FINDING GUIDE THE PETER J. BRAUN RUSSIAN MENNONITE

FINDING GUIDE

THE PETER J. BRAUN

RUSSIAN MENNONITE ARCHIVE, 1803-1920

Compiled and Edited by Ingrid I. Epp

Introduction by Harvey L. Dyck

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CJ1993 Conrad Grebel College/University of Toronto Research

Program in Russian Mennonite Studies

Printed in Canada

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Front cover: Deaf and Mute School, Tiege, Ukraine, 1899

Photograph from Hedwig Dyck

Frontispiece: Peter J. Braun (1880-1933)

Photograph from the Braun Family

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CONTENTS

HARVEY L DYCK

r Recovering an Inheritance: The Peter J. Braun Archive 5

P INGRID I. EPP

Using the Microfilm and its Finding Guide 26

Key to Index 37

Index of Archive Files 38

r

fS»

RECOVERING AN INHERITANCE

Introduction to

P The Peter J. Braun

! Russian Mennonite Archive, 1803-1920

P by Harvey L. Dyck1

P The original documents of the rich collection of microfilmed sources making

up the Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive were assembled in the

Molochna Mennonite settlement, southern Ukraine, during years of revolution and

H civil war from 1917 to 1920. Confiscated by Soviet authorities in 1929, they

disappeared from public view for more than six decades. Yet almost unbelievably

they survived. They were rediscovered in 1990 in the State Archives of the Odessa

Region, Ukraine, housed in a large former Jewish synagogue in downtown

Odessa. In 1990 and 1991 the documents were microfilmed for this project and

brought to Canada.

' Originally identified in the Odessa archives as "Mennonite Society in the

r County of Berdiansk, Tauride Gubemiia, 1803-1920,"1 the surviving collectioni

contains around 140,000 pages of documents, organized in some 3,000

J chronologically-arranged files. As the most extensive collection of in-group Russian

r Mennonite sources surviving from the imperial period, the archive spans a wide

1 Harvey L Dyck is a professor of history and member of the Centre for

Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto, and co-chair of the

University of Toronto/Conrad Grebel College Joint Research Program in Russian

Mennonite Studies

range of subjects in the history of the Molochna Mennonite settlement, the largest,

most influential Mennonite community in Russia. Founded in 1804, this once-

flourishing 61-village settlement on 500 square miles of fertile black steppe soil

north of the Sea of Azov, played a shaping role in Russian Mennonite history and

in the development of the southern Ukrainian frontier.

TURBULENT ORIGINS, 1917-24

The unusual story of the archive reflects the turbulent and pitiful history of

Russian Mennonites during the Soviet period. Previously makers of history, they

now became its victims. Peter J. Braun (1880-1933) is the person most intimately

involved in the establishment and development of the archive, and the microfilm

collection has been named in his honour. From the early twentieth century until his

emigration to Germany in 1924, Braun, a bookish, introspective man, became a

leading educator and administrator in secondary schools and teacher training

programs in the Molochna settlement. As teacher and historian, who had long

fostered an interest in Mennonite history among his co-religionists, he also lead

efforts to save for posterity the documentary record of the Russian Mennonite

past.2

The idea of establishing a central Mennonite archive was seriously

canvassed among Russian Mennonites before 1914, as a basis both for research

and for raising historical consciousness among Russian Mennonites in need of a

clearer identity. But this task was not taken in hand until the crisis of World War

' I.3 Then, in a charged wartime campaign directed against Imperial Germany,

^ Russian extremist nationalists denounced all German-speaking communities in

Russia as disloyal. The public use of German was officially banned. Russia's

German-language press was forbidden. In 1915 a shrill press campaign climaxed

P in Imperial legislation to strip German-speakers in Russia of their landed property.4

Desperate to stop the nationalist slander and to head off the threatened

expropriation of ancestral lands, Mennonite spokesmen scrambled to defend their

r community's record of loyalty and service to the empire, often citing examples out

of their past. They argued, for example, that Johann Cornies (1789-1848), the

most influential Russian Mennonite leader in Imperial times, had played a key role

!" in the settlement and economic development of New Russia (called southern

Ukraine today). Scores of Mennonites, down to their own day, had

characteristically followed in his steps, they said. Soon these leaders realized that

! their ad hoc struggles against nationalist infamy were stymied by the absence of

^ a central archive.

