by Lawrence Klippenstein

In 1999 and 2000 many Manitoba Mennonites will be reflecting once more on the coming of their kinfolk to Canada one hundred and twenty-five years ago - a "millennium project" perhaps of a "Mennonite kind".

That story has been told and retold many times. Centennial celebrations in 1974 brought it to the fore not that long ago. But many of our younger readers (we hope there are some!) and some other ones may not have heard it then, or forgotten somewhat what was said. It may warrant revisiting one more time.

Where are the deepest roots of this movement and who made it happen? That is the question this retelling will put centre stage, realizing, of course, that many other questions could be asked about the event, and no doubt will be before the revisiting is all done. It is possible that the discovery of new source material, more first-person comments, along with improved access to the tsarist Russian archives will enhance our knowledge and understanding of that migration even further.

Let's begin with Otto von Bismarck who became the prime minister of the Prussian German state in 1862. With a distinct "imperialistic" approach to politics Bismarck managed to annex a number of German areas ajacent to Prussia, and by 1871 could create what has been called "a new German empire in Central Europe". The final acts of achieving that goal were a victorious war with France fought in 1870, and the crowning of the Prussian king, William I as emperor of the new German Reich on January 18, 1871⁽¹⁾.

The Mennonites of Prussia who were, of course, a part of this story too, viewed these events with mixed feelings. The new political order generated pride for some of them, but was very worrisome to others. Prussia had enacted a universal military service law in 1867, a law which at least some Mennonites were disposed to accept without undue protest. Others however took a different position, since the Act also removed the military exemption clause which had existed up to that time.

A Prussian Mennonite delegation, sent to Berlin to negotiate new conditions of exemption learned that they could obtain alternative service by servicing in a medical corps. This was satisfactory to some Mennonite congregations but not to others. The result was a second delegation which went to reaffirm their call for total exemption, and mentioned that many would consider emigration to Russia if that request was not met. They were told that what was happening in Prussia would soon happen in Russia as well⁽²⁾.

Enter John F. Funk, an American Mennonite publisher who was editing issues of Volume 7 of the Herald of Truth at this time. In the April issue of 1870 he offered quotes, in English translation, of discussions on this military service dilemma, going on in the Prussian Mennonite periodical, Mennonitische Blätter, during that time.

Funk noted that many Prussian Mennonites were contemplating emigration, and that negotiations about moving to the state of Tennessee in the U.S.A. were going on already. He cited an 1859 statistic which noted that 18,000 Mennonites were living in Prussia. The June issue mentioned the possibility of a Mennonite delegation coming to the USA shortly.

By July, 1871, the US Department of State had begun to receive dispatches from Timothy C. Smith, US Consul from Odessa in south Russia, indicating that an identical issue regarding military service was now exercising the Mennonites of Russia. They were also needing to deal with a new law of universal military conscription formally under consideration since the year before. A certain Cornelius Jansen, "one of the foremost of them as to property and intelligence", these dispatches said, had begun to inquire about settlement possibilities and government concessions for immigrants in the USA.

Exactly how or through whom the first news of these south Russian developments reached Canada is not clear. It is known

(cont. on p.2)