Giesenger provides a helpful introduction to the contract, which I invite you to read on your own at the AHSGR site (available here, scroll down to page 13). Giesenger notes that the original German version of the contract is found in its entirety in Karasek and Lück 1931, 22–24. I offer Giesenger’s translation of that document in the numbered sections, interspersed with explanatory comments.
1. The aforementioned Mennonites and their descendants shall be forever free of taxes and seignorial duties, as well as of money payments in lieu of these, except for the land rent stipulated in this contract. They shall not be subject to compensation payments of any kind; shall not be required to provide quarters for soldiers or make money payments in lieu thereof, at the behest of their lord; shall not be required to furnish army recruits, as their lord’s subjects have to do, or make money payments in lieu thereof; and shall enjoy also all the rights and privileges conferred on Mennonites in the Emperor’s Privilegium.
The Privilegium was the charter of privileges promised to Mennonites by Catherine the Great in 1787 and ratified by Tsar Paul I in 1800. Under the terms of the Privilegium, Mennonites were granted a variety of special rights, including freedom to practice their faith without interference by the state church, freedom from the usual obligation of military service and support, and local and regional self-governance (for a complete English translation of the Privilegium, see Urry 1989, 282–84; see also Staples 2003, 72–74)). Here the Mennonite signatories are guaranteed those privileges plus several others.
2. The said Mennonites shall be free to sell their agricultural products as they wish and to transport them anywhere, without making payment of any kind to their lord or to anyone else on the lord’s domain.
3. They shall be free to pursue any trade or profession, without paying dues to a guild or to anyone else.
3. They shall be free to pursue any trade or profession, without paying dues to a guild or to anyone else.
As a rule, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries certain vocations were closed to those who were not members of the respective guild. Under the terms of this contract, these Mennonite families were free to pursue any profession they wished.
4. They shall enjoy undisturbed freedom in their religious beliefs and practices, shall not be subjected to pressure to become converts to another faith, and shall not be taxed to support the clergy of other confessions. In short, they shall enjoy the full religious freedom which His Majesty accords to all religions in his realm. They shall receive half a hide of land for a school and cemetery and the lumber needed for the building of the school.
Religious freedom was a nonnegotiable matter for the Mennonites, one of the two great causes for their wanderings. This generous contract confirms their freedom in matters of faith and grants the Mennonites the space and materials needed to establish a cemetery and build a school. It may seem odd that no mention is made of a church building, but presumably it was expected that this small congregation would meet in homes or in the school building.
5. They shall be provided with an exit road from their fields which will not be counted as part of their landholding and therefore not be subject to rent payment.
6. They shall be free to raise bees on their land without paying tithes or interest, as well as to erect a pottery. Regarding the produce of the bees which are now in the trees on their land they must negotiate with the owners of the bees.
7. To prevent damage to their gardens and fences, no one will be permitted to hunt with hounds over the areas belonging to them.
8. There will be provided for them and their descendants forever a free forest to furnish wood for fuel and lumber for building, fencing, and repairs.
We catch a glimpse of life in nineteenth-century Volhynia, complete with raising of bees, hunting with hounds, and using fresh-cut timber in a multitude of ways.
9. If one or more of them, or the whole community, should suffer serious loss through a livestock epidemic, they will be granted remission of rent, being required to pay in such a year only one-half of the normal amount.
10. If they should be forced to leave their homes through war or other disturbance, they will be permitted to return unhindered when peace has been restored.
11. The land will be surveyed and measured out to the German community by a certified surveyor at the landowner’s expense. The trees on the land will be left for the colonists’ use, except for the bees which live in them.
12. In case of necessity anyone may mortgage or sell his share of the land, provided that no rent payments are missed and that the seller does not leave the land until a new settler has agreed to take over and until the seller himself has paid all his debts to the community and to others,
Several points of interest here. Paragraph 9 deals with loss due to a livestock epidemic; there is no similar mention of loss due to crop failure. One might explain this omission in several ways. (1) The agricultural economy at Zofyovka may have been focused on the raising of livestock, not crops, so only livestock-related disasters were addressed. (2) Waclav Borejko knew that there would be crop-related disasters (i.e., flooding of crops) and did not wish to grant special consideration for such a likely occurrence. It may be that both reasons played a role in the terms of the contract.
Paragraph 12 addresses a different situation: sale of “the land.” It was possible for a tenant on Waclav Borejko’s land to sell his or her right to the land, but only after paying any debts and finding someone to assume the rental obligations. In other words, because such a one did not own the land, he or she could not sell it per se, only the right to earn a living from the land in exchange for rent payments to the lord.
