We filled in the picture somewhat in an earlier post that reported Elisabeth Unruh Buller’s death in Miloradovka, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, several thousand miles east of Waldheim in Molotschna colony.
A fascinating discovery in an old German-language newspaper from Russia allows us to fill in a few more details. As is usual, we begin with background. The Odessaer Zeitung was a German-language newspaper published in the Russian city of Odessa, approximately 250 miles west of Molotschna. Odessa was a prominent city at that time and was, moreover, a center of German immigrant life in Russia—that is, of all German immigrants in New Russia, not merely Mennonites.
Remarkably, the 2/15 May 1908 issue of the paper contains a letter from Peter Fast of Waldheim that may pertain directly to the Buller journey east to Kazakhstan. The quality of the reproduction (right) is not the best, and the German is difficult, but it is possible to get the gist of Fast’s letter. (Thanks to Jon Isaak, Director of the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies (CMBS), for providing the scan of the Odessaer Zeitung page.)
Waldheim, d. 21. April 1908.
Berichte hiermit, daß wir von Waldheim etwa zehn Familien mit anderen aus den umliegenden Dörfen, im ganzen so ungefähr an 40 Familien den 25. April von der St. Werchnis Tokmot Jek. Eisenb. die Reise nach der neuen Ansiedlung im Pawlodarer Kreise anzutreten gedenken. Wir sagen aber Europa hiermit Lebewohl, u. bitten alle Freunde u. Verwandte unserer zugedenken, denn es wird ein schwerer Anfang für uns sein.
Ich werde ab und zu kleine Berichte von dort einsenden, wie das Land dort ist, und wie sich das Leben dort gestaltet.
Ein mancher wird hier irre geführt und stuzig gemacht durch Berichte, wie die des Herrn Kliewer und Goßen und des Herrn Hamm in der “Friedensstimme.” Wer etwas aufpasst der merkt bald, daß genannte Herren noch nich alles wissen. Herr K. und G. schreiben, die Eide solle dort so sandig und locker sein, daß man die Wiesen mit 4 schlecht gestütterten Pferden tief herum pflügen kann. Das stimmt mir nicht ganz. In unserem Dorfe dort sollen sich drei Wirte Wohnungen gemacht haben von Wiesensoden; einfach die Wiese abgeschält und davon die Wände gemacht. Wenn der Boden wirklich so sandig wäre, und die Gras narbe so weitläufig, wie die Herren schreiben, dann würden die Wände ja nich stehen bleiben. Die Kirgisen wohne dort schon mehrere Jahre in solchun Wohnungen. Auf dem Land würde wohl schon zu leben sein, wenn die meisten Ansiedler nicht so unbemittelt wären. Daß es nur Fabrikarbeiter sind, wie Herr Hamm schreibt, entspricht nicht gang der Wahrheit, denn es sind auch viele Bauern darunter, die dorthin ziehen. Aber wo war denn Herr Hamm, als mit der Ansiedlunsgeschichte angefangen wurde; er hätte ja auch können besseres Land suchen. Jetzt, wo man Land gefunden, ist gut krittsieren. Es tut auch nichts zur Suche, denn die ersten Ansiedler an der Molotschna und auch in der alten Kolonie waren ja auch Weber und Schuhmacher, und trotzdem haben sie es zum Wohlstande gebracht.
Peter Fast.
***
Waldheim, 21 April 1908
Let it be reported herewith that we of Waldheim, about ten families with others from surrounding villages, in all about 40 families, on 25 April from the station at Werchnij Tokmak [?] Railroad will undertake a trip to a new settlement in the Pavlodar district. We thus say farewell to Europe and ask all friends and relatives to think of us [?], because it will be a heavy beginning for us.
I will send from time to time brief reports from there, how the land is there and how life there is arranged.
Some here are misled and taken aback by reports such as those of Mr. Kliewer and Gossen and of Mr. Hamm in the Friedensstimme. Whoever pays attention soon notices that the named gentlemen certainly do not know everything. Mr. K and G write that the earth is so sandy and loose there that you can walk around deep plowing the fields with four bad stud failed horses. That does not sound quite right to me. In our village there three landlords [hosts?] should have made dwellings from meadow sod; one simply peels off the field and with it makes the walls. If the ground were really so sandy and the turf so thin as the gentlemen write, the walls would not stand. The Kyrgyz people have already lived there several years in such dwellings. One would be able to live in the land even if most settlers were not so needy. That there are only factory workers being drawn there, as Mr Hamm writes, is not quite true, as many farmers are included. But where was Mr. Hamm at the beginning of the settlement history; he would have also to find better land. Now, where to find land is well criticized. It also not enough to search, because the first settlers at the Molotschna and also in the Old Colony were indeed weavers and cobblers, and still they have brought it to prosperity.
Peter Fast
Although some of the translation is uncertain, what we do know is both fascinating and enlightening. First, Fast reports that ten families from Waldheim will travel with a group of forty families from the surrounding area to a new settlement in the Pavlodar district of modern-day Kazakhstan. Historically speaking, this was a period of increasing immigration from various parts of Russia to Kazakhstan, as Russia sought to increase its influence over the area.Berichte hiermit, daß wir von Waldheim etwa zehn Familien mit anderen aus den umliegenden Dörfen, im ganzen so ungefähr an 40 Familien den 25. April von der St. Werchnis Tokmot Jek. Eisenb. die Reise nach der neuen Ansiedlung im Pawlodarer Kreise anzutreten gedenken. Wir sagen aber Europa hiermit Lebewohl, u. bitten alle Freunde u. Verwandte unserer zugedenken, denn es wird ein schwerer Anfang für uns sein.
