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

ines of the last decade of the previous century and § 265 the first year of this century, equally great sums of money have been given by all the Mennonite groups. Probably hundreds of thousands in monies and goods were raised (of which, with regard to the year 1891, Mr. Kamensky again bears persuasive and well-documented witness). Both civil and religious communities as well as private groups and persons worked diligently to alleviate this national distress by offering money, goods and personal labors of love at the place of need. 3. a) During the unfortunate Japanese War, hundreds of thousands §266 of rubles and trainloads of products and warm clothing, linen and bandages, partly prepared by thousands of busy women’s and girls' hands, like cotton batting "charpie” during the Crimean war, were sent. Every informed person knows what the Tauridan Mennonites (who celebrated their 100th Anniversary in 1904) contributed towards the preparation and maintenance of the Taurida District hospital, which came into being because of the Crimean War and also what the Chortitza Mennonites contributed towards a similar hospital in the Ekaterinoslav District. Numerous letters of heartfelt gratitude testify for all time concerning these deeds of kindness. We have cited only a few of the many which were awarded in earlier as well as present times. Concerning the imperial letters of thanks and recognition in the time of the Crimean War and others, Mr. Kamensky, in refutation of the unjust accusations which overzealous “patriots” have made, makes the following choice observations: “When, substantiated with facts, it is proven that people [the colonists and Mennonites], as a body, voluntarily and unanimously sacrificed money, services, and products at any time, as the need arose, for the benefit of their fatherland, [we could add, as Mr. Kamensky does in another place ‘at the risk of health and life,’ e.g. Wilhelm Penner, above]— and when it is proven that their conduct, as clearly witnessed everywhere, attracted the recognition of the highest government and was called a ‘heroic service’ by the Monarch— then, in the face of these facts, they fortify themselves with such meaningless phrases as: ‘That means nothing, the "kulaks” (land speculators in the villages) contributed hundreds of rubles.’ b) We have already mentioned above that our Mennonite brothers (as well as other German colonists) had sacrificed their very lives during the Crimean War. The Japanese War presented further opportunities for such sacrifice, and that on an absolutely voluntary basis. By the dozens our young men, pretty well all of them from the ranks of those who had 586 THE STATE §267 already served in the barracks, streamed to the front lines of the war voluntarily to serve as medics with the view of caring for "their sick and wounded brothers.” The churches, furthermore, donated many thousands for equipping these medics, over and above