Mennonite Heritage Village
BOOKSTORE
204-326-9661

 Mennonites in Russia
 Title
Author
Retail
Price
Publisher
Click
to buy
1937 - Stalin's Year of Terror Helmut T. Huebert
$35.oo
Springfield Publishers,
Wpg. MB
Buy now
Description: 281 Pages
     Stalin's rule would forever etch itself on the pages of history as an example of the unimaginable lengths to which such suppression and destruction of huge segments of the population could be taken. For a long time there seemed to be no measures and resources left in the land to put on brakes, and call an end to the outright killings of many millions of Russians, including Mennonites. These are brought to our attention in the study undertaken here.
     The story of "1937" presents in the most painfully stark outline what this mini-holocaust, if you would, the Stalin purging policies came to mean for Mennonites in particular. In so doing, this account provides a more complete picture of these horrible realities than all other studies have done till now. - Lawrence Klippenstein, Former Archivist and Director at the Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg.

Am Trakt
CMBC Publications

92 pages, paperback   
     This booklet contains chapters dealing with origins, immigration, settlement, geography, villages, climate, cultural levels, and numerous agricultural practices, this book comprehensively documents the story of the Trakt Settlement in the Cent


An Introduction to the Russian
   Mennonites
Wally Kroeker
10.95
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Buy now
119 pages, paperback. 
     Invited by Catherine the Great to farm the Russian steppes – in exchange for exemption from military service – Mennonite emigrants from Polish Prussia and the Netherlands made their home in Russia.  Some remain today; many more eventually left for North and South America and Europe.  Nearly all retain memories and stories from that place... Kroeker tells it all with vibrancy – the overview and the memorable details.

Beneath the Cross Cornelius Martens. Translated into English by Helene Fast
19.95
Fast Publishing, 2010
Buy now
165 pages, paperback
     
This edition presents for the first time in English a classic story that was first published in German in 1928 and has been re-published in numerous editions in German, Russsian and French to the present day. It is the powerful autobiography of Cornelius Martens, set amid the tumultuous history of southern Russia in the early 20th century. It was an era of violence and chaos when the intolerant regime of the Czars was replaced by the even more brutal regime of the Soviets.
     Into this setting, ordinary people, touched by an evangelical revival, brought hope of a better way of life in Jesus Christ. Cornelius Martens was one of those ordinary people who made an extraordinary impact. By his own admission a violent and rebellious youth, he encountered the truth about Jesus from the lips of a young man he was intending to kill. Unable able to keep quiet about the Jesus who had changed his life, Martens became a travelling evangelist, preaching Jesus and facing persecution from villagers and bandits, from the Orthodox Church and from both Czarist officials and the Communists who replaced them.
     In the face of all obstacles, Martens and those like him continued to preach Jesus. In doing so, they laid the groundwork for the evangelical church in the Soviet Union, which survived a century of persecution to play a vital role in the transformation of modern Russia.
     Original ink illustrations by Chris Kielesinski help to make this English translation of a memorable book a classic in its own right. -- James R. Coggins

Building on the Past Rudy P. Friesen
45.00
Raduga Publications
Buy now
742 pages, paperback. 
     This book explores the architecture and landscape of numerous colonies, villages, estates, forestry camps and cities in southern Russia, now eastern Ukraine, where Mennonites once lived.  These places still tell the dramatic story of a people who emerged from modest agrarian beginnings, flowered into a proud and prosperous society, then scattered to the winds.  It is a story that continues to unfold in new and surprising ways.

Danzig Mennonite Church, The H.G. Mannhardt
31.99
Pandora Press
Buy now
286 pages, paperback. 
     For scholars of Mennonite history, this volume bridges the gap from the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century to the larger and better-researched Mennonite communities of Russia founded in the late 1700s by the Mennonites of the Vistula Delta region.  This volume also reminds contemporary urban Mennonites that some Mennonites have always lived in cities.

Escape Across the Amur River Abram Friesen
and Abram J. Loewen
10.00
CMBC Publications
Buy now
60 pages, paperback. 
     By relocating to the far eastern part of the Soviet empire, Mennonites had hoped to escape from the adverse political, economical, and religious policies of the Communist government.  That did not last long, and already in the winter of 1927, while settlers were still arriving, some daring and adventuresome young men escaped over the frozen Amur River.  Smaller and larger groups followed in the next few years.  The dangerous and daring escape of 217 people on 60 sleighs in December 1930 is described in this account.

