the side, Catherine raised and nurtured his two sons as she wanted. It should be no surprise, then, that Paul neither fit in well nor got along with others.

Paul’s reign came to a sudden and sad end when certain members of the nobility, military, and palace staff decided that enough was enough. On the night of 23 March 1801, the conspirators came for Paul in his bedroom—hearing them approach, he hid behind a curtain. When they spied him, they drug him out and, as Charles Lowe recounts, “forced him to abdicate—strangling him to death in the process” (1895, 4). Paul’s son Alexander knew of the planned coup but claimed afterward that he had no idea that the revolt would end in his father’s death. That might be true, but Alexander no doubt knew that his own grandfather Peter III had conveniently died in custody when Catherine removed him from power. In other words, he should have known how it would all turn out.

Although Paul reigned for only five years, he had a significant effect on the Mennonite experience in Russia. On 6 September 1800 Paul both formalized and expanded the promises that Catherine’s agent Potemkin had made to Mennonite settlers several decades earlier. Given the importance of this grant to Russian Mennonite history, it is worth quoting in full:

Charter of Privileges awarded to the Mennonites on September 8th, 1800.

We, Paul I, by the grace of God Emperor and Autocrat of aIl Russia.

Condescending to the petition of the Mennonites settled in the New Russian government, whose excellent industry and morality may, according to the testimony of the authorities, be held up as a model to the foreigners settled there and thereby deserve special consideration, now therefore with this Imperial Charter We most graciously wish not only to confirm aIl their rights and advantages specified in the preliminary agreement concluded with them, but, in order to stimulate their industry and concern in agriculture even more, to grant them also other advantages, as follows:

1. We confirm the liberty to practice their religion according to their tenets and customs as promised them and their descendants and most graciously permit them, when occasion demands it, to render the oath in courts according to their custom, consisting in a simple affirmation of the truth.

2. We confirm them in their incontestable and perpetually inheritable possession of the 65 desiatini of arable land assigned to each family, with the proviso, however, that under no condition may even the smallest portion of it be ceded to outsiders, sold, or any deeds be made in regard to it without the permission of the authorities set over them.

3. To aIl Mennonites now residing in Russia and to aIl those who come to Russia in the future, We most graciously grant permission to erect factories in villages and towns and to establish such trades as may be necessary for them; also to trade, to enter guilds and trade corporations, and to sell their products without hindrance according to the applicable laws of the land.

4. By right of ownership We permit the Mennonites to enjoy aIl the fruits of their land and fishing, to brew beer and vinegar, to distill corn brandy, not only for their own consumption, but also for retail sale on their land.

5. On the land belonging to the Mennonites We forbid outsiders to build boarding houses and taverns and leaseholders to sell wine and to operate saloons without their permission.

6. We assure them with Our Imperial word that none of the Mennonites now settled and those who may settle in the future nor their children and descendants will ever be taken and entered into military service without their own desire to do so.

7. We exempt aIl their villages and houses from all sorts of quartering, except when the troops march through, in which case they will observe the rules of quartering. We also discharge them from aIl crown labors, with the condition, however, that they properly maintain the bridges, ferries, and roads on their lands and also participate in the general maintenance of the mails.

8. We most graciously grant all Mennonites and their descendants complete liberty and authority to dispose of their personal property according to each one’s free will, with the exception of the land assigned to them by the crown. Should anyone, after having paid all his debts, wish to leave Russia with all his possessions, he then must pay three years’ taxes in advance for the property he has acquired in Russia, as declared upon conscience by him and by the village authorities. The property of a deceased whose relatives and heirs live abroad, which property according to Mennonite custom must be divided among those persons, is to be disposed of in a similar manner. The villages are given the liberty to appoint guardians according to their custom over the property of minor orphans.

