This was one of the themes of Mennonites in the Soviet Union, a series of lectures March 27 and 29, 2014, at Fresno Pacific University. The speaker was Andrej Savin, Ph.D., a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"For a historian of the Soviet period Mennonites represent a truly unique subject that offers an opportunity to study a wide range of key issues of the domestic and foreign policy of the USSR," Savin wrote in an email interview.
Mennonites came to Russia beginning in the late 1780s at the invitation of Tsarina Catherine the Great to farm, mainly in the Ukraine. They were persecuted by Communist leader Joseph Stalin as part of his repression in the 1920s and 1930s. Many Mennonites were killed. Others were imprisoned or escaped to North and South America.
In some ways, the story of Russian Mennonites mirrors that of other Christian groups under Stalin. "Mennonites, like other religious minorities, during Soviet times were outcast," wrote Savin, who has also published research on evangelicals and Germans in the USSR.
As the Russian Orthodox Church increasingly worked with the Communist regime, however, Mennonites and Protestants were seen as more dangerous. "If the Orthodox church was willing to compromise with the government, the Protestants were actively trying to defend their rights," Savin wrote.
The lectures
- "The Religious Policy of the Soviet State and Mennonites, 1917-1991," March 27
- "The Ethnicization of Stalinism: ‘German Operation' of NKVD, 1937-1938," March 27
- "Pacifists in a Military State: Mennonites and Conscription, 1917-1941," March 29
- "The Brezhnev Era Through the Eyes of Brezhnev," March 26 (This lecture was sponsored by the FPU History Department. Savin is an editor of the papers of Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1964-1982.)
Another highlight of the visit was the March 29 launch of volume three of Ethno-Confessions in the Soviet State: Mennonites in Siberia. This book is a collection of documents concerning Mennonites that Savin found in Siberian archives. Previous volumes are an annotated list of files, published in 2006, and another collection of documents, published in 2009. All documents are in Russian, with a table of contents in English.
Discovering the Siberian story
The Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, located in Hiebert Library at FPU, began working with Savin on the Siberian Mennonite Research Project in 2004, according to Paul Toews, Ph.D., professor emeritus of history. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians such as Toews and Harvey Dyck of the University of Toronto have visited many archives in Ukraine, Moscow and St. Petersburg. "But who was going to wander around all those archives in Siberia?" Toews asked, not to mention Kazakhstan, Kirghistan and other parts of Central Asia.
Enter Savin, senior researcher with the Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Savin visited archives in areas where Mennonites had lived and identified more than 1,000 files, each file ranging in size from one page to thousands. "Because of his position with the Russian Academy of Sciences he has gotten into archives no foreigner would have access to," Toews said. The project is funded by Walter and Marina Unger with assistance from the estate of her father, Peter Dick, and the Kroeker Foundation of Winkler, MB.
During his lectures Savin spoke in his native Russian, while an English text was shown on a screen. His wife, Tanya, a professor of foreign languages, translated during question-and-answer periods, as did Russian-speaking members of the FPU staff. The March 27 and 29 events were sponsored by the California Mennonite Historical Society as part of its annual meeting, which included a banquet, and took place on the main FPU campus, 1717 S. Chestnut Ave., Fresno, CA.
The legacy of Mennonites in the Soviet Union is one of faith under pressure and survival. "Mennonites had a daunting experience," Savin wrote. "But at the same time, Mennonites have demonstrated that even a small community of believers is able to resist effectively the dictates of the state."
(This article appeared in Mennonite Weekly Review)