A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

this period, not only in the privations and sufferings, but also in the relief and rescue operations that followed. Only a brief survey of these eventful decades can be given here. The World War and the Bolshevik Revolution Soon after the outbreak of war a hate campaign against the German colonists was initiated by the super-patriots of Russia. The Mennonites, 106 i\ run shadow ok death 107 because of their language and cultural contacts with Germany, were also labeled as "agents of an enemy." A decree published on November 3, 1914, prohibited the use of the German language in either public assembly or press. The following year a second official action included property liquidation laws, which however, affected very few Mennonites, since most of the Prussian and Swiss Mennonites, who had made their home in Volhynia after 1800, had migrated to America in the IH7()'s.- Because of hostile public opinion the Mennonites soon realized that they would have to undertake some form of service beyond forestry work. A delegation was sent to Petersburg and an agreement was effected by which Mennonites would also be able to serve in a noncombatant medical corps (Sanitaetsdienst). All able-bodied men up to the age of forty-five were eventually inducted into state service; approximately six thousand served in hospitals, in the ambulance corps, and on hospital trains behind the battle front, and an equal number in the forestry service. The churches and colonies underwrote the complete cost of the program, which ran as high as three million rubles in 191 7. 3 Leading Mennonite Brethren ministers served in the noncombatant medical corps.' This medical service must not be equated or identified with the noncombatant medical corps in the Canadian or United States armies during World War II or after. In an article, "Noncombatant Service Then and Now," F. C. Peters clearly shows the difference in administration between the Russian and American noncombatant medical services. In Russia, the medical corps (Sanitaetsdienst) was under the jurisdiction of the Zemstvo Union, a civilian organization that cooperated with the Red Cross and hence it was not part of the military. 5 In spite of the excellent services rendered by the men in the medical corps, the anti-German propaganda continued, and close police supervision, even in Mennonite worship services, was often in evidence. 6 The overthrow of the Tsarist regime in February, 1917, and the setting up of a liberal-minded interim government gave temporary relief to the hard-pressed Mennonites. The rapidly changing political situation called for reorientation and adjustment on the part of the Mennonite colonists in many areas of their endeavors, and so an "AU-Mennonite Congress" was called in the summer of 1917. The first and only "Congress" convened in Ohrloff, Molotschna, August 14-18, and was attended by 198 delegates. B. H. Unruh, a member of the M. B. Church, se