9. We confirm the ten years’ exemption from taxes granted them previously, extending this privilege also to those who in the future may wish to settle in the New Russian government. In view of the fact, however, that an inspection found them in meager circumstances because of several years of crop failure and decrease of animals and because of their crowded condition in the Khortitsa region, it is proposed to transfer several families to other lands. Therefore, in consideration of their poverty and want We most graciously extend the former ten-year period of exemption for another five years to those who remain in the previous places and for another ten years to those who will be transferred. After the expiration of this period they shall pay for each of their 65 desiatini fifteen kopecks per year but be exempted from the payment of all other taxes. The loan extended to them, however, must he repaid in equal parts, in ten years by those who remain and within twenty years by those who are moved.

10. In conclusion of this Our Imperial Charter concerning the rights and advantages of the Mennonites, granted to them most graciously, We order all our military and civil authorities and government offices not only to leave these Mennonites and their descendants in unmolested enjoyment of their houses, lands, and other possessions, not to hinder them in the enjoyment of the privileges granted to them, but also to show them in all cases every assistance and protection. (Urry 1989, 282–84, modified)

History does not remember Paul I with much fondness or respect, but for Mennonites he proved to be a kind and consequential ruler who created the conditions for a century of prosperity on the Russian steppes.

Works Cited

Lowe, Charles. 1895. Alexander III of Russia. New York: Macmillan.

Urry, James. 1989. None but Saints: The Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia 1789–1889. Winnipeg: Hyperion.

Russian History 5: Catherine II and Mennonites

Catherine the Great (1762–1796) was, as observed in the previous post, one of the most consequential rulers in Russia’s history. Peter the Great (1682–1725), to be sure, turned Russia from a kingdom into an empire (see here); however, Catherine transformed that empire into domestic powerhouse and an international force. Thus it is no surprise to learn that Catherine’s influence extended far beyond those who were her subjects, even to encompass the Mennonites. In fact, Catherine’s foreign and domestic policies affected the lives of our ancestors and other Mennonites in at least two significant ways.

1. The Partitions of Poland

As noted earlier, Catherine was a key player in the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, and 1795). The First Partition was the most significant for our family, since it led to those Bullers living in the Przechovka vicinity to be transferred from Polish to Prussian rule. Most other Mennonites inhabiting Poland likewise came under Prussian governance at the same time.

This political shift did not lead immediately lead to change in the Mennonites’ daily lives; however, over time the Prussian authorities proved increasingly less sympathetic to the Mennonite refusal to take up arms against the enemies of the empire. This changing climate engendered a willingness among many Mennonites to consider leaving Prussia for a more welcoming location.

2. Emigration to Russia

Catherine’s greatest contribution to and influence on the Mennonite community was to provide that location where these people of faith could live in peace and prosperity. To be clear, Catherine did not focus her attention on the Mennonites above all others. In fact, her first invitation for new settlers was made to anyone who wished to relocate within Russia. She opened Russia’s borders shortly after she came into power, in 1762 and then again in a more broadly circulated manifesto in 1763. The latter document explained (see here for additional background and the translation of the full manifesto):

We, Catherine the second, by the Grace of God, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russians … As We are sufficiently aware of the vast extent of the lands within Our Empire, We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement. … I. We permit all foreigners to come into Our Empire, in order to settle in all the governments, just as each one may desire.

The manifesto goes on to describe the process that foreigners were to follow to enter and settle within Catherine’s empire, then follows with a series of privileges that those who relocated to Russia would enjoy:

