Introduction

In December 1919 representatives from the Molotschna colony in Ukraine authorized the sending of a “Study Commission” to Europe and North America to appeal for relief aid from their Mennonite kin and to investigate possible destinations for emigration. Over the next year, the original four-man delegation was reduced to Abraham A. Friesen in North America and Benjamin H. Unruh in Europe.

In a series of meetings in 1921, the Mennonites in Ukraine attempted to establish a “Union of Villages and Groups of Mennonites in Southern Russia” to lobby the government for Mennonite interests. In April 1922 the union was registered by the Soviet Ukrainian government under the government-imposed name of the Union of Citizens of Dutch Lineage in Ukraine. It focused on preparing for mass emigration, arranging relief aid, and supporting their several charitable institutions. Its chairman, Benjamin B. Janz, advocated and negotiated for its interests in Kharkov (Kharkiv), the capital of Soviet Ukraine, and in Moscow, the capital of Soviet Russia, often for extended periods. He also exchanged reports with the members of the Study Commission about these matters.

In another series of meetings beginning on January 1, 1922, refugees who had fled from their villages, estates, and smaller colonies to the Chortitza colony formed the Emigration Committee of the Refugees in the Chortitza District. Johann P. Klassen, a trained artist from the village of Kronsgarten, served as the secretary of the committee.¹

In their desperation to leave and their partial knowledge of the political and practical difficulties, the refugees in the Chortitza region felt that the Union and the Study Commission were not treating the emigration cause with the urgency it required. The Emigration Committee dispatched Johann Klassen to Kharkov and Moscow several times to consult and collaborate with Janz and to intervene with government officials to advance arrangements for their emigration.

On February 5, 1923, Klassen reported to representatives of the refugees on his most recent trips to Moscow and provided an overview of emigration efforts since the first meeting of the refugees in Chortitza. When he migrated to Canada with the second group of emigrants in July 1923, Klassen brought along a unique set of minutes, reports, and other documents, including this report, which record the experiences and perceptions of the Chortitza refugees. His report and assessment from a Chortitza perspective supplements, and at points challenges, the accounts of the emigration provided by or based on the reports from the Molotschna-based leaders who dominated the Union and the Study Commission.²

The Report

It was just before Christmas in 1921 when we, the refugees of the Chortitza district, held our first meeting to discuss the possibility of emigration, when we hurriedly filled out our forms and sent them with D. J. Zacharias to Molotschna, where he handed them over to B. B. Janz. Janz was very surprised that we of the Old Colony were so quick with the papers necessary for emigration and promised to submit them immediately to the government in Kharkov for confirmation. We know that we owe it to P. J. Baerg³ that our papers were confirmed so quickly and easily here in the volost (district) and in the gubispolkom (regional government office). We were full of hope and eagerly awaited good news from Janz in Kharkov and from our Study Commission in America.

Weeks and months passed. From the Study Commission came a report about Paraguay, which offered the most favourable conditions for Mennonite immigration. This news was received with great joy. Janz was in Kharkov. For months he had kept our papers with him, first in Molotschna and then in Kharkov, without submitting them to the government. He only dared to do it shortly before Easter. However, he had already received verbal permission for the emigration of the Mennonite refugees in 1921. The written permission, of which we have a copy, dates from April 24, 1922, thus only after Easter. As Janz later reported, just after Easter he approached the government in Kharkov about our emigration, where he had to contend with great difficulties. But the permit came and our papers, the first list of 2,774 souls, were confirmed. In the month of May, Janz came with the completed permit in hand to Chortitza, where he reported to the representatives of the Union.⁴ We emigrants or refugees were not admitted to any meeting at that time.

Then came the [Union] congress in Landskrone, where some delegates of the Union, who were also emigrants [from Chortitza], were also present.⁵ The Landskrone congress did not bring us much. We were only assured that everything was going well and that we could hope to leave in the summer.

Again months passed; summer came and the ships did not come. Now we suddenly heard that the Canadian Mennonites had formed a colonization committee [the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization] that promised to coordinate our emigration. Now suddenly they said that we should not go to Paraguay, but to Canada. The Canadian colonization committee had applied to the Canadian government for permission for us Russian Mennonites to immigrate, and immediately the conditions for settlement in Canada were presented as much more favourable than those in Paraguay. We were a bit surprised, but we soon complied, especially when we were told that we would get established farms in Manitoba. It would also be possible to settle in Mexico and Paraguay, but they said that would not suit us. Canadian Mennonites themselves had moved to Mexico,⁶ and Paraguay was too much of a wilderness. It would be better if we came to the established farms in Manitoba. We kept silent because we wanted above all to get out of this country immediately.

