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

ears. The Moscow meeting was one of the last organized efforts of the Mennonites of Russia to seek liberty to practice their religious beliefs. On October 5-9, 1926 one final all-Mennonite conference convened in Meli- topol. The concern was again the perils facing them. As clouds darkened on the horizon, the Mennonite community braced itself for the approaching storm. The papers read at these last all-Mennonite conferences appeared to be a direct response to the exhortation of Eph- esians 6:10-11: "Finally, my brethren . . . put on the whole ar- mor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Subjects dealt with in these papers included: "Our Time in the Context of World History," "Why I believe in God and Cling to Religion," "Discipline in the Church," "How to Lift the Spiritual Life in the Churches," "Christian Marriage," and "The Church in Separation from the World."30 The 1925 and 1926 conferences represented the conclud- ing chapters of corporate Mennonite church life in Russia. The government's Five-Year Plan, initiated on October 1, 1928, began the forced collectivization of farms and the sys- tematic liquidation of the Kulaks, a name given the well-to-do farmers and property owners. Mennonites corporately were classified as Kulaks who opposed the new order. The anti- 147 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH Christian character of communism came to full expression. The period from 1930 to 1940 saw the dissolution of congre- gations and the cessation of all organized religious life. Minis- ters were systematically removed and exiled to labor camps in distant Siberia. David Reimer and Johann Janz, leaders in Alexanderthal, my home village, were arrested and executed by a firing squad, Heinrich Enns, a third leader in this church, was for- bidden to be resident of any community. Anyone providing shelter for him was subject to severe civil punishment. Enns finally became ill and died in a neighboring village. The church building in Alexanderthal was closed and later used as a clubhouse for Communist Party members. Other churches and communities suffered similar fates. Among the Mennonite Brethren alone, 111 leaders died mar- tyrs* deaths. Ministers from other Mennonite groups were also executed or died in labor camps.31 The Second World War resulted in the dispersion of all Mennonites from the Ukraine. The curtain of history fell on the Mennonite colonies of Southern Russia.32 The church in Russia had be- come legally nonexistent. The history of the church in the first four centuries was reenacted. The church "had trial