1. We grant to all foreigners coming into Our Empire the free and unrestricted practice of their religion according to the precepts and usage of their Church. … On the other hand, everyone is hereby warned not to persuade or induce any of the Christian co-religionists living in Russia to accept or even assent to his faith or join his religious community, under pain of incurring the severest punishment of Our law.
2. None of the foreigners who have come to settle in Russia shall be required to pay the slightest taxes to Our treasury, nor be forced to render regular or extraordinary services, nor to billet troops. Indeed, everybody shall be exempt from all taxes and tribute in the following manner: those who have been settled as colonists with their families in hitherto uninhabited regions will enjoy 30 years of exemption….
3. All foreigners who settle in Russia either to engage in agriculture and some trade, or to undertake to build factories and plants will be offered a helping hand and the necessary loans required for the construction of factories useful for the future, especially of such as have not yet been built in Russia.
4. For the building of dwellings, the purchase of livestock needed for the farmstead, the necessary equipment, materials, and tools for agriculture and industry, each settler will receive the necessary money from Our treasury in the form of an advance loan without any interest. The capital sum has to be repaid only after ten years, in equal annual installments in the following three years.
5. We leave to the discretion of the established colonies and village the internal constitution and jurisdiction, in such a way that the persons placed in authority by Us will not interfere with the internal affairs and institutions. In other respects the colonists will be liable to Our civil laws. …
6. To every foreigner who wants to settle in Russia We grant complete duty-free import of his property, no matter what it is, provided, however, that such property is for personal use and need, and not intended for sale. …
7. The foreigners who have settled in Russia shall not be drafted against their will into the military or the civil service during their entire stay here. Only after the lapse of the years of tax-exemption can they be required to provide labor service for the country. …
8. As soon as the foreigners have reported to the Guardianship Chancellery or to our border towns and declared their decision to travel to the interior of the Empire and establish domicile there, they will forthwith receive food rations and free transportation to their destination. …

Catherine’s open-door policy prompted a significant number of Germans to emigrate to Russia, but few, if any, Mennonites were found among them. Presumably the temporary nature of the exemption from military service (thirty years, per term 2) discouraged Mennonites from accepting the offer. That all changed two decades later, when Prince Potemkin, representing Catherine, and the Mennonite representatives Johann Bartsch and Jacob Höppner negotiated special privileges for Mennonites who wished to relocate to Russia:

1. Free transportation and board from the Russian border to the settlement area.
2. The right to settle anywhere and pursue any occupation.
3. Loans to build houses and factories or purchase farm equipment.
4. Perpetual exemption from military and civil service.
5. Tax exemption for periods that varied with occupation and place of settlement.
6. Freedom of religion, except to establish monasteries.
7. The right to proselytize among the Muslims, but not among Christian subjects.
8. The right of self-government in agricultural communities.
9. The right to import family belongings duty-free.
10. The right to buy serfs and peasants for those who established factories with their own money.
11. The right to negotiate other terms with the Russian authorities. (Rempel and Carlson 2002, 263)

Obviously the terms given the Mennonites were largely the same as those granted to all foreign settlers. The one significant difference is the granting of perpetual exemption from military and civil service.

Because of Catherine’s granting of these privileges and protections, a significant body of Mennonites  (over two hundred families, according to Urry 1989, 54) moved from West Prussia/Poland to New Russia (modern Ukraine) in 1788–1789, and the first colony of Mennonites, the Chortitza colony, was established in 1789. Our family was not among that group; however, three decades later Bullers walked through the door she had opened and became subjects of the Russian Empire. Catherine was, without doubt, a pivotal and transformative figure in the histories of both Mennonites in general and our family in particular.

Works Cited

Rempel, David G., with Cornelia Rempel Carlson. 2002. A Mennonite Family in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, 1789–1923. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Urry, James. 1989. None but Saints: The Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia 1789–1889. Winnipeg: Hyperion.

Russian History 4: Catherine II

Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, also known to history as Catherine II but better known as Catherine the Great, was without doubt Russia’s most significant female ruler, not to mention one of Russia’s most successful rulers of either gender. Given her important place in Russia’s history, it is a little surprising to discover that Catherine was not Russian by birth.

Sophie (she did not become Catherine until 1744) was born in 1729 in the Polish town Alt-Stettin (modern Szczecin), but she was not Polish either. In fact, she was born into a family of German nobility, and her father Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, held the rank of general within the Prussian government.

Despite their high status, Sophie’s family was not affluent, so, like many people of that time, they sought to improve their situation by marrying a child to someone of both stature and wealth. With Sophie, they succeeded admirably. As a result of political maneuvering by others and her own personal charm with the Russian empress Elizabeth, Sophie converted to Eastern (Russian) Orthodoxy, took the name Catherine, and, in 1745 married Charles Peter Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp.