14. They will not be drafted for the repairing of roads and bridges and are granted free passage, without payment, on all roads and bridges forever.
15. The ponds filled with reeds will not be included in the land measurement, but if they should ever be put into condition for cultivation, rent will have to be paid for them on the same basis as the rest, that is, four gulden for each morgen.
Mennonites in Molotschna could brew their own adult beverages; it is not clear if these Mennonites were permitted the same right. One suspects that they were not, that Waclav Borejko kept a tight rein on the liquor industry on his estate, no doubt to his own financial benefit.
After detailing fifteen rights guaranteed to the Mennonite colonists, the contract specifies precisely what land is in view and how much the Mennonites will pay to rent it.
The landowner further promises the colonists the following:
1. There will be divided among them 33 hides of land, each containing 30 morgen Warsaw measure, for which they will be expected to pay on New Year's Day annually 18 silver rubles per hide, that is, the equivalent of 120 gulden in the silver currency used here.
2. They will have three rent-free years, from 1 January 1812 to 1 January 1815. On the latter date the first payment of 18 silver rubles, i.e. 120 gulden, of land rent will be expected.
3. The milling of the grain for the colonist community shall not be done anywhere except at the lord’s mill, with payment of the required fee.
4. Although the colonists will live under the jurisdiction of the lord’s courts and government, they shall be free to elect judges of their own to adjudicate disputes among themselves, although the wronged party will always have the right of appeal to the lord.
5. As the lord has promised them free lumber for building, a section of forest will be assigned to each of them for this purpose. For firewood, however, they will have to cut their supply in the area assigned to the community for such use.
6. The lord will advance to each colonist 200 gulden in silver currency, which sum the colonists promise to repay in two installments, the first on 1 January 1814, the second on the same date in 1816.
Measurements of area varied across time and geography, so we do not know precisely how large of an area is in view; still we can make a reasonable guess. This contract specifies the Warsaw measure, in which each morgen (Polish mogrow) was 1.3829 acres (as opposed to the Danzig morgen, which was 1.372 acres; as you can see, the differences are not great). If this is correct, then the entire area comprised 1,369 acres (33 hides/Hube x 30 morgen in each Hube x 1.3820), that is, slightly more than two square miles. This would provide each family around 65 acres, although some of that was lost to community areas such as the village itself, the cemetery, the school, and the forest.
Calculating the currency is even more uncertain than the area, so we will note that the Mennonites did not have to pay rent for the first three years and that Waclav Borejko loaned each colonist the equivalent of 1.67 years’s of rent payments at no interest, to be paid back in full during the fifth year of their residency. Note also that the lord of the estate controlled the milling industry, and his subjects were obligated to use his services.
7. The lands to be used for this settlement lie on the left bank of the river Horyn, starting at the Balamuta bridge near the village Zadworse; Uroczysko, Polanka, Medwied, Sielec, Rozany, Zakradie, Orlowica to the Udryck mill, Podbozkowa Pllanka, Pohale to the river near the Zadworze gardens, and others which will be found suitable during the survey of this region.
This contract, to last forever, was prepared by both sides in the presence of witnesses and duly signed at Wysock, 19 April 1811.
Perhaps someone on the ground in the area today could identify some of these places. They remain for us intriguingly precise but completely opaque.
There in its entirety is the 1811 contract signed between Waclav Borejko and twenty-one Mennonite families, including Heinrich Buller and David Buller. What relation those two are to us we may never know, but at the least we understand a little more about Buller family life in Zofyovka, which came to include our ancestors Benjamin and Helena Buller, as well as their son David Buller and his future wife Helena Zielke.
Note
Note
* The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is based in Lincoln, Nebraska, but has a number of local chapters in the U.S. and Canada. AHSGR offers a museum in Lincoln and a variety of resources to view or buy on their website (here). I encourage all Buller Time blog readers to explore AHSGR’s website and even to consider becoming a member. (Sutton has a local chapter led by Loren Huber.)
Sources
Giesinger, Adam. 1977. A Volhynian German Contract. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Work Paper 25:13–15. Available online here.
Karasek, Alfred, and Kurt Lück. 1931. Die Deutschen Siedlungen in Wolhynien: Geschichte, Volkskunde, Lebensfragen. Deutsche Gaue im Osten 3. Leipzig: Hirzel.
Staples, John. Religion, Politics, and the Mennonite Privilegium in Early Nineteenth Century Russia: Reconsidering the Warkentin Affair. Journal of Mennonite Studies 21 (2003): 71–88. Available online here.
Urry, James. 1989. None But Saints: The Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia 1789–1889. Winnipeg: Hyperion Press.
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