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

see fit to exile them, and that they would completely renounce all their rights. The above-named persons refused to sign. j) “The Molotschna M.B. Church in the Province of Taurida, which shares a fate similar to that of the Chortitza Brethren, had requested protection from the Supervisory Commission for Foreign Settlers 120 in vain. Therefore they felt compelled to send the Mennonite Johann Claassen 322 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH §144 to St. Petersburg to file further complaints with the Ministry of Crown Lands. But this, too, achieved no disposition of the matter because the Supervisory Commission, despite repeated orders from the ministry, has not answered for the period of a whole year; meanwhile the suppressions in the Molotschna and Chortitza Districts persist nevertheless. k) “This circumstance prompted the new church (in Chortitza) to send the Mennonite Gerhard Wieler from their midst to St. Petersburg with the mandate to seek the protection of the most gracious father of our country. During his [Wieler’s] stay in St. Petersburg, the Chortitza Area Administrative Office continues its illegal actions, which are also contrary to God’s Word, by dispatching both of the ministers of the church, Neufeld and Unger, according to a telegram, to the chief of police in the Province and District of Ekaterinoslav. The original is signed: The Mennonite Gerhard Wieler from the Chortitza Colony. June 4, 1862.” l) Br. Wieler returned from St. Petersburg at the same time as Br. Claassen, at the end of June, 1862. 7. The Leading Brethren in the Jail for Criminal Investigation. In his diary, Abraham Unger records: a) “On July 12, 1862, we— Abraham Unger, Heinrich Neufeld, Gerhard Wieler and Peter Berg— were transported with police escort to Ekaterinoslav by order of the investigating judge, Mr. Schmigaila, from Nikopol. There we were handed over to the district [criminal] judge, who wanted to release us if we were willing to pay. Since we refused this course, we were taken from there to the police. Here they took down our names, questioned us briefly and took us to the Ostrog [prison], which we reached at sundown. The iron gate opened to us, the soldiers locked it behind us again and took us to the superintendent. He was a sympathetic man who did not want to throw us into a common jail; therefore he gave an order that we should be taken first into the school for the prisoners. It was dark and since the nobility [among the prisoners] had taken possession of all the cells there was no room. (Before this happened, we had been visited by the soldiers, however.) On the trip to this place we had had the privilege of proclaiming the gospel and had been quite happy. But now that we had arrived at this ‘kingdom,’ composed largely of robbers— doors barred behind us, hearing the clanking of chain-laden people, surrounded by awe-inspiring buildings with their barred windows and foul smells— all of this made a