Family Torn Apart, A Justina D. Neufeld
28.50
Pandora Press
Buy now
240 pages, paperback. 
     This book documents the harrowing story of one family’s flight from Soviet Ukraine in the early years of the Second World War.  In retelling her story, the author describes the feelings of loss and abandonment she felt as she watched her father and brothers disappear forever and the rest of her family being scattered across Eastern Europe and Russia.

Favoured among Women: a biographical novel; the story of Greta Enns - Volume 1 Hedy Leonora Martens
25.00
CMU Press, 2010
Buy now
425 pages, paperback.
     This vibrant and unusual re-creation of one woman's life is the result of years of painstaking research and interviews. The book combines biography, personal reflection, poetry, historical commentary and vivid storytelling. We meet Greta Enns as a curious, observant, and compassionate child born in peaceful times which are soon torn asunder. Her life becomes one of hardship and the utter confusion of war, but one also marked by profound religious hope, as well as love and joy..... a novel both epic and intimate, dramatically presenting daily life in Leninist and Stalinist Russia in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Four Years Less a Day Henry Bergen
25.99
Trafford Publishing
Buy now
317 pages, paperback. 
     A young boy’s story of life beginning in Stalin’s Ukraine and subsequent flight to escape persecution.  After four years of avoiding bombs, bullets and repatriation, the family arrives in Canada.

From Danzig to Russia Peter Hildebrand
9.99
CMBC
Buy now
62 pages, paperback. 
     This book details the first emigration of Mennonites from the Danzig region to Southern Russia, and includes chapters on preparation involved, the emigration itself, colonization and discord in the Mennonite communities.

From Kleefeld with Love John A. Harder
25.99
Pandora Press
Buy now
197 pages, paperback. 
     The letters in this collection were written by Mennonite women during the onset of Soviet Russia’s most turbulent years, 1925 to 1933.  Most were written by Mariechen Harder to Abram and Anna Harder and her family, her relatives who had left Kleefeld for Canada in 1924.

From the Dnieper to the Paraguay River Victor Janzen.
Foreword by Elizabeth Peters
25.00
Self-published, 1995
Buy now
180 pages, paperback
     Many books have been written about the experiences of the Mennonites in the Soviet Union, but the flight to Germany and the emigration to Paraguay have hardly been dealt with in connection. Here we now have a rare work before us, which tells from personal experience of a group of Mennonites, who could not come to Canada directly, but ventured, with little strength, but great courage, to migrate to an unknown land - Paraguay.

Growing Up in Turbulent Times Waldemar Janzen
29.00
CMU Press
Buy now
279 pages, paperback. 
     While written primarily for his extended family, Professor Janzen's memoirs will also be of interest to his many students, friends, and colleagues.  Written in an even narrative style, this book tells the story of a young man in turbulent times: loss of father, flight from war and possible capture, life in a new country, and education for a life of service.

High Hopes & Shattered Dreams Helene Penner Kroeger
22.95
self-published
Buy now
230 pages, paperback. 
     The hopes of the people of the Mennonite villages were high when they planned to leave the land they had lived in for so many years in order to escape the political upheaval and immigrate to Canada for a better way of life.  So many times they were ready to leave, full of hope, only to have their dreams dashed by not receiving their passes.  Here also, the doors closed and they had to stay behind while some more fortunate family members, friends and relatives made it out of the country.  In the letters written from the people whose dreams had been shattered to the more fortunate members living in Canada, the story of High Hopes and Shattered Dreams is told.

Homeland for Strangers, A Peter J. Klassen
12.00
Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies
Buy now
95 pages, paperback. 
     From Reformation times to World War II – a full four centuries – the Vistula River Basin provided a homeland for numerous Mennonite communities.  The large majority of these people had their roots in the Low Countries; they had come to seek religious freedom and economic opportunity in the lands along the Vistula.  This book documents the historical Mennonite journey and contains many helpful notes and indices.

Imagined Homes Hans Werner
29.95
U of MB Press
Buy now
297 pages, paperback. 
     This book examines two migrations of similar groups of ethnic Germans from the Soviet Union during the Cold War period.  One group came to Canada in the late 1940s and early 1950s; the other went to West Germany in the early 1970s.  Each group's process of integration into new urban environments was influenced by their different expectations... as Hans Werner shows in a cross-cultural comparative framework, the ways in which the two receiving societies perceived immigrants, and the degree to which secularization and the sexual and media revolutions influenced these perceptions, were of critical importance in the immigrant experience.

In Defense of Privilege Abraham Friesen
29.99
Kindred Production
Buy now
520 pages, paperback. 
     The transition from being a severely-persecuted religious minority in the Reformation era to becoming a privileged ethnic minority in the 19th-century Russian empire makes the Dutch-Polish-Russian Mennonite stories a very intriguing one.  Yet the privileges granted these Mennonites by Russia in 1800 came under attack by imperial authorities with the government's decision to implement russification policies in the 1860s.  This study documents how the Mennonites fought back, resisting the government's attempt to assimilate them and to restrict their religious freedom.

