The previous post explored the types of houses that the first settlers probably built; this post continues in that vein by discussing the funding that they had for constructing those dwellings and establishing their farmsteads.
In support, every settler received from the high crown the lumber needed for a dwelling and 125 bank rubles for the purchase of livestock and farm implements. This advance was to be repaid without interest, according to the immigration edict, after the graciously granted ten free years over the ten following years.
received from the high crown. Tsar Alexander I’s imperial government provided the support detailed in the rest of the sentence.
lumber needed for a dwelling. It is difficult to determine with any precision how much lumber was needed for a dwelling. According to David Rempel, each settler family was given “100 rubles worth of lumber” (D. Rempel 1933, 91). An 1842 article published in the Russian journal Zhurnal Ministerstva gosudarstvennykh imushchestv and later translated by John P. Dyck (available online here) reports the privileges that Catherine II granted to the original Chortitza setters. These privileges included the following: “Each family received a loan of 500 rubles and 125 logs, four Sajhen … in length” (p. 3). The Russian sazhen (or sagene or sajene, here Sajhen) was roughly 7 feet, so the allotment that Catherine promised the earliest Mennonites in the 1780s was 125 logs of 28 feet in length. That seems like a significant amount of lumber, although we have no indication of the diameter of the logs. Further, we do not know if the first Molotschna settlers were provided the same amount of lumber. In the end, all we can safely conclude is that each Halbstadt settler received enough lumber (probably logs, although possibly cut lumber) to build a semlin-style house like those discussed in the previous post.
The community report does not discuss how the lumber would be provided to the residents of the treeless steppe, but a letter from the military governor Armand Richelieu (see further Halbstadt 6) to the Molotschna settlers offers some insight. The letter, which is reproduced in Isaac 1908, was written on 2 April 1804, while the future Molotschna residents were wintering in Chortitza, that is, before they had arrived at their new home. It seems that some had developed serious doubts over the winter about the suitability and desirability of the land designated for them. Richelieu wrote to allay their fears and to convince them to carry on with their journey. Within this context he addressed the issue of the promised lumber:
The wood and shrubs necessary for your … houses may be transported from the Dnieper to the Molotschna, a distance of only 60–70 versts [40–45 miles] over land [lit. “to the axis”], which is not considered a serious difficulty in our area. Large shipments of timber are often brought to the region from Kremenchuk, which is more than 300 versts [200 miles] away. (Isaac 1908, 9)
In all likelihood, Richelieu’s point is not that there were trees that could be cut along the Dnieper River but that lumber/logs from elsewhere could easily be transported down the river and then hauled overland the remaining 40–45 miles to the Molotschna colony. Indeed, David Rempel explains that Molotschna was chosen in large part because it was “situated near the Dnieper to facilitate the delivery of lumber” (D. Rempel, 1933, 89).
125 bank rubles for … livestock and farm implements. As noted above, each settler family was given 100 rubles worth of lumber to build a dwelling; slightly more was available for the purchase of livestock and farm equipment. We should probably not imagine that each family was handed 125 rubles in cash; rather, if the practice was the same as that in later years, then the figure is probably a rough average of what the original settlers received.
We see, for example, that in 1815 one Mennonite family settling in Russia owned no wagon, no horses, and only one cow; they were provided 215 rubles to purchase one wagon, two horses, and a second cow. That same year another family entered Russia with a wagon, two horses, and a cow; they were given 53 rubles so they could purchase a second cow (P. Rempel 2007, 103). We see a similar pattern in 1816, when a family arriving had a wagon, three horses, and three head of cattle; they were given money to build a dwelling but not to purchase livestock (104). The same scenario is depicted time and again over the next several years: the Russian government provided funding so that each settler family had at least one wagon, two horses, and two head of cattle (see P. Rempel 2007, 104–15, 145–55).
The 1805 Molotschna census referenced earlier (for the census, see here), confirms and supplements this picture. The census reports that each of the twenty-one families who settled Halbstadt owned at least one wagon; four families owned two. Similarly, each family owned at least two horses (average per family: 2.5 horses) and two cattle (average: 4.3), just as one would expect given the Russian policy described above. Families also kept sheep (twenty-eight owned by nine families) and pigs (thirty-four owned by eleven families), though in smaller numbers than horses and cattle.
Finally, the 1805 census also reports the farm implements that the Halbstadt settlers owned. In addition to the wagons, there were twelve harrows and ten plows in the village. Four families had full ownership of a plow, while twelve families reported having half-ownership of a plow; obviously, two families were sharing a single plow is such cases.
advance … repaid without interest. The governmental funding just described was not a grant but rather an interest-free loan. The Halbstadt settlers were expected to repay all the funding received: both the value of the lumber and whatever cash they received to purchase livestock and farm implements.
Earlier (see Halbstadt 4) we read of money that the settlers received when they first crossed into Russian territory: 50 bank rubles to each family (forage for their animals); traveling money of 25 kopeks for each family member twelve years and older and 10 kopeks for each member under twelve years; and a food allowance of 8 kopeks a day for each family member after arrival and up to the first harvest. There was some confusion or misunderstanding as to whether this earlier funding was a grant or a loan. According to David Rempel, although “the Russian authorities at Grodno, where the colonists received the money, had told them that it was not returnable,” “all this money had to be repaid by the colonists after the expiration of a ten year period of exemption from taxes” (D. Rempel 1933, 92 n. 52 and 91–92). In sum, the settlers were responsible to pay back both the lumber and farm loan and the traveling money that they had received earlier.
ten free years … ten following years. Thankfully, no interest was accruing on the total amount of the loans during a ten-year grace period. Further, the loan amount was not due all at once after the end of the grace period but could be paid back over the following ten years. As hinted at by David Rempel above, the settlers became liable for the standard property tax of 15 kopeks a dessiatine at the same time as their loans began to come due.
Works Cited
Isaac, Franz. 1908. Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte derselben. Halbstadt: Braun. Available online here.
Rempel, David G. 1933. “The Mennonite Colonies in New Russia: A Study of Their Settlement and Economic Development from 1789 to 1914.” PhD diss. Stanford University. Available online here.
Rempel. Peter. 2007. Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. Edited by Alfred H. Redekopp and Richard D. Thiessen. Winnepeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.
