A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

population. 2 This pattern appealed to the Mennonites, who cherished the right to control their own religious, educational and civic affairs. Among the chief provisions of the Privilegium was the guarantee of complete religious freedom and exemption from military service for "all eternity." FROM BELIEVERS - CHURCH TO PARISH CHURCH 15 In connection with this "charter of privileges" a popular misconception should be pointed out. The Mennonites of Russia have often been accused of having promised not to evangelize among the Russian people. "Such a promise," Gerhard Lohrenz claims, "was never made." 3 It is true that the Manifesto of 1763 (issued 25 years before the Mennonites came to Russia) contained a provision forbidding all proselytizing among members of any "Christian" denomination. To persuade a member of the Russian Orthodox Church to leave the establishment was considered a criminal offense. 4 It is doubtful, however, whether the Mennonites coming into Russia were even aware of this restriction and hence it seems unfair to state that "they had to suppress the missionary imperative of the Gospel." 6 Since the Mennonite settlements in the Ukraine were surrounded almost exclusively by non-Russians (primarily Tartars who were adherents of the Muslim faith) the issue was not a particularly relevant concern in the early period of Russian Mennonite history. In response to the "Open Door Policy" of the Russian Tsars, two Mennonite colonies — Chortitza and Molotschna — were founded on the steppes of the Ukraine. The Chortitza Colony, founded in 1789, was named after a small tributary of the Dnieper River, and became known in later years as the "Old Colony" because it was the first settlement. 6 The Molotschna Colony (founded in 1804) was also named after a small river (Molotschnaya, meaning "milky") and was located approximately seventy-five miles southeast of the Chortitza settlement. By the turn of the century, the Chortitza Colony consisted of some fifteen villages in which 400 families had become established. Between 1803 and 1806 approximately 365 families arrived in the Molotschna Colony. By 1835 the stream of new settlers had slowed to a mere trickle. Altogether some 1,200 families had made their homes in the Molotschna Colony by that time, settling in fifty-eight villages with an acreage of 324,000, thus making it the largest Mennonite settlement ever established in Russia. 1 The Mennonite Brethren Church originated almost simultaneously in these two colonies in the early 1860's. In order to understand the developments in church and society in this new environment, one needs to understand the economic and political factors that conditioned or influenced these developments. The Mennonite colonies, with few qualifications, constituted almost a state within the state. The Russian government granted them a large measure of self-government. The only direct link with the government in Peters