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| Time to add a new decal? Russian Mennonite - Tatarstan |
The American press has finally discovered the story about Mexican Mennonites possibly returning to Tatarstan, Russia.
Please follow this link to Tim Johnson's excellent coverage of this story in the Kansas City Star:
Neu Bruderthaler's comments:
An excellent
article. Thank you Tim for taking the time to research this story
properly. It is very informative.
I do have some
unease with Dr. Koth's remark which might indicate a clearer connection and
gross oversimplification between the Russian Revolution and the immigration of
the Mennonites out of Russia and Ukraine than is the case. The primary
immigration to North America, as most Kansans recall from their state history
courses, immigrated in the 1870s when Alexander II's policies towards
minorities became increasingly irrational and ambivalent and Mennonites were
faced with the threat of losing their freedoms of religion, individual
conscience and from mandatory military service. Many Mennonites chose to
immigrate to North America while many chose to stay during this time and
negotiate further regarding these freedoms with the Czar. The farms of
those leaving were sold to either Mennonites who remained in Russia-Ukraine or
to Russians and Ukrainians desiring new farmland.
Arguably, it was the
unrest created by the Revolution and contact with invading German armies who
promised stability and protection during WWI and WWII that caused the greatest
impetus for further immigration amongst those who stayed. But land appropriation was only one concern
-- much more important was the general level of social and political violence
encouraged by the early Soviet regime and Stalin's administration, natural and
man-made famines, the imposed atheism of the Soviet state and the horrors of
the Holodomar -- one of the darkest periods of Ukraine's history.