In August, Janz came to Chortitza for the second time with a report. Now the [prospect of obtaining] farms in Manitoba seemed uncertain. But we were assured that the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) still owned a lot of unsettled land in Canada. However, our efforts to find out where the land was that we were supposed to go, and whether this had already been determined, were in vain. We learned only one thing: that the Canadians had proposed the formation of a joint-stock company, the shares would be sold for $10 million, and then we would see miracles.

In September there was a congress in Osterwick.⁷ Janz was conspicuously reserved. Only this much was revealed: the Manitoba farms were out. There was nothing left for us but CPR’s land with scrub and forest in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. Even that would have been fine with us, if they had just been able to take us. But there was still much arguing at the conference about the order of the lists for the emigration. The Molotschnaers did not want to be left behind. Finally it was agreed that the existing order should not be changed.

So we waited again for the ships. But they did not come. We were told that the Black Sea ports were closed because of the cholera epidemic in Ukraine. Nobody thought it would be possible to get out of Russia via the Baltic Sea. So again a lot of time passed. Suddenly the news came that Froese and Klassen in Moscow had obtained permission for the emigration of three thousand Mennonites from “Great Russia.”⁸ They chose the route via Libau.

Now Janz also went to Moscow and it wasn’t long before he aligned completely with those in Moscow. The Moscow government immediately allowed the transit of the Ukrainian Mennonites. Mr. Owen, the official representative of the CPR, had called Janz to Moscow, and together they quickly devised a plan for travel to Libau, and from Libau across the sea. Janz sent us good news through Mr. Hofer,⁹ and we almost shouted with joy. At the same time Janz asked for a delegate of the emigrants to come to Moscow to begin the technical implementation of the enterprise. The departure of the individual trains was already scheduled.

There was a meeting of the board of the Union in Schoenwiese¹⁰ and I was sent to Moscow as a delegate. I went there and found Janz and Mr. Owen. I explained that we emigrants were ready to leave at any time, but was told that we should be patient for a while, because an obstacle had arisen, namely with the doctors.¹¹ I was sent back with the message that we were to be calm and patient, but that we should also be ready to travel and have lodgings available for the doctors. Now the emigrants were getting impatient.

It was not long before I was sent to Moscow for a second time, this time with the order to stay there and work until everything was ready. I went and stayed there for three weeks.¹² And what did I achieve? Everything went well with the Russian government. We submitted a new proposal, according to which the Canadian doctors did not have to come. The Russian government accepted it as well.

However, we received a message from Canada that the emigration was postponed until spring. The reasons were not given. That was a hard blow. Again some time passed. Then Elder Unruh¹³ came from America and explained some things to us. Now we saw where the obstacle lay. Over there with the Mennonites. But Unruh did not tell us everything. I had to go to Kharkov to find out more from Janz.

Then came the most recent Union board meeting on January 25 in Schoenwiese. From Janz and at this board meeting it became apparent that our emigration had failed, so to speak, with the American Mennonites. The Canadian colonization committee had fallen into disrepute and collapsed. Among the Mennonites themselves a strong opposition to our immigration was forming. But all this we learned only in bits and pieces; it was difficult, as no one really wanted to come out with the truth, and even today we do not know what actually happened there. The only thing we know is that we have not made any progress.

In vain had we hoped and believed for years, in vain had we put our full reliance in our organization [the Union] and those of the Americans. It was in vain that the Russian government had given us the completed foreign passes in the summer. We did not get out and are sitting where we once sat, only with the difference that we have become much poorer and more despondent. We cannot go on like this. This also became clear at the last board meeting in Schoenwiese.