In the early 1930s, Peter Braun recalled the wartime crisis:

As history teacher in Halbstadt I was frequently called upon

to help in such efforts. Often we spent days searching and rooting

f» about in old papers to find some kind of essential document.

i Sometimes the search was successful but repeatedly we simplythrew up our hands in despair because the effort was futile. We

p didn't even know where to start. Existing archives were at best

organized by years, and had no registry or catalogue. And the

registries that existed were worthless. Moreover, much material was

p in private hands.... Despite a plethora of material we were thus

i simply helpless. As we worked away we told ourselves time and

again, "The situation canot stay this way. Existing historical material

P must be collected, winnowed, organized, and clearly arranged in

order that we know what we have and where particular documents

can be found when they are needed.5

Finally, in June 1917, at its first meeting after the collapse of the monarchy,

the General Conference of Russian Mennonite Churches (that represented virtually

all organized Mennonite churches), quickly endorsed Peter Braun's proposal for

the establishment of a central archive. Against a backdrop of deepening

revolutionary upheaval that, in October 1917, would culminate in Bolshevik rule,

and, from 1918 to 1920, would result in a nightmarish civil war across southern

Ukraine that also devastated the Molochna settlement, the General Conference

appointed a six-person archive committee and named Braun as archivist. Braun

announced the creation of the new archive in the Volksfreund. a newspaper of the

briefly resanctioned Mennonite press. He appealed for donations that should, he

wrote, include, "Decisions and circulars of the administration, of school boards and

others, Mennonite submissions to the government, old letters (especially of

influential persons), diaries, various reports and other memoranda, old wedding

and funeral invitations, contracts, agreements and wills, articles about Mennonites

in foreign and Russian journals, newspaper articles about Mennonites, etc., in

short anything of significance at all for the history of Mennonites." Since civil chaos

had disrupted the state postal service, he asked that donations be sent privately.6

Although available sources do not permit the full reconstruction of the

suspenseful story of the Molochna Mennonite archive, its outlines, until 1929, can

be gleaned from sparse surviving records. First quartered in a room of a former

Halbstadt bank, the Kreditaesellschaft. a building easily vandalized by passing

8

r

brigands and rebels, the archive was moved to Braun's one-storied home on Neu

Halbstadt's Zentralstrasse for greater security early in the civil war. During this

turbulent time, in the midst of continuing unrest and violence, himself ill with

tuberculosis, often feverish, spitting up blood,7 Braun travelled from village to

village, coaxing village and church assemblies to cooperate in the project. He also

negotiated for document collections with custodians of major Molochna institutions

such as school boards, administrative agencies, and the Mennonite Forestry

Service.

A tall man, personally vulnerable, struggling hard against a natural

reticence, Braun managed somehow to draw together into one collection the

documentary records of key figures and institutions from throughout the Molochna

settlement. Soon they overflowed shelves around the walls of a large room in his

home. Hours on end he bent awkwardly over a small desk at a window overlooking

the street where Bolshevik revolutionaries, monarchist units, and anarchist bands

rode by. We see him through the unclouded memory of his daughter Martha, then

a young child, preparing registers, sorting papers, arranging documents in files,

and talking up new source donations with visitors. His young children played

happily with dolls in a corner of the room largely oblivious to the commotions and

dangers. His daughter remembers graphically, however, a terrifying night-time

episode when her family fled to a nearby village to escape a raid by Makhnovites,

Ukrainian anarchist bands who periodically pillaged the settlement. On the family's

return, Peter Braun, realizing his archive had survived the raid, broke into a bashful

smile.8

In late 1920, following the return of peace and establishment of Soviet rule

throughout the southern Ukraine, Braun adroitly side-stepped a government decree

that existing archives be surrendered to the state. He secured permission from an

ethnic German confidante in the local Soviet administrative council to "found a new

archive", with himself as archivist. Later, in 1924, now seriously ill with

tuberculosis, Braun, in a last bid to ensure the safety of his growing collection

before emigrating to Germany, had it moved to empty attic rooms of the residential

School for the Deaf and Mute in the village of Tiege, some 30 kilometres away.

