THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

41. Director v. Bradky Translation b) To the Mennonites of the Molotschna District located in the Berdiansk Region. The presentation made by your leaders to the chairman of the Supervisory Commission for Foreign Settlers of South Russia on August 16, 1848, in which you, in response to the royal manifesto of March 14, 1848, declared your willingness to furnish, gratis, 130 horses for the military, has been taken into consideration by His Majesty the Tsar, and the patriotic feelings expressed thereby have been accepted with special good will. He now commands that the deepest gratitude of His Majesty be conveyed to you as well as being brought to the attention of the general public. Minister of Crown Lands, Adjutant General Count P. Kisselev. Director of the first department of Crown Lands v. Hahn.” (?) 1848. (Cf. below under “Military Question.”) D. THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED CHRISTIAN ANABAPTIST MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH (M.B. CHURCH) OF 1860 IN THE MIDST OF THE SOUTH RUSSIAN MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD OF DUTCH -PRUSSIAN ORIGIN XI. INTRODUCTION 1. We want, as briefly as possible, to survey the course of events which, viewed from a human perspective, brought the “M.B. Church” into being. Although it was not our intention to write everything, we now do so anyway: we did not think the graves old enough to be opened calmly and in cold blood. But since the dear brethren in America have had the courage to publish the documentary history of the “external” events surrounding the establishment of the M.B. Church, 1 and since the author was commissioned to write the “inner” history of the M.B. Church, it is necessary, in order to supplement and correct the record, to write a fuller account of what we originally intended to treat briefly or not at all. These fundamental outlines were, at the same time, merely to present a survey of the much more comprehensive history of the M.B. Church to be published later. The mass of material available for an “inner" history, both with regard to its light and dark aspects, is so surprisingly large that few of the contemporaries, who participated in and partially brought about these events, would believe it. A great number of letters, documents, diaries, “reports,” “memoirs,” etc. are available. The collection of letters (the ones he received as well as his own) left behind by Johann Claassen of Liebenau, who died in the Kuban, §70 201 202 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH is especially rich. These letters— as accurate as photographs— of persons who, differing in their persuasions, were involved in the brethren movement, characterize that movement much better than even the official documents. It is our intention to present the most important and essential of this material. We would see the unexpected appearance of the American booklet by Rev. Peter Regehr (and now that long-announced book by Rev. Franz Isaak) and, consequentl