A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

The concluding chapter of Section II , "The Early Men- nonite Brethren Church," addressed the "why" of faith and practice. Section III, "The Mennonite Brethren in a Time of Transition/ does not fully chronicle the events emerging from the political and social panorama of the twentieth century. That story is well de- scribed in the book, Czars, Soviets and Mennonites} Author John B. Toews introduces the era with the statement: "Discon- tinuity characters the Russian Mennonite experience during the first half of the twentieth century/'2 Mennonites during the first 140 years in Russia nurtured their homogeneity and perpetuated themselves as a self- contained community, only to be uprooted and nearly destroyed in the decades that fol- lowed. The changes that engulfed the Mennonites were numer- ous. The previously cold relations between the Mennonite Brethren and the Mennonite Church became increasingly warmer. After fifty years of tension, that development played no smalt role in the survival of the Mennonite community in Russia during the years that followed. The isolation of this ethnic people, guests in a foreign land, came to an end with the beginning of the First World War (1914-1918). Twelve thousand men from the colonies were inducted into civilian public service. Half served with the Red Cross to care for soldiers wounded on the battlefields; the other half served in the forest industry of the Russian Em- pire. This exposure to a world beyond the homogeneous confines of the colonies changed the course of Mennonite life 139 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH in Russia,3 It was also the first time Mennonites faced the trauma of war so closely. The revolution of 1917 brought an abrupt stop to the peaceful life in the colonies of southern Russia. Floodwaters of horror drenched the Mennonite communities. Numerous publications have detailed the tenor that befell them during this time/ The German occupation from April to November of 1918 provided temporary relief,5 But the ram- pant anarchy prior to the occupation and the danger that lurked with the withdrawal of these forces, set the stage for a historic test of the Mennonites1 commitment to their long-held profession of nonresistance. Life and property were at stake. More and more Mennonites took personal responsibility to protect life and possessions rather than cling to a peace posi- tion that seemed inadequate, given their deplorable treatment at the hands of plundering bandits. This would lead to one of the most unusual developments in four hundred years of An- abaptist history-the formation of a