There, he later explained, "strangers infrequently came"; one "could not imagine

a better hiding place for the archive. It was to stay there until the arrival of better

times in Russia."9

CONCEALMENT AND SEIZURE, 1924-29

But "better times" were long in coming. Sometime after 1924, teachers of

the School for the Deaf and the Mute seem to have panicked at the thought that

the illegal archive hidden in the attic above might compromise them in Bolshevik

eyes and had it moved into the offices of the old Molochna Agricultural Society in

the neigbouring village of Orlov. The building was on the yard of the old Cornies

Wirtschaft, then owned by Peter Cornies, a relative of Johann, the great Russian

Mennonite leader. Incidently, many of the documents in Braun's archive had been

written by Johann Cornies and his associates in this same building.10

10

The archive remained concealed in Orlov until May 1929 when the Peter

Cornies family were expelled from the village in the great wave of repressions

marking the start of the drive to forcibly collectivize agriculture. As the collectivizers

tramped through Peter Cornies's Wirtschaft they stumbled across the hidden

archive and brusquely seized it as well. Its last sighting was reported by several

Molochna Mennonites in letters to Canadian relatives. In one, dated June 11,

1929, in a postscript, Susanna Toews, an Orlov resident, noted simply, ""Yesterday

three wagons took the Cornies archive to Halbstadt."11 Another observer

described sighting the overloaded wagons en route to the regional Ukrainian town

of Bolshoi Tokmak, directly north of the Molochna settlement.12

In the early 1930s, from his refuge in Germany, Peter Braun bemoaned the

loss. In an article entitled, "Archives Annihilated by the Bolsheviks: Important

Documents of Mennonites Destroyed in Russia," he wrote: "I have been unable to

establish what finally happened to this rich archive, assembled with such diligence.

It would seem, however, that it is lost to Mennonites."13 In a private letter in 1931

he poured out his grief. The loss was unspeakable, he observed, because the

Molochna archive had been the only significant collection of in-group Russian

Mennonite sources to survive the mayhem of revolution and civil war. The once-

rich archives of the oldest and most important Mennonite district administrations

of Khortitsa and Halbstadt had, from 1918 to 1920, been despoiled "down to their

last page". Reams of priceless documents, recording over a century of Russian

Mennonite history, had been vandalized by marauding anarchist bands, or pilfered

11

and then used as writing paper or to wrap fish and produce. Now he feared his

own archival collection had met a similar end. "I could weep," he sighed. "We have

suffered an irreplaceable loss, for the young archive was already rich and

voluminous."14 During the following 60 years, in which the Molochna archive

dropped from view without one trace, Braun's sorrowful words seemed its final

requiem.

Paradoxically, the confiscation of the Molochna archive by Soviet officials

probably ensured its survival. In the turmoil of World War II that enveloped the

Molochna region, it would almost certainly have vanished or been destroyed. As

for its further destiny, the Mennonite collection likely arrived in Odessa shortly after

its confiscation. The Odessa Regional Archive's file on the collection is silent about

the time and circumstances of its transfer there.15 What we know, however, is

that by September 1937, eight years after its seizure, the staff of the Odessa

archives had finished organizing and cataloguing the entire collection. At the end

of what must have been an arduous and time-consuming undertaking, trained

Soviet archivists who knew German well, following Russian archival principles, had

reorganized the documents consisting of more than a dozen collections and

scattered single records into one, seamless archive of 3,618 chronologically

arranged and subject-titled files. By 1937 they had also created a lengthy,

typescript Russian-language inventory (in Russian"opis"), listing each file of the

collection by number and contents.16

The Molochna collection was closed to western scholars until 1990. Soviet

12

js-a

researchers seem never to have used it, and may not even have known of its

existence. For reasons that remain unclear, likely because of a decades-long

virtual Communist prohibition on the serious study of ethnic German-speakers in

the USSR, the book-length Guide to the holdings of the Odessa Archives

published in 1961 fails even to mention it.17 Moreover, a review of Soviet

scholarly and propagandistic publications on south Russian and Russian

Mennonite history has not turned up a single reference to the collection.

