JOURNEYS Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalins Russia, John B. Toews, 1998

shattered by the outbreak of W.W.I and the revolution and civil war which fol¬ lowed in its wake. While the seesaw battles of opposing armies provided a sense of adventure and excitement for the maturing teenager, the era also marked the end of his formal education. In the first chapter of his reminiscences Warkentin reflects upon the rapid breakdown of public order, the redistribution of land, the forced grain requisition as well as the many murders and wide¬ spread thievery. School curriculi were radically altered, old teach¬ ers dismissed and new ones appointed. The prevailing vocabulary was altered to suit the new political ideology. Egalitarianism was supposedly the order of the day, but as Warkentin observed: “We strove for equality but were steadily being divided into various classes and every conceivable difference between us was accentu¬ ated.” (p. 25) An introspective person, Aron is deeply aware of the forces which shaped his character and being. Sensitively he details the maturation of his first and only love, Anna, who, in spite of oppo¬ sition from both parents, he will eventually marry. Then he iden¬ tifies the major influences which contributed to his religious de¬ velopment: the lifestyle modeling of his school teacher/minister; his conversion; the various Bible courses and conferences con¬ ducted in the settlement; the good will and cooperation between the various Mennonite groups, and finally, his election to the min¬ istry. Concern with personal priorities cloud his awareness of the 140 JOURNEYS political and economic events associated with the tumultuous 1920s. Instead Warkentin focuses upon his personal development, his long romance with Anna and the young couples first attempt at farming. Major issues such as the emigration of the mid-1920s seem unimportant to a successful young farmer in the Caucasus, proud of his growing young family and optimistic about the fu¬ ture. Throughout 1926 Aron is increasingly in demand as a church and youth worker, but his local prominence as a religious leader does not go unnoticed. He is soon disenfranchised and charged with being a subversive “cultural agent.” As such he is deemed incapable of participating in the construction of the new soviet state. At the time Warkentin hardly suspects that it was a lifetime sentence to second class citizenship and a pretext for subsequent arrest and imprisonment. What do the memoirs tell us about Aron? He obviously pos¬ sessed a remarkable memory. Dates and sequences as well as the details of specific events are readily recalled and recorded: the Mennonite flight to Moscow; the progressive brutalization associ¬ ated with forced collectivization; the unpredictable and arbitrary arrests. Aron invites the reader to share the experiences which shaped his life. In the manuscript the philosopher frequently takes over transporting the reader far afield by commentary or reflec¬ tion and only returning to t