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

pp's diary were ordinary farmers like himself. Men like Johann and Gerhard Wieler, whatever their emotional inclinations, obviously belonged to a fledgling Mennonite intelligentsia. As a young teacher Gerhard confidently engaged elder Hildebrand in religious dialogue while his brother Johann eventually became the president of the Russian Baptist Conference in 1884. Likewise Elder Abraham Unger's connection with the Baptist Johann Oncken suggests an intellectual- religious awareness well beyond the village context. A similar diversity characterized the dissidents in the Molotschna. Jacob Bekker in his uncontrived, straightforward manner, speaks of the Russian servant girl in Gnadenheim who helped convert the local pub owner, 6 "Herman Peters the drummaker" 7 (who was really a carpenter), and of a landlord converted in a prayer meeting in the Saratov area. 8 There was also the Gnadenfeld minister, "the wealthiest materially" 9 who initially sympathized with the nonconformists, and Johann Claassen who bought a "closed model carriage" 10 to go to Kharkov at what seemed to be a moment's notice. Other early adherents included school teachers not identified by name 11 and the shopkeeper Jakob Mathies whose wife, angered by Bekker's piety, physically attacked him. 12 Still others who later migrated to the Kuban belonged to the "poorer and the poor." 13 The opening of a new frontier naturally attracted the landless or those who felt they were persecuted. There are some other things which can be known about the early dissidents such as their family connections, 14 church 40 affiliation, residence and occupations. 15 Many apparently belonged to a landless intelligentsia. Unfortunately there are many things which will never be known. How many were there who agreed with the signatories, but for personal, congregational, family or even economic reasons refrained from taking a decisive stance? Who, amid the varieties of humankind in Chortitza and the Molotschna were the true seekers or the merely curious, the deeply committed or the momentarily ecstatic? And what of those who claimed new life and personal salvation but lacked a structural framework, a formal theology or even a vocabulary in which to place their experience? Should they seek refuge within the old, which remained inflexible, or the new, which was steadily in flux? In such circumstances they possibly remained silent and withdrawn. For many the rapidly changing political and religious circumstances allowed no time for calm reflection or prolonged neutrality. There was no middle ground. Thanks to the caprice of events and personalities the early Brethren stood alone. A combative argumentative stance on the one hand and a silence interrupted only by official actions and documents on the other, left one side isolated and vulnerable, the other hurt and increasingly hostile. Since old worship patterns and songs of faith were associated with orthod