1) Census or Revisions of Imperial Russia.
2) Detailed village maps showing field plans, elevations, etc. A list of these maps has been provided to the Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg. e.g. Dr. Tedeyev showed me the maps of the villages of Chortitz and Kronsgart.
3) Records of Tokmak Military Office 1921, etc. These records include much information relating to the governance of the Mennonites in the Molotschna.
4) Institutional Ledgers. Some records of businesses and institutions are available. e.g. 1910 ledger of the Niebuhr factory listing loans, 1917/18 ledger of Bethania Mental Home - books of account, donations.
5) Yazykovo Colony. List of settlers 1873.
6) Individual files. e.g. Peter Braun (b. 1880), son of Jakob, main archivist, Molotschna; Peter Schroeder.
7) Soviet Power Organs 1919-22 Third Floor. Records pertaining to Machno Army. e.g. 1919 requisition to Mennonite Gebietsamt for 4 men daily to tend to wounded soldiers. All these records are written on the back sides of pre-revolutionary documents. It is sometimes difficult to say which side of a page is more interesting.
8) Chortitza District Committee 1923-30. Two rows of cartons relating to economic and social conditions. e.g. Neuendorf village council minutes. Also includes files from the Molotschna, e.g. Muensterberg and Ohrloff village council minutes. The information for the Chortitza villages is quite complete.
Unfortunately the archival material for the Borosenko area where the Kleine Gemeinde settled in the mid-1860s is under the Dnepropetrovsk region where much material has been lost. Similarly the material regarding the Bergthal settlement would be found in the Donets Archives.
The Zaporizhya Archives was first opened to foreigners in 1994. They are anxious to make their materials available to historians and researchers. But like Archives everywhere in the West, shortage of funds is always a problem as these type of institutions tend to be at the bottom of the list of priorities when public funds are allocated.
Individuals wishing to make inquiries of the Archives should include an inquiry fee of $20.00 U.S. Any search time required in the Archives will cost an additional $5.00 U.S. per hour. No cnetral index exists for the Zaporizhya Archives, which makes any research extremely time consuming. Anyone wishing to do research should ideally be able to read Russian and make arrangements to attend at the Archives in person. In this case appropriate fees would have to be negotiated in advance.
The address for the Archives is: Ukraine - 330123, Zaporozhye, Builders' Bld, 10, ap. 43, Att: Tedejev, Alexandr Sergejevich.
This article was reprinted with permission from Preservings (June, 1996), No. 8, pt. 1, p. 32.