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

d himself dressed only in light clothing. He could not lie on the frozen earth. And for a whole day he was given nothing to eat. After Janzen had spent several days and nights in this unhealthy place, he was given an additional two days of confinement at the Hardships at Einlage 321 district office so that he spent a total of eight days in the dark prison. After that he was released. Alm ost simultaneously, the Mennonite Peter Berg from the Chortitza Colony was imprisoned in a dark cell because of his faith. Before he was locked up, his pockets were searched, and when a small book was found on him, the district assessor said, . , , ‘Aha, there’s his Testament. Take it away, he’s read it long enough!’ After eight days, he was released from custody. On March 25 of this year, the Mennonite Johann Toews, from the colony of Nieder-Chortitza, was dragged out of the worship service by the mayor and imprisoned. h) “At the home of minister Abraham Unger in the colony of Einlage, malicious people and their youth gathered outdoors, and indecently and disruptively burst into the meeting, practically pulling the clothes off some people’s backs. A Mennonite from the Chortitza Colony, Gerhard Wieler, who served as teacher in the village of Liebenau in the Province of Taurida, and had directed the school for three and one-half years to the satisfaction of the village congregation was not only dismissed because of his faith in the middle of the school year (in October, 1861), but after he had been unjustly relieved of a part of his property , 1 1 9 he was forced to leave the Molotschna Colony in winter, with his sick wife and small child, when the temperature was 20 degrees. This, in spite of the fact that he had an annual visa from the Chortitza Mennonite Area Administrative Office, and had to make the journey of almost 100 versts in stormy weather. At his new place of residence, his oppressed brothers in the faith offered him a good teaching position in the village of Einlage in the Chortitza District. But because he belonged to the newly established M.B. Church, he was also relieved of this position, and since that time, separated from his wife and child who are being supported by the new church, he is almost always in flight in order to evade acts of violence on the part of the Chortitza Area Administrative Office. It has happened that brethren from the new church have been accosted on the street and pulled at by drunken people, as was the case with Minister Heinrich Neufeld on his return from a worship service. i) ‘‘On March 29 of this year, a number of brethren, 27 heads of families, were ordered to appear before the Chortitza Area Administrative Office. After they had been asked whether they would persist in this, their faith in the Lord Jesus, which they affirmed, they were asked to sign a paper which stated that they [the brethren] were ready to obey without question if their Mennonite congregation would