The emigration effort must not be allowed to fall into the water [i.e., fail] over there, since we see no obstacles from our side. We are allowed to move and want to move, whether it suits our Mennonites in America or not. For all these reasons the determination grew to abandon the charity of our brothers and to set things up on a purely business basis through negotiations with a government, a corporation, or private individuals. Also, the voices saying that we did not wish to move to cold Canada, and that we preferred a warmer and milder climate, became louder and louder. The prospect of going to Mexico, which W. Neufeld described to me in Moscow, is becoming popular.¹⁴

Taking all this into consideration, at the last board meeting of the Union in Schoenwiese it was decided, at our suggestion, to send a new delegation abroad to revive efforts there. B. B. Janz had rejected the emigrants’ request that he go abroad right away to put things in order, so the Union decided to send a delegation of two men to America, one immediately and the other after the harvest, entirely at the expense of the Russian Mennonites. As the first candidate the Union proposes B. B. Janz. Others may be nominated, but the decision will be made at the general Mennonite congress to be held in Halbstadt in early March. The delegation will be given the task of clarifying everything abroad and then acting accordingly, whether in connection with the American Mennonites or without them. It is possible that we will have to carry out the entire enterprise ourselves. One way or another, much will depend on this delegation, perhaps our fate for many generations to come. Of course, it is desirable that we keep unity among us, that we stick together, so that our decisions remain valid for all of us and gain strength. Up to now our Chortitza colony has not had a representative abroad. We all feel this lack. Now there is an opportunity to fill this void. Therefore, let us elect a delegation to send to the congress in Halbstadt, with the firm intention to send it abroad as well, if necessary at our own expense.

For we want to emigrate. We hold steadfastly to the decision we have made and are prepared to do everything in our power to try all the ways and means at our disposal, and we will not give in until we have reached our goal. Only if after we have tried everything it turns out that our project is impossible, then will we stop, then will we stop talking and thinking about it, then will it be over – then will we stay here. But for now, we want to leave, to leave at any price!

Peter Rempel is retired from a series of roles with Mennonite agencies including the Mennonite Heritage Archives and lastly MCC Manitoba, where he was executive director. Presently he is engaged in researching aspects of the Russian Mennonite emigration of the 1920s.

1. See the biographical sketch of Klassen in Shepherds, Servants and Prophets: Leadership among the Russian Mennonites (ca. 1880–1960), ed. Harry Loewen (Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press, 2003), 213–28. ↩︎
2. The Johann P. Klassen collection is located at Mennonite Heritage Archives (Winnipeg), vol. 6513; the report is in file 5. For an introduction see Peter H. Rempel, “Records of the Emigration of Mennonite Refugees from Chortitza (1921–1923) from the Archives of Johann P. Klassen (1888–1975),” Mennonite Historian 45, no. 4 (2019): 5, 8. ↩︎
3. Baerg was an administrator in the Chortitza volost. ↩︎
4. Members of the Chortitza chapter of the Union were at this meeting on May 16 ↩︎
5. This meeting took place on May 29–31. Minutes from the meeting were published in John B. Toews, ed., The Mennonites of Russia from 1917 to 1930: Selected Documents (Winnipeg: Christian Press, 1975), 128–38, and in John B. Toews and Paul Toews, eds., Union of Citizens of Dutch Lineage in Ukraine (1922–1927): Mennonite and Soviet Documents (Fresno, CA: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 2011), 162–73. ↩︎
6. The mass emigration of Mennonites from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Mexico, in order to secure their autonomy, had begun in March 1922. ↩︎
7. This Union Congress was held on September 22–23, 1922. Minutes published in Toews, Selected Documents, 139, and Toews and Toews, Mennonite and Soviet Documents, 175–82. ↩︎
8. Peter Froese and Cornelius F. Klassen were the representatives in Moscow of the Mennonites in Soviet Russia. ↩︎
9. D. M. Hofer, from the United States, was a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker in Ukraine. ↩︎
10. The meeting was held on November 15–16. See the minutes in the Klassen collection and published in Toews and Toews, Mennonite and Soviet Documents, 182–85. ↩︎
11. The Soviet government insisted that it would not allow the return of emigrants rejected by Canada. This negated the plan to have Canadian doctors conduct the necessary medical examinations in Latvia. It was instead proposed that the doctors go to Chortitza to conduct the examinations, but this required entry permits to be issued by the authorities in Moscow and Kharkov. Klassen’s report about this trip from November 17–24 is found in the collection. ↩︎
12. He stayed from December 8 to 21. ↩︎
13. Peter H. Unruh was a prominent leader from Kansas who went to Ukraine as a commissioner for MCC. ↩︎
14. Wilhelm Neufeld from California had delivered material aid to Mennonites in revolutionary Russia in 1918 and was now accompanying a group of his relatives on their emigration. ↩︎