Catherine’s husband Peter was not merely the grandson of Peter the Great through his mother Anna Petrovna; he was also the nephew and designated heir to Empress Elizabeth. Therefore when Elizabeth died in January 1762, Peter (III) became tsar over all Russia.

Unfortunately for Peter, his rule was short-lived. Peter and Catherine’s relationship had never been close or intimate, and both partners had been regularly unfaithful. To make matters worse, Peter was by most accounts unpleasant and demanding, if not outright mean. Seeing an opportunity, Catherine and her loyalists executed a coup and forced Peter to sign abdication papers; conveniently, Peter died eight days later while in the custody of Catherine’s guards.

Catherine was now firmly in control of Russia. Regardless of what one might think of her tactics in seizing power or her personal morality throughout her life, one cannot dispute the fact that during her reign the Russian Empire was at its height. This was, in fact, the golden age of imperial Russia, a time of peace at home and power abroad, a period during which the application of Enlightenment ideals led to legal reform, economic growth, and state-sponsored expansion of education and the arts.

Catherine’s reign was also a period of steadily expanding international influence, which is where her significance for our family and other Mennonites comes most into play. We could write a great deal about Catherine’s achievements in this area, but we will limit our attention to only a few.

First, in 1768, just six years into her reign, Catherine took advantage of growing instability within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to assume control over the land and people of that kingdom. Her control was technically a protectorate, which means that she allowed some level of independence and local governance; the Commonwealth did not cease to exist. Nevertheless, Catherine maintained ultimate power and served as the final authority in any and all matters of import.

Not long after, in 1772, Catherine exercised that power by cooperating with the Prussians and the Austrians to take permanent control of certain areas of Poland-Lithuania. This First Partition of Poland allowed Russia to seize a significant amount of territory (36,000 square miles) from Poland’s eastern flank; Austria’s share was somewhat smaller in size but held a larger population than Russia’s acquisition. Prussia received the smallest portion but secured the greatest benefit. Not only was its new territory, which became the province West Prussia, more highly developed than the other areas; it also connected Prussia proper with its holdings in East Prussia.

While Catherine was carving up Poland, she was also in the process of expanding her territory to the southwest. Over the course of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 Catherine’s forces inflicted decisive defeats on the Ottoman Empire, so much so that the latter had to accede to Russia’s terms of peace. In addition to paying a hefty sum in reparations, the Ottoman Empire gave up control of the Crimean Khanate (not only Crimea but also land on the continent immediately to the north), the seaports Azov and Kerch, and the land between the Dnieper River and the Southern Bug (a major Ukrainian river west of the Dnieper), among other territories.

Finally, Catherine also played a crucial role in the Second and Third Partitions of Poland in 1793 and 1795, respectively. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth continued to experience unrest after the First Partition, and Polish troops engaged the Russian army at the outset of the Russo-Turkish War and then again in 1792. Frederick II of Prussia exploited the opportunity to propose another land grab at the expense of Poland; Russia agreed. As a result, Prussia seized 22,000 square miles, and Russia took another 97,000 square miles. Two years later, Russia, Prussia, and Austria agreed to dissolve the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth entirely and to divide the remaining land among themselves.

In November of the following year Catherine suffered what was diagnosed as a stroke; she passed away the following day, on the evening of 17 November 1796. Her thirty-four-year reign was the longest of any of Russia’s female rulers. Her influence on Russia’s domestic life and the international balance of power are obvious, but Catherine’s actions also affected the Mennonite community at large and our own ancestors. We will briefly detail Catherine’s importance for both in a subsequent post.

For Further Reading

Alexander, John T. 1989. Catherine the Great: Life and Legend. New York: Oxford University Press.

Catherine, Empress of Russia. 2006. The Memoirs of Catherine the Great. Translated by Mark Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom. New York: Modern Library.

Madariaga, Isabel de. 1990. Catherine the Great: A Short History. Haven: Yale University Press.

O’Neill, Kelly. 2017. Claiming Crimea: A History of Catherine the Great’s Southern Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press.