The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884, Fred Richard Belk, 1976

‘unsealed’’ prophecies. This work is divided into three main chapters dealing with the prophecy to the Gentiles, the prophecy to the Jews, and the prophecy given to Christians, or new covenant people. The book contains a foreword by David Hamm emphasizing the second coming, the “‘little flock’’ of faithful followers, and his conviction that Epp was ‘compelled by the Spirit of God” to write this book. In the second and third editions the author brought his thinking up-to-date in revised prefaces. All three editions were distributed and paid for by Epp himself. The first edition of the book sold out in a few days. Epp’s hope was that the book's startling contents, written as a witness in the last days, had awakened the brotherhood of the Trakt.* He was not disappointed in this expectation, for everyone read his book and began studying more intensively the doctrines of the judgment and the last days. The message that the coming of the Lord was near perhaps within the next decade, and that only the faithful would be saved™ was a part of everyone's conversation. The destruction of all European governments except Russia's and the demise of all churches except the “great whore,” the Roman Catholic Church, raised many eye- brows and caused hours of discussion.* In the preface to the third edition, Epp explains Jung-Stilling’s ideas as developed in Heimweh. He points out that before Eugenius went to the place of refuge, south of Samarkand, he went to Europe, joined a Mennonite family, then with his wife and a faithful ser- vant, he searched for his utopia. In this manner, Epp identified himself with the fictional Eugenius who led his followers to Asia. All Epp needed was a reason to implement his theological theories, and that justification was provided when the Mennonites faced the decision of the Russian government to cancel their special privileges. While many Mennonites continued to plan for emigration to America, Epp’s teaching and preaching offered them another alter- native. Epp proclaimed that deliverance would be found in the East, south of Samarkand. By 1879, he was urging his followers to sell their possessions and move to Turkestan, a newly acquired Russian province in Central Asia. As the months passed, the fabled land of Turkestan became symbolic of refuge, hope, and salvation to a substantial minority of the families of the Trakt. o THE PROVINCE OF TURKESTAN Geographical Features At first glance, Turkestan would appear an unlikely candidate for the appellation of “promised land.” The geographical setting was far different from the farmlands with which they were familiar. Indeed, it would be an entirely new world. Turkestan or Central Asia comprises that territory now known officially as Soviet Central Asia or Kazakhstan. The area is bor- dered on the west by the Caspian Sea and the lower Volga River and extends eastward to the border of China and northward to Si- beria. Today it compr