Why did over half of Waldheim’s early settlers leave the village? We do not yet understand why, but we do know that it was probably not due to an inability to secure their own land, since more than half of the group were already landowners. Social conflict may have been involved, though there is no clear evidence of the severity of conflict that would have warranted relocation. Thus we continue to look for possible causes.
John Staples, author of Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861, mentions in passing a possible contributing factor for the exodus that interests us.
The drought of 1848 temporarily increased the urgency of land shortages in Molochna, and that year ninety-nine families left Molochna and purchased land in the Kiev and Volyniia guberniias. The Agricultural Society vehemently protested such out-migration, complaining to the Guardianship Committee that unscrupulous Kievan and Volynian officials were luring Mennonites away with unfulfillable promises of cheap and plentiful land. Such Mennonites, the society complained, would soon return to Molochna, impoverished by this ‘swindle,’ and the Mennonite settlement would be forced to support them. What became of these migrants is unclear. Apparently by the end of 1849 they had indeed returned to Molochna, but there is no further reference to them in statistical reports or Agricultural Society correspondence. (Staples 2003, 125–26)
Staples is a careful scholar, so we should give this brief paragraph a close and careful reading to mine it for every detail that we can. That being said, we need not accept every claim that Staples makes, as the ensuing discussion will reveal.
1. The first detail that jumps out is Staples’s reference to ninety-nine families who left Molotschna in 1848. As we noted in the last post, the Waldheim–Heinrichsdorf group numbered around thirty-five families. What are we to make of the difference in numbers?
First, it is important to note that Staples cites his source, the Kammeral Liste (chamber list?), which appears in file 1392 in the Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, 1803–1920. The file is titled: Statistical Summary of the State of the Molochna Mennonite District, as of January 1, 1849—Population, Trades, Agriculture, Etc. Although we cannot say for certain without seeing the list itself, this is presumably a collection of official statistics for the year and thus reliable.
Why is this important? If ninety-nine families left Molotschna in 1848, then the exodus of our thirty-five was part of a larger trend. The Waldheim–Heinrichsdorf group was not alone; other Mennonites left Molotschna around the same time.
2. This conclusion receives additional support from another detail, namely, the statement that those who left purchased land in the “Kiev and Volyniia guberniias.” The out-migrating Mennonites did not settle all together but rather moved to several different locations. The two provinces mentioned were next to each other, with Kiev on the east and Volhynia on the west; Heinrichsdorf was close to the border between the two but on the Volhynia side. More important than geography, however, is the fact that the Waldheim group was not alone in moving back north at this time. Multiple groups moved to multiple locations in the Volhynia–Kiev region.
3. Staples seems to link the out-migration with the drought of 1848 (that is one to add to the list for the Russian Steppes series!), but this is doubtful. As we have already seen, the Waldheim group had been planning to leave at least since 1845. Common sense also leads one to think that none of these families left on the spur of the moment. There was property to sell and to pack, provisions to collect for the journey and the first weeks and probably months in the new locale. In all likelihood, those who left in 1848 had decided at least a year before then (before the drought) to return to the north.
4. Skipping over the Agricultural Union’s protests (that Cornies-led organization merits much fuller discussion than we can provide here), we note that Staples introduces another set of actors we have not previously encountered: “Kievan and Volynian officials … luring Mennonites away with … promises of cheap and plentiful land.” The idea that agents were recruiting Mennonite settlers is not surprising, since the same process led to Mennonites moving to New Russia in the first place. This does, of course, introduce another possibility of our understanding of the Waldheim group’s decision to leave. They may have been recruited to move by an agent from the Volhynian province.
In fact, an earlier post about Heinrichsdorf (here) provides evidence that this explanation is probably valid for the Waldheim group. Specifically, the Heinrichsdorf church book reports:
Permission was granted to them [those who wanted to leave] by the board of the Molotchna Mennonite District in 1845 to look for a place or residence. In 1846 under the Proprietor Arilnitzky they were granted a plan for leasing land for the purpose of founding the above mentioned colony. In 1848 they received permission from the welfare committee of the state council. Boron and Rohen received the preferred plan from Arilnitzky and drew up the final plans for resettling in 1848. In the following year, 1849, their colony was founded and formed.
Proprietor Arilnitzky, Boron, and Rohen were involved in the process but obviously were not part of the group leaving. What roles did they play? The plan to relocate was granted under Proprietor Arilnitzky, which might imply a governmental role; however, one might also imagine Arilnitzky as the owner of the land that was to be leased. We simply cannot know.
Boron and Rohen seem to have been more implementers than planners or negotiators. The fact that they received a plan and worked out the details for its execution makes them sound like agents. We are probably safe to think that these two men were the middlemen between the Volhynian landowner and the Waldheim Mennonites.
Whatever the details might have been, Staples’s description seems to find confirmation in the account of the Heinrichsdorf church book: agents were involved in facilitating the Mennonite exodus from the Molotschna—with one important exception: Staples writes of the out-migrating group purchasing land in the north; according to the church book, the Waldheim–Heinrichsdorf group leased their land.
Why is this important? As noted in the previous post, over half the group owned land in Waldheim. Their move north was not a lateral one, so to speak, exchanging land ownership in one place for land ownership in another. Those who owned land and moved north were returning to a tenancy status. This is an important consideration, since it hints that the move for the Waldheim group was likely not motivated by financial ambition. These Mennonites were not lured away “with unfulfillable promises of cheap and plentiful land.”
In the end, Staples helps us understand the specifics of the situation a little better, but his explanation does not provide a complete, or even a completely accurate, answer for the Waldheim group. From him we learn that the Waldheim exodus was apparently part of a larger movement out of Molotschna back to the north, as around sixty non-Waldheim families moved the same year. The Waldheim exit was not unique.
From Staples we also learn that the move north did not take place in a vacuum. Governmental bodies and private individuals—officials, landowners, and agents—were also involved. The testimony of the Heinrichsdorf church book attests to that activity.
Finally, Staples’s account also helps us to discover how the Waldheim group was different from the other émigrés. According to the Agricultural Committee statement cited by Staples (see Works Cited), the Mennonites leaving had been lured away by fantastic promises of land ownership. That may well have been true for many of the families relocating north; according to the Heinrichsdorf church book, it was not true of the Waldheim group, since they merely leased their land. Clearly, something other than financial opportunity was driving the Waldheim group to pack up their homes and relocate hundreds of miles away. We continue to search for that something other.
Agricultural Committee. 1849? Notizen wegen der Bittschriften einigen Mennoniten sich nach dem Kiewschen und Wolynischen Gouvernement zu ubersiedeln [Comments on the Petitions of Certain Mennonites to Settle in the Kiev and Volhynian Gubernias]. File 1429 in the Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, 1803–1920, labeled Mennonites Wishing to Migrate to the Kiev and Shitomir Gubernias: Policy Recommendations.
Staples, John R. 2003. Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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