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

ised much by the Russians.° Historical Perspectives The Mennonite colonies in South Russia were regarded by the Russians as model organizations for other settlements because they be- came so well adjusted in their agricultural, social, and religious prac- tices. Because of the harsh climate, they began as cattle and sheep raisers, but by 1850 they had overcome irrigation problems and 22 The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites raised fine grains; their contemporaries considered them ‘master farmers’ who were both versatile and adaptable. Socially, they re- mained Dutch-German, both in language and in their village political structure. The radical differences between the colonists, their host country and the native peoples drew the Mennonite colony closer together. Religiously, they were congregationalists, but the auto- cratic trappings of Russian Orthodoxy and Islam, as we shall see, later caused them to adopt a more authoritarian leadership.‘ On a journey to this area shortly after 1850, a visitor described the colonies as so thoroughly Dutch-German that he felt he was in the Vistula Delta region of Prussia as he walked through the streets and fields. He was much impressed with the leadership that inspired the people to work so diligently, as though the agricultural life were a religious duty. The visitor found in the Mennonite settlements strong proof of German industry, love of order, cultivation, and morality; of all Russia, this area seemed the most civilized.» This ordered stability was to suffer a setback, however, that would usher in the decline of these outstanding settlements. After 1870, the Mennonites of South Russia found their freedom curtailed as hostile Russian influences moved into their local govern- ments and schools. The promised exemption from the imperial armed services were replaced by a requirement that the Mennonites under- take alternative service for the state. Because of this, approximately 18,000 Russian Mennonites emigrated to the United States and Mani- toba, Canada, between 1874 and 1880 to avoid the obligation of state service to the Russian government.’ After so many centuries of belief in nonresistance, these sturdy people moved on again to a place of greater freedom because of their faith. Another group of Russian Mennonites, influenced by German mysticism, the prophecies of Daniel, and the Book of Revelation, came to the conviction that they must move farther to the East — weiter nach Osten.* They are the primary subject of this study. The majority of these people believed that Christ would soon come and that the Antichrist was about to appear in the West; to escape the Antichrist an eastward move to Turkestan was necessary. This millenarian impulse, combined with their antimilitarist attitude, prompted an episode in Mennonite history that has largely gone un- told for almost a century. During the period from 1880 to 1884, this visionary band of people