Johann Cornies David H. Epp
9.99
CMBC Public
Buy now
135 pages, paperback. 
     This book is a historical sketch of one of the most well-known and admired Russian servitors and Mennonite heroes, and includes chapters on his childhood, his years as a community servant and educator, and his work with other ethnic groups.

Kuban Settlement,The C.P. Toews, Heinrich Friesen,
Arnold Dyck
11.99
CMBC Publications
Buy now
91 pages, paperback. 
     During the time when Mennonite colonization was flourishing in Russia, two stately Mennonite villages were situated along the left bank of the Kuban River within the Kuban area, once part of the province of Caucasus.  This book contains a comprehensive, descriptive history  

Memrik
CMBC Publications
103 pages, paperback. 
     This book documents the legacy of one of the oldest daughter colonies of Molotschna in South Russia, including information on its settlement, economic development, schools, individual villages, the Memrik-Kalinovo Mennonite Congregation, and the Mennonite Brethren Church in Kotliarevka.

Mennonite Historical Atlas William Schroeder and
Helmut T. Huebert
25.00
Buy now

183 pages, paperback.    
     A comprehensive guide that contains 110 pages of maps, 42 pages of descriptive text, glossaries and indices pertaining to Mennonite settlements around the globe.


Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788-1828 Peter Rempel
35.00
Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society
Buy now
249 pages, paperback. 
     This current work presents data on the Mennonite families that moved to New Russia in the mass migration waves of the years 1789-1828.  The work is based on documents shown to the author in the Russian State Historical Archives (St. Petersburg) from the Ministry of Internal affairs fonds and other lists.

Mennonites in Early Modern
Poland & Prussia
Peter J. Klassen
50.00
Buy now
Description: Hard Cover - 260 pages.
     At a time when religious conflicts and persecution plagued early modern Europe, Poland and Prussia were havens for Mennonites and other religious minorities. Noted Anabaptist scholar Peter J. Klassen examines this extraordinary example of religious tolerance.
     Through extensive archival research in Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands, Klassen unearths rich material that has rarely, if ever, been studied. He demonstrates how the interaction of religious, political, and economic factors created a situation in Poland and Prussia that permitted a diversity of religious beliefs and practices.
     Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia focuses on the large Mennonite community in these countries. Klassen reveals how the Anabaptist groups were treated and explores whether the uncommon religious freedom they enjoyed gave rise to a flourishing of their faith or a falling away from its central tenets.

Mennonites in the Cities of
   Imperial Russia Vol 1.
Helmut T. Huebert
50.00
Springfield Publishers
Buy now
456 pages, paperback.
     A valuable tool for research into the lives of many Mennonites who lived and worked in the fascinating world of the cities of Imperial Russia.  This volume includes chapters on Baravenko, Berdyansk, Melitopol, Millerovo, Orechov, Pologi, Sevastopol, and Simferopol and contains maps, histories, lists and pictures of the cities, their institutions, and their people.

Molotschna Historical Atlas Helmut T. Huebert
35.00
Springfield Publishers
Buy now
222 pages, paperback. 
     This atlas is produced to commemorate the bicentenary of the founding of the Molotschna Colony in South Russia in 1804.  But this is not meant to be a dry collection of ancient maps and recounting of irrelevant history.  This atlas has been published to honour those whose blood, sweat and tears initially established the Molotschna, rising up from the arid windswept steppes to become the keystone of the “Mennonite Commonwealth”, all the way to those who suffered untold hardship and brutality under the communist regime, as this achievement was methodically dismantled.  This volume includes chapters on the Molotschna Colony, villages and estates, with 94 pages of maps and 104 pages of descriptive text, along with several useful glossaries and indices.

Molotschna Settlement Heinrich Goerz ; translated by Al Reimer and John B. Toews
20.90
Published jointly by CMBC Publications, and
the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 1993
Buy now
252 pages
     Writing in nostalgic retrospect, Goerz was careful to preserve the history of Molotschna in its self-approved form as a deeply committed little Christian society.
     Chapter headings include: Immigration; Settlement; Johann Cornies; Economic Development; Church Life; Formation of the Mennonite Brethren Church; Founding of the Temple Church; Development of the School System; The Landless Controversy and Establishment of the Daughter Colonies; Emigration to America and Introduction of the Forestry Service; At the Zenith; and Decline and Fall. Includes maps and photos.

