Perilous Journey: The Mennonite Brethren in Russia 1860-1910, John B. Toews, 1988

d always lived in small agricultural villages, at least as far as he knew. In both Prussia and Russia governments granted religious toleration only in exchange for Mennonite farming skills. For centuries the state churches in Europe had difficulty dealing with dissenters who insisted that peace was always preferable to war, that the church of Christ must be voluntary in its membership and that church and state be separate. At times the cost of upholding these cherished beliefs included suffering and migration. In the opinion of the Epp family, settlement in Russia had brought freedom. The tsarist Privilegium allowed the practice of all Mennonite beliefs. Though the vast steppes of the Ukraine meant isolation for the recent migrants, they also brought security and liberty. 1 The outside world no longer threatened. It was replaced by an all-Mennonite world — the Chortitza settlement. Land, custom and belief were indistinguishably blended in the life of David Epp. Neither he nor his fellow villagers knew where one ended or the other began. It was difficult to separate the affairs of the village from the affairs of the church. Every issue, civil or religious, involved everyone. It was simply the normal order of things. As a minister and community leader, Epp began to record the various events and happenings in his diary as early as 1837. Few episodes escaped his notice. David Epp was only vaguely aware of the outside world. There was the tsar, guardian of the privileges granted to the Mennonites upon entering Russia. A less remote power was the Fuersorge Komitee [Guardian Committee] 2 in Odessa whose jurisdiction specifically included all the foreign colonies. Closer to home were the numerous German Catholic and Lutheran colonists. Even these remained strangers to Epp, for according to general policy all foreign settlers were segregated according to religion. He of course knew of the other Mennonites who had settled in the Molotschna some three decades ago. Occasionally small groups of migrants from Prussia or Poland still passed through Chortitza en route to this settlement. Three years earlier a large group of settlers from Prussia, led by their elder Wilhelm Lange, had arrived in the Molotschna to found the Gnadenfeld colony. In Epp's Chortitza the average villager was naturally preoccupied by the demands of farming and the common problems associated with life in the village. Fortunately a long- standing pattern of religious liturgy and festivals regularly reminded him of his Christian commitment. Mennonites after all were pilgrims and strangers in this world. New Year's had barely passed when the community gathered to celebrate Epiphany (Heilige Drei Koenige). Services commemorating Easter, Pente- cost, Thanksgiving and Christmas ensured a large influx of settlers from smaller surrounding communities to Chortitza and Neuendorf, villages with large churches. In such established centers Sund