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

ed that we were often strengthened through the ministry of the brethren from the Molotschna and Einlage. Reichenfeld, August 20, 1884, Eduard Woelk.” N.B.! Nearly all of the members on the Don River Side were of The M.B. Church 1873-1885 513 Lutheran and some of Catholic background. 310 This caused legal and administrative difficulties, so that the church on the Don River Side was not able to identify with the brotherhood of Mennonite persuasion. Even the General Conference of the M.B. Church could not help in this matter. In 1887, subsequent to events recorded here, the church on the Don River Side joined the Baptist Union under the eldership of H. Lietke. It was then known as the Bilachvesch Church in the Mariopol District. The Kleinliebental Church in the Donskaia District also joined under W. Bechthold’s eldership. This occurred on the basis of the law of 1879. Unfortunately this union did not develop with the kind of objectivity and cordiality that could and should have been present. Both the Menno- nites, who did the releasing, and the Baptists, who did the receiving, did not do their best to achieve impartial and general knowledge of the situation, nor did they exercise the greatest mutual respect and brotherly love. A regrettable estrangement developed in the relationship between the two newly established Baptist churches and the General Conference of the Mennonite Brethren churches. This, however, was gradually replaced by a loving fellowship as sister churches. All those members in the churches of the Don River and Mariopol areas that did not want to become Baptists emigrated to America. The baptismal register of the churches of the Don and Mariopol lists five hundred and thirty-eight names up to the end of 1886. In 1885 the church listed about three hundred members. F. The Mennonite Brethren Church on the Volga : “Hahnsau" and “ Popovka ” This congregation or these congregations were mainly a result of the visits of the brethren Benjamin Becker, Heinrich Bartel and Otto Forch- hammer around the year 1860. We know very little about it with the excep- tion of the fact that its early period of existence was very stormy. At the annual convention in May, 1874, in Andreasfeld it was accepted as the M.B. Church of "Hahnsau” (a Mennonite Colony in the Koeppental Volost, District Novo-Useni, Province Samara) and “Popovka” (a Lutheran colony). These congregations were represented by the brethren Eckert (bom Mennonite), Hahnhart, Borchdorf, Gruen and Stehle. The brethren Eckert and Hahnhart probably were the leaders. Brother Borchdorf was appointed as itinerant minister with a salary of 300 rubles and a vehicle for transportation. With special emphasis, they declared the Mennonite Con- fession of Faith to be their own. The “sister kiss” was tabled by the Volga delegates. These brothers under the leadership of Eckert and Hahnhart have migrated almost entirely to America because (since they w