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

igh authorities or they are declined. God knows the answer; I do not. Time will tell. Should the Area Administrative Office peacefully provide me with the needed documents, as I very much wish, and if the said ministers will refrain from practicing a boycott which ruins us economically, then I shall herewith be the first to extend my hand for civil peace and will begin again to value those who are set over me in the Area Administrative Office and to trust them. Privy Councillor Hahn would rejoice that we had come to such an amicable understanding. The Ministry of Crown Lands would be glad because there would be less correspondence, and the many personal offences that have arisen in these controversies would finally be forgotten. However, because the time until May 23 will be too short a time for me to get my pass, I will go to the Ministry of Crown Lands on that day and request a postponement and that they not yet write [to the commission], but that they wait for a few more days because of the shortness of time. I ask the Area Administrative Office to forward the enclosed letters: the one to Isaac Matthies in Rudnerweide and the other to Heinrich Huebert in Liebenau together with the appropriate authorization for him. In addition, I have another request of the Area Administrative Office, whom I trust in this regard, to send copies of all three documents directed to the Area Administrative Office to our minister Heinrich Huebert in a sealed envelope in order to avoid a major misunderstanding. Waiting, with highest expectations, I am, respectfully, Johann Claassen, Liebenau. “P.S. Because I have high hopes that the Area Administrative Office will grant me my pass and the needed authorization peacefully, I humbly request that you communicate your decision to Heinrich Huebert in Liebenau without delay. In a letter I have charged him to notify me immediately, by telegram, whether the answer is ‘y es ’ or ‘no.’ Then I can make the necessary submissions here to the First Department of the Ministry of Crown Lands. St. Petersburg, April 29, 1861, Johann Claassen.” §163 8. The Communications [Claassen] Received From the Privy Councillor von Hahn. “To the Colony Administrative Office in Halbstadt. When I left the Molotschna in November 1860, my pass was only valid till November 25. Therefore I left instructions with my family to secure an annual pass from the Area A dminis trative Office and to send it to me. Instead, my family notified me by telegram that the Area Administrative Office Documentary Supplements 365 would not grant me a pass under any circumstances. I then went to someone I knew who arranged admission for me to the First Department of Crown Lands. I informed the head of this Department, Mr. von Heinrichson, about the difficulty I had in getting a pass. He provided me with the address of the Second Department of the St. Petersburg Police A dminis tration. From them I received a pass vali