Ich werde ab und zu kleine Berichte von dort einsenden, wie das Land dort ist, und wie sich das Leben dort gestaltet.
Ein mancher wird hier irre geführt und stuzig gemacht durch Berichte, wie die des Herrn Kliewer und Goßen und des Herrn Hamm in der “Friedensstimme.” Wer etwas aufpasst der merkt bald, daß genannte Herren noch nich alles wissen. Herr K. und G. schreiben, die Eide solle dort so sandig und locker sein, daß man die Wiesen mit 4 schlecht gestütterten Pferden tief herum pflügen kann. Das stimmt mir nicht ganz. In unserem Dorfe dort sollen sich drei Wirte Wohnungen gemacht haben von Wiesensoden; einfach die Wiese abgeschält und davon die Wände gemacht. Wenn der Boden wirklich so sandig wäre, und die Gras narbe so weitläufig, wie die Herren schreiben, dann würden die Wände ja nich stehen bleiben. Die Kirgisen wohne dort schon mehrere Jahre in solchun Wohnungen. Auf dem Land würde wohl schon zu leben sein, wenn die meisten Ansiedler nicht so unbemittelt wären. Daß es nur Fabrikarbeiter sind, wie Herr Hamm schreibt, entspricht nicht gang der Wahrheit, denn es sind auch viele Bauern darunter, die dorthin ziehen. Aber wo war denn Herr Hamm, als mit der Ansiedlunsgeschichte angefangen wurde; er hätte ja auch können besseres Land suchen. Jetzt, wo man Land gefunden, ist gut krittsieren. Es tut auch nichts zur Suche, denn die ersten Ansiedler an der Molotschna und auch in der alten Kolonie waren ja auch Weber und Schuhmacher, und trotzdem haben sie es zum Wohlstande gebracht.
Peter Fast.
***
Waldheim, 21 April 1908
Let it be reported herewith that we of Waldheim, about ten families with others from surrounding villages, in all about 40 families, on 25 April from the station at Werchnij Tokmak [?] Railroad will undertake a trip to a new settlement in the Pavlodar district. We thus say farewell to Europe and ask all friends and relatives to think of us [?], because it will be a heavy beginning for us.
I will send from time to time brief reports from there, how the land is there and how life there is arranged.
Some here are misled and taken aback by reports such as those of Mr. Kliewer and Gossen and of Mr. Hamm in the Friedensstimme. Whoever pays attention soon notices that the named gentlemen certainly do not know everything. Mr. K and G write that the earth is so sandy and loose there that you can walk around deep plowing the fields with four bad stud failed horses. That does not sound quite right to me. In our village there three landlords [hosts?] should have made dwellings from meadow sod; one simply peels off the field and with it makes the walls. If the ground were really so sandy and the turf so thin as the gentlemen write, the walls would not stand. The Kyrgyz people have already lived there several years in such dwellings. One would be able to live in the land even if most settlers were not so needy. That there are only factory workers being drawn there, as Mr Hamm writes, is not quite true, as many farmers are included. But where was Mr. Hamm at the beginning of the settlement history; he would have also to find better land. Now, where to find land is well criticized. It also not enough to search, because the first settlers at the Molotschna and also in the Old Colony were indeed weavers and cobblers, and still they have brought it to prosperity.
Peter Fast
 |
| A view from the train while traveling along the path of the Trans-Aral Railway. Photograph by Otebig at Wikipedia. |
Not to be missed is that these families were leaving Europe behind to settle in Asia. This move from one continent to another was no quick trip from Poland to Volhynia, for example, or from there to Molotschna colony. This was a journey of around 2,500 miles, not that much less than Peter D and family had undertaken to go to the New World nearly three decades earlier.
Interestingly enough, Peter Fast spends most of his letter defending the new settlement from various criticisms. The Friedensstimme was a German-language periodical associated with the Mennonite Brethern church; in 1908 it was published out of Halbstadt, in the northwest corner of Molotschna. Apparently several individuals—Kliewer, Gossen, and Hamm—had written critically in the pages of the Friedensstimme about the plan to migrate east.
They voiced two criticisms: the ground was so sandy (thus poor for farming) that four broken-down horses would be enough to deep-plow the fields; only factory workers were stupid enough to follow such a foolish quest.
Fast’s responses are to the point. First, the new settlers would be living in sod houses, which proved that the ground was neither sandy nor thinly covered, or else the sod walls would never stand. The fact that the Kyrgyz people (a Turkish group who lived to the south) already lived in such houses in that region disproved the naysayers’ claims. Second, the group migrating east did not comprise only factory workers; in fact, many farmers also were making the trek.
Having rebutted the gentlemen’s claims, Fast ends by reminding them (and the readers of the paper) that it is terribly easy to criticize but extremely difficult to offer a better solution. Since Hamm was unable to offer a superior option, one can hear Fast imply, he should shut his mouth. Finally, Fast ends with an appeal to Mennonite history. In order to make his point that finding land is only a part of the battle, he reminds everyone that the first settlers of Molotschna and the Old Colony (Chortiza) were weavers and shoemakers but that through hard work and intelligent industry they were able to transform those colonies into highly productive and prosperous areas. The point, of course, is that these new settlers expected to do the same in the Pavlodar region.
As intriguing as this story is, we dare not forget its significance for us. David Buller’s second wife, their son Heinrich and his family, and possibly his son Heinrich but at least his family were almost certainly part of this group of forty families heading east. They were among the ten families from Waldheim who journeyed 2,500 miles east to Asia to establish a new settlement and start a new life on the opposite side of the world from Peter D and most of the other children of David Buller.
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