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

comprised over half the population. In the late 1860s a systematic resettlement gradually provided a solution to the population surplus and the severe social tensions it produced. This colonization within Russia generally improved inter-Mennonite relations. Economic coopera- tion was essential to survival on the new frontier, be it the Kuban, Sagradovka or Siberia. Droughts which withered crops; diseases that decimated livestock; nomadic people who resented the settlement of their grazing lands — such collective difficulties possibly made particular views on the nature of salvation or the mode of baptism seem less important. In the Kuban the Brethren shared their house of worship with Mennonite Templars who rejected baptism and the Lord's Supper as "false sacred relics." 8 At times the frontier was almost too religiously liberating. One colonist, reporting on the status of four Mennonite villages in Siberia, observed that "Old Church Brethren, Alliance, 81 Adventists and free thinkers (Templars?) are all represented here, yet all are good Mennonites." 9 It was nevertheless disconcerting when the Adventists shattered the Sunday calm by starting a threshing machine, "but what can be done if we want freedom of conscience." 10 Unfortunately such frontier diversity was often completely without religious leadership. Initially there was no minister in the ten villages of the Memrik settlement. Much the same problem prevailed in the eleven villages of the Pavlodar settlement in 1908. 11 In both these instances Brethren ministers at first served all groups. In some settlements these circum- stances laid the basis for long term cooperation. Joint worship services, Bible conferences, choirs and ministerial courses were commonplace in the Siberian settlements. 12 In the Sagradovka colony ministers from both the Brethren and the Old Church often served village congregations alternately. Thanksgiving festivals were carefully scheduled so that the members of both groups could attend all the services. Participation in common mission projects was the order of the day. 13 In Sagradovka this sense of cooperation and greater belonging even transcended a rather steady loss of Old Church members, including ministers, to the Brethren and in later years, to the Evangelical Mennonite Church. After 1880 the practice of nonresistance — Russian Men- nonite style — played a rather diverse role in inter-Mennonite relations. The ideal of nonviolence basically found expression in the operation of the forestry service with its defined obligations and procedure. Its support demanded a high level of cooperation from all Mennonite groups. Though a key issue of faith its expression was specifically defined and so nonresistance gene- rated no common theological meeting ground capable of bringing the Old Church and the Brethren closer together. There was another devisive element, especially for the Brethren. Forestry service wa