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Fresno, Calif.
Veil lifted on the Mennonite story in Ukraine, Russia

Paul Toews, left, and Peter Klassen, stand at one of two markers recently erected to commemorate Mennonites in Ukraine. Klassen taught at FPU in the 1960s and is retired dean of social sciences at California State University, Fresno.

Peter Klassen, Fresno Pacific University board member, and Paul Toews, director of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies and faculty member at FPU, were among a small group that participated in an international conference, May 26-30, 1999, lifting a 70-year veil of silence on Mennonite history in Ukraine.

“Khortitsa 99: Mennonites in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union” was in the city of Zaporizhzhia, now incorporating the old Mennonite village of Khortitsa. Three related events took place: an academic conference, an exhibition at the Zaporizhzhia Museum of Regional Studies and the unveiling of two markers to memorialize the Mennonite presence in the region.

The events brought together scholars from Canada, the US, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.

Mennonites first settled in the Zaporizhzhia area in 1789. They built thriving communities and made many contributions to the economic, religious, cultural and political development of southern Ukraine. With the onset of the Soviet regime, those contributions disappeared from the history of the region and with the Second World War, Mennonites also virtually disappeared from the region.

“Khortitsa 99” was the first public discussion of the Mennonite story in Russia and Ukraine in more than 70 years. At the academic conference 27 papers were read. Fourteen were prepared by Ukrainian and Russian scholars. Scholars used archival sources that have long been hidden and inaccessible to Western scholars.

A new generation of Russian and Ukrainian scholars are moving beyond Marxist interpretations of the Mennonite story in Russia. They recognize that the role of Mennonites, and other minority groups, was critical to the evolution of Ukrainian society. Their research and writing about Mennonites is a means to fill in some of the blank spaces in Ukrainian history.

There was a sense of openness and unity between peoples of different nationalities and religious confessions. That unity arose partly from the memory of similar experiences that engulfed many peoples during the period when Ukraine was under Soviet domination. Attending the various events of “Khortitsa 99” were representatives from the office of the Deputy Premier of Ukraine and many regional and local officials and from the Baptist Union of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. All embraced the Mennonite story.

Comments by a clergyman and a professor illustrated sentiments expressed by many: “I, as a Ukrainian, am ashamed of what happened to Mennonites in this land,” said the Orthodox priest of the village of Nieder Khortitsa, site of the unveiling of one of the memorial markers. “All confessions must be able to live in peace. I wish that Mennonites would return and live here in peace.”

Fedor Turchenko, dean of the history faculty at Zaporizhzhia State University, was more pointed: “A few months ago only a handful of people in Ukraine knew about Mennonites. For the past four days we have been discussing difficult issues in our history. After this conference, thousands, no millions, will know of the history of Mennonites in this country. What happened to Mennonites was wrong. They were driven from this region after living peacefully and making many contributions to the development of our state. We will restore them to their rightful place in the history of this region.”

FPU seeks to do its part to achieve Turchenko’s goal. Both Klassen and Toews are involved in the retrieval of records from various Russian and Ukrainian archival agencies. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening of these archives, it has become clear that there are vast materials offering a new basis for the study and interpretation of the Mennonite story in Russia.

The Center for MB Studies, located in Hiebert Library on the FPU campus, has already acquired significant materials from archives in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Odessa and Simferopel, Ukraine. The Center is working with these and other archives to retrieve the story of Mennonites in Russia and Ukraine.

Paul Toews

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Last modified September 28, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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