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

with Russian children almost constantly and so learned a good Russian. We were so happy when, as predicted by the market woman, our cow gave birth within a month .... Materi¬ ally we were well off for we now had a cow which produced much milk and butter — and butter commanded a very high price. She was a constant source of nourishment [for our family] as well as an unending source of income. While humans plan, God leads. That proved to be our experience. At first everything went well. Our prestige within the sovkoz steadily increased as did our material affluence. Fifteen wagon drivers belonged to our group. We did a lot of work, but also got paid well .... Our group made almost as much money as all the day laborers put together .... We tried to be upright and just and took nothing from the Soviet state, yet without our knowledge people began to conspire against us. During this era they introduced a special agency into all of the state enterprises, whose task was to make sure that order and jus¬ tice prevailed .... Both internal and external politics now took an unexplored pathway. Things were begun and cast aside, the new directions were announced .... Massive judicial processes were inaugurated — there were the so-called wreckers in the large industries and factories. In short the entire country was in a fever¬ ish state .... Colossal errors were made which often brought the bitterest suffering. As I said earlier our director took advantage of the working skills of the disenfranchised. We worked hard and were concerned with the welfare of our farm. The director and his assistants knew we were reliable and useful people — we proved that over the years. Now he was no longer completely in charge. Though he was up¬ right they began to find fault with him .... Tensions emerged between the director, the head of agronomy and the political head. In our sovkoz they reached diabolical proportions. 166 JOURNEYS It was during harvest time. According to our contract we were not required to work on Sunday. . . . One Sunday at lunch two administrators came to our yard, inspected our cherry trees, vegetable garden, root crops, melon patch, then wondered if in view of the threat of rain we might not be willing to haul some of the threshed crops to the granary. I promised to do what I could but pointed out that six or seven wagons had gone to Kleefeld and Prangenau for the weekend. I promised to collect the other wagon drivers immediately, but I sensed they were not satisfied. ... Before long some ten wagons approached the sovkoz. We fifteen men were invited to eat supper in the sovkoz dining room. After we tethered and fed our horses we entered the din¬ ing room. Three tables were set for us. Never before had they showed such concern for us and we felt somewhat uncomfort¬ able. When we came out our horses were missing. We went to the place where the soviet usually fed its horses. All our horses were ti