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

ution had it not been for this work of P. M. Friesen! One might only wish that he had placed this Mennonite story within the larger context of Russian history, which he undoubtedly knew equally well, but that might well have doubled the size of the manuscript and left the entire project incomplete by the time of his death. Some of this contextualizing can still be done today. The methodology followed by the author compares favorably with present canons of good historical scholarship. Who among historians would not applaud his intention to “write the truth, both good and bad, even as the Bible does with David”, or empathize with him after the first four years of work in his lament that he found it difficult to be objective because the graves were still too fresh to be opened? Who among historians would not recognize the truth of his comment that in 10-25 years, yes in 1-5 years, traditions form according to how people wish events to have happened, though reliable documents and even minutes of meetings they themselves attended and later signed, tell the story differently? How fortunate we are that Friesen, not trusting his own objectivity, decided to make it a documentary history, letting the record speak for itself. I find myself moved particularly by the irenic spirit of Friesen, evident throughout the entire work, but epitomized most succinctly in his leitmotif— Ich suche meine Brueder—l am seeking my brethren (people). It was on a Sunday evening in the summer of 1886, the author tells us, that a minister friend communicated to him the request of the Mennonite Brethren in conference that he write the history of their first twenty-five years as a separate people. He accepted, and admitted to himself that he was probably the right man for the task. But he could not contain himself within the prescribed limits and before he was finished he and “my best secretary, my faithful wife” had compiled over 10,000 pages of material. From its original intention of being a history of the Mennonite Brethren movement the manuscript grew to be the most comprehensive and definitive history we have of all the Mennonites in Russia. The interrelatedness of events and their context led him inexorably from telling only part of the story to telling it all as best he could. Thus it is that we have before us not only a history of the early years of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia but a fascinating documentary and interpretive account of the entire Mennonite experience in Russia from the time of their first migration to the time of the publication of the volume in 1911. It invites all Mennonites to read it as a part of their own history as a people, and it invites others too to read it vu as an account of how God led in the history of this branch of His family, the Mennonites. and may the reader, in reading it, catch something of the spirit of humility, love and complete trust in Almighty God which so thoroughl