Moving Beyond Secession Abe J. Dueck
20.95
Kindred Production
Buy now
179 pages, paperback. 
     This book makes available a significant collection of previously untranslated and unpublished documents to the English reader.  These writings reflect the growth and development of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia after the tumultuous period during which the church was founded.

Nestor Makhno and the Eichenfeld
   Massacre
15.00
Herald Press
Buy now
115 pages, paperback. 
     This volume tells the story of the night-time massacre of 136 innocent Mennonites at Eichenfeld/Dubovka (Novopetrovka) on October 26 to 27, 1919.  It includes eyewitness accounts and reminiscences by Mennonites and Ukrainians, as well as an analysis of the origins and roots of the event and reflections on its legacy.

None but Saints James Urry 36.00
Pandora Press
Buy now
386 pages, paperback. 
     This book deals with the first century of Russian Mennonite settlement and the dynamics of change in Mennonite communities in Russia between 1789 and 1889.  It chronicles the establishment in southern Russia of prosperous agrarian colonies, the foundation of religious congregations and the creation of new economic, social, and political institutions.

Oberschulze Jakob Peters, 1813-1884
CMBC Publications
138 pages, paperback. 
     Oberschulze Jakob Peters lived through two pioneering experiences.  The Chortitza settlement in Russia had reached the mature age of 50 years when the young couple Jakob and Elisabeth Peters left their home in the village of Kronsweide to make a new home for themselves in Bergthal.  Thirty-seven years later Jakob Peters was part of the last contingent of emigrants to leave Bergthal for Manitoba.  After having served his people as Oberschulze for twenty years, he accepted the arduous task of finding a new home for the people in America

Our Trek to Central Asia Franz Bartsch
10.00
CMBC Publications
Buy now
142 pages, paperback. 
     This account of the migration of a small group of people is unique in that it was not motivated by any external pressures but solely by internal factors resulting from an esoteric interpretation of biblical prophecy.  Bartsch’s report covers the movement up to the last settlement of one group at Aulie Ata near the city of Tashkent and of another group at Ak Metchet near the city of Khiva.

Remember Us, Vol. I: The Regehr Family Ruth Derksen Siemens
28.99
Pandora Press
Buy now
405 pages, paperback. 
     “Remember us as we remember you” – the plea from a father for his family imprisoned in Stalin’s Gulag.  Sending his letter “abroad” is a crime.  Yet this letter (and 463 others) travels to a tiny prairie town in Canada.  From 1930-37, letters from a nine-year-old girl, from her siblings and parents found a corridor out of Russia to the forbidden West.  Written by Russian Mennonites, the letters were stored in a Campbell’s Soup box.  Moving from attic to attic for almost 60 years, they were finally discovered in 1989.  The letters in this volume have been written by one family: Jasch and Maria Regehr and their children.  Subsequent volumes will include letters written by other prisoners and exiled families.

Road to Freedom Harry Loewen
47.00
Pandora Press
Buy now
302 pages, hardcover.
     Road to Freedom tells authentic stories of tribulation and liberation. Each tells its own pain and occasional joy, and at the same time participates in the larger narrative: the hard road to freedom shared by a people of faith during and after the Second World War.

Saints and Sinners Delbert F. Plett Q.C
16.80
Crossway Publications
Buy now
351 pages, paperback. 
     In this book, Saints and Sinners, Delbert E. Plett has integrated twenty years of research, writing, and translation of primary sources about the Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites founded on the steppes of Imperial Russia in 1812.

Women Without Men: Mennonite Refugees of the Second World War Marlene Epp
24.95
U of Toronto Press
Buy now
275 pages, paperback. 
     In this volume, the author discusses the lives of these ‘women without men’ and aims – far from simply placing them in a framework of abnormality as previous studies have – to reveal them as more than just immigrants or refugees.  The fact that they were not just immigrants or refugees but were women living out their lives in the context of a community with distinctive religious beliefs and cultural practices is significant in understanding how they responded to situations, how they adapted to their various post-migration settings, and how they processed their experiences in memory.

Zagradovka: History of a Mennonite
   Settlement in Southern Russia
Gerhard Lohrenz
9.99
CMBC
Buy now
112 pages, paperback. 
     This book covers different historical aspects of the south Russian settlement of Zagradovka, including background, economical developments, the schools, public life, church life, the young people of Zagradovka, daughter colonies, war and revolution.

MHV Bookstore - shipping

Shipping on all orders:
1 book - $10.00 / 2 books - $15.00 / 3 or more books - $20.00
(added to shopping cart before checkout)
Canadian residents: add 5% G.S.T.
(will be added to shopping cart at checkout)