I hereby submit to Friedensstimme a concise report on the events of the past year.¹ I start my report from late 1918, since it seems to me that, due to a lack of mail service, messages were sent to this paper rather very sparsely at that time.

We here in the Ekaterinoslav governorate have had to witness and experience many a revolution. Republicans (Petliurists), Makhnovists, Grigorievists, and finally also the Bolsheviks fought for power and more or less exploited the population.² The worse elements of the Russian population took advantage of the situation and endlessly terrorized their peaceful fellow citizens through robbery and murder. The German colonies suffered most since they were generally considered rich. We have seen the abomination of devastation, fearfully distorted faces, and horribly mutilated corpses. Hundreds saw death before their eyes, and many were only rescued from the fire like a brand. Many Mennonites, along with others in the evil times under the old regime, wished for a revolution to break with the conditions they believed had become untenable. But it seems to me that we will be a little more modest with such wishes in the future. It is not for believers to rebel against the authorities.

All of them, the previously mentioned parties, preached freedom, humanity, and fraternity, and all of them trampled on all the noblest feelings of humankind in an almost unheard-of way.

After the departure of the German military in autumn last year, the Republicans seized control of the country. It was a time of particular horror; many robberies occurred during this period. Probably almost all landowners were forced to place their estates under the protection of the villages as far as this was possible.

On October 28, Johann Heinr. Peters of Solenoye was one of the first to fall victim to the attack of common murderous thieves. The same robbers raided the estate of the late Jacob Is. Zacharias a week later and took money, food, and clothes. On November 23, Peter Froese from Paulheim (a small settlement around Nikolaipol) was beaten very badly.

At the beginning of December, the volunteers³ advanced from the west to Einlage and delivered a battle to the Republicans near Neuenburg (about ten verst from Chortitza), in which the latter lost about eighteen dead and eighty prisoners. It was a frightening night for the Neuenburger, but they came out of it, in sheer terror.

A few days later, the volunteers fired on the Republicans hidden in Alexandrabad from Einlage, but then retreated for good. The Republicans suspected, or pretended to suspect, that Einlage had taken part in the shooting, and launched an investigation, another name for which would be looting, searching for shotguns in the smallest compartments and cans. Many valuables, large and small, were “evaluated.” Part of the population fled.

And now the hardships for our Selbstschutz (self-defence units) began. They were not really trusted and it was demanded that they turn over their rifles. The colonists emphasized to the authorities the necessity of self-defence against predatory attacks and begged that the rifles not be taken. On repeated occasions they were given friendly concessions. The Selbstschutz was overall poorly organized: we lacked prudent, uniform management, military training, and discipline. It was very Mennonite. We were understandably very undecided in a matter that could have led to the killing of people under certain circumstances. The Mennonite, according to B. Unruh, is instinctively defenceless. Moreover, our district was always greatly affected by the various military movements. If any gained power, Einlage and Chortitza, as permanent positions on the Dnieper and on the railway and as suitable bases of operation, were always occupied very soon. The new rulers were not inclined to recognize another existing military organization besides themselves.

Therefore, rifles were delivered to the Chortitza area before New Year’s. Nikolaipol, which is less in the hot spot of military operations, could protect itself longer. Serious fights with smaller and larger gangs took place there, apparently with success. This success spurred on larger operations, and even entire military units (up to two hundred men) were resisted, in concert with the Selbstschutzes of the surrounding Russian villages (Smorid, Bashmachka, Veseloye and Lukashevka). On repeated occasions the Nikolaipol villages (Nikolaipol, Franzfeld, Dolinovka, Dubrovka, Morozovo) were bombarded, even from cannons. Whether the people achieved anything by their defence remains questionable. They had to surrender in the end, but their property was not ruined like in other places.

The Selbstschutzer Friesen (Morozovo), and Peter Enns (Franzfeld) were shot in action. Kornelius Lehn, son of the preacher Kornelius Lehn (Morozovo), was cut to pieces with a sabre. Heinrich Friesen (Dolinovka) only miraculously escaped certain death. His nephew, Abr. Friesen’s son, was maltreated and kidnapped, and has not yet returned.

Paulheim suffered very much because, as mentioned, it offered particularly stubborn resistance. Gerh. Friesen from there was killed and mutilated. Many were scourged, and some of them escaped death only in dire need. Many Selbschutzter fled, and in fear and privation of some kind just made it out with their lives.

Some of the things I am telling you here, by the way, already refer to the time of Bolshevik rule. A man from Nikolaipol said to me that there is now a general opinion that it would have been better not to resist. Another village (Gnadental, not far Krivoy Rog) welcomed the Bolsheviks with bread and salt when they moved in. It suffered remarkably little in return. A smaller village was said to have suffered particularly badly under the Bolsheviks because of resistance: all the girls and women who the fiends could capture (from the age of sixteen up to matronhood) were raped, some men shot, their personal property destroyed.

So it then may seem really questionable whether the resistance was of any use to us. What was hailed as a success was perhaps only an apparent, external one. And who wants to judge what may follow! It is difficult to separate appearance and truth. Perhaps no one can make a ruling pro or con, only time will tell.

The real looting began in December; before that there were only sporadic robberies. It was now happening freely and publicly, and on a large scale. During the period covered by the main report, Einlage and Chortitza suffered particularly. Many of the better houses have literally been looted. Their owners fled and had to lead an unstable and restless life. This included Pet. Koop, Korn. Martens, Korn. Hildebrand, Is. and Abr. Heinrichs, Is. Lehn, and Peter Peters (Einlage), H. Epp, Pet. Enns (Oberschulz [district mayor]) and David Penner (secretary), and others from Chortitza. Most of them returned home only now in August.

Paulheim was more or less evacuated. In mid-December there was a raid on the house of K. Martens, during which one of the robbers was shot dead. The uncertainty had become general.

In December, the authorities made attempts at mobilization, but without success. There was a lot of turmoil. The young people were indeed recruited, but only in the rarest cases did they get as far as the city, from where they immediately returned without having done anything. Even among the Bolsheviks, there was no shortage of individual attempts later on, but here, too, they were without results.

Lukas Thiessen has an MA in Cultural Studies and is employed as a research analyst on Métis issues.

1. B. Sch., “Chortitzer Gebiet, August 1919,” Friedensstimme, Sept. 7, 1919, 3–4. ↩︎
2. During the Civil War, Symon Petliura was supreme commander of the Ukrainian People’s Army, Nestor Makhno was commander of the anarchist Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army, and Nikifor Grigoriev was a paramilitary leader who switched sides repeatedly. The Bolsheviks fought as the Red Army. ↩︎
3. The term “volunteers” referred to Mennonites who joined the Selbstschutz (self-defence units) initiated by the occupying German military. ↩︎