The Russian Steppe 2

Several posts ago we described the changes in environment that Benjamin Buller experienced when he moved approximately 500 miles southeast from Volhynia to Molotschna, from the mixed forest to the steppe land. A line-drawn map helped us to identify the regional differences, but nothing beats a photograph (even a satellite one) for more fully visualizing the reality on the ground.

For example, the first satellite photo below shows the extent of the steppe. As indicated by the aqua shading, the steppe stretched from the eastern portion of Europe across nearly the entire expanse of Asia. Moon defines it more specifically as follows:

The steppe region of southern and south-eastern European Russia and Ukraine is part of a vast belt of semi-arid grassland that extends for over five thousand miles from the Hungarian puszta, across present-day Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and into northern China. (Moon 2013, 6)

The rotation of the map is turned roughly 60º clockwise from what we are accustomed to seeing, but the red arrow points to the approximate location of Molotschna; the small body of water immediately below is the Sea of Azov.

This map is revealing in several ways: (1) it shows clearly that Benjamin and family moved from one vast ecosystem (the forest in the north) into another (the steppe to the south), which no doubt required a significant amount of adjustment on their part; (2) it gives us some perspective on the vastness of the steppe, which crossed two continents and a distance of 5,000 miles; and (3) it provides us insight into a later aspect of the Buller family history two generations down the line—more on that below.

The second map focuses more closely on the regions in which our family lived: Poland, Volhynia, and Molotschna.

The star above the word Poland marks the Przechovka Church near Schwetz; the star on the Belarus-Ukraine border is the location of the village Zofyovka, where Benjamin and family first settled; the star to the far lower right is roughly in the center of Molotschna. 

This satellite photograph shows that, in many respects, the Schwetz area and Volhynia were more similar to each other than either was to Molotschna. Varying stands of forest spanned the entire north, which presents a sharp contrast with the essentially treeless landscape across the steppe. Zooming in even more closely (below) only reinforces the impression: Volhynia was a region of mixed forest, Molotschna a vast, open expanse.

One last satellite photograph before we close: a wide shot that encompasses most of the steppe that we saw in the first photo.

Our family’s homes in Poland, Volhynia, and Molotschna are still easily visible, but another star has been added in the far upper right. Comparing this satellite photo with the first one above shows that that star is still squarely in the steppe. But what does the star mark?

If you recall, Benjamin Buller’s son David (Grandpa Chris’s great-grandfather) was married twice, with the result that David’s son Peter D Buller had a half-brother named Heinrich. That half-brother and his mother (we do not know her name yet) did not emigrate to North America, but in 1908 they moved several thousand miles east to northern Kazakhstan, what the Buller Family Record labels Siberia. The star in the upper right-hand portion of the photograph is Miloradovka, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, where Heinrich Buller and roughly forty other Mennonite families settled (see further here and here).

Previously it was difficult to understand why so many Mennonites of that time would move so far to the east to what appeared to be a barren landscape. Now it makes a good deal more sense. As we can clearly see in the first map of this post, the northern Kazakhstan region is squarely within steppe land. So, in spite of the great distance that the move involved, it was environmentally less of a change than what their (and our) ancestors had undergone in moving from the forest to the steppe. 

The moral of this story is that the more we learn about the setting in which our ancestors lived, the more we can appreciate the choices and the decisions they made. This will culminate several posts down the road when we consider what relevance the steppe land had for Peter D’s decision to leave it behind for the greener pastures of central Nebraska.

Work Cited

Moon, David. 2013. The Plough That Broke the Steppes: Agriculture and Environment on Russia’s Grasslands, 1700–1914. Oxford Studies in Modern European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.