A SCHOLAR'S HORN OF PLENTY

The Molochna collection is large and varied. It is truly a scholar's

cornucopia. In 1931, Peter Braun listed the documents, papers, and printed

^ materials comprising the original archive under 14 groupings, by origin, as

follows:18

1. a selection of important documents of the Halbstadt District Archive from

m the early period, 1803-1820;19

2. the papers of Reimer, Orlov (died around 1806);

3. archive of the Agricultural Society (Landwirtschaftlicher Verein), since

r 1831;20

4. a collection of the papers of Joh. Cornies, Sr. (1789-1848);21

1 5. the papers of the Cornies family (including a large number of family

f1 letters, as well as personal correspondence from and to official persons in

Russia and abroad);

13

6. archive of the Molochna Mennonite school council, since 1869;22

7. archive of the president of the Forestry Service (Forstei) regarding

Forestry Service affairs, since 1880;23

8. archive of the Pedagogical Program and the later teacher training

programs (Lehrerseminare). since 1878;

9. the papers of Elder Abr. Goerz (died 1911);24

10. the collection of historical documents of P.M. Friesen (died 1914),

author of the historical study;25

11. a collection of documents assembled by history teacher Peter J.

Braun (1880-1933), including copies of many official documents;26

12. archive of the Menno Centre (Mennozentrums). 1917-1920;

13. a collection of documents of Johann Wiebe, Orlov (died around

1922);

14. a library of more than 300 books, mainly of historical content, including

a number of manuscript volumes, as well as old books from Holland, etc.

How much of Braun's original collection has survived in the Odessa

archives? Although the final answer to this question must await detailed study of

the Molochna archive, a preliminary review by Ingrid Epp, who has compiled and

edited this Finding Guide, and by me, indicates that all of the documents of the

collection probably survived to be included in the reorganized Molochna archive

of 1937. What are missing, however, are some 300 books and other printed and

manuscript brochures. Several originated in the Netherlands, and were gathered

14

by Braun for inclusion in his original collection (see #14 above). I was unable to

locateany of these materials in eitherthe archival holdings or library of the Odessa

Regional State Archives.27 Moreover, from 1942 to 1943, during the German and

Rumanian wartime occupation of Odessa, seventeen percent of the 3,618 files

listed in the 1937 index disappeared. They have not been found. An additional 30

to 50 files have been seriously water-damaged and cannot now be read.28

The main language of the earlier files is German. From the early 1870s

onward, however, partly under Russian nationalist and state pressures, Russian

gradually assumed a larger presence in official Mennonite life, and the majority of

the post-1890 files are in Russian. Other languages, such as Tatar, French, and

English, appear only occasionally. The Molochna archive is naturally not

equally strong in all periods of Russian Mennonite history. The following

breakdown of the original 3,618 files of the Molochna archive, shows considerable

variation in the documentation present for each decade. Documents are especially

plentiful for the 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1880s, and 1890s, decades of institutional

flowering in Russian Mennonite life. The decades of the 1860s and 1870s, years

of tumultuous change in Russian Mennonite life, are less well documented, as are

events for the period leading up to and including World War I, the Revolution, and

the Civil War.

There is also great variation in the number of files lost during World War II.

Only around 4 percent of the files of the first half of the collection, 1803-55, have

disappeared. But regretably there are missing some 30 percent of the files for the

15 CANADIAN MENNONITE BIBLE COLLEGELIBRARY

600 SHAFTESBURY BLVD.

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA R3P 0M4

years 1856 until 1920 (see, columns III and IV, below).

MOLOCHA MENNONITE ARCHIVE FILES29

YEARS

1803-1820

1821-1830

1831-1840

1841-1850

1851-1860

1861-1870

1871-1880

1881-1890

1891-1900

1901-1910

1911-1920

NO. FILES/1937

19

158

546

822

367

230

193

558

496

159

70

MISSING FILES NO. FILES/1991

7

22

25

59

42

39

64

142

147

52

15

12

136

521

763

325

191

129

416

349

107

55

The history of the Molochna Mennonite settlement is by no means a virgin

field. As sources for this history, there exist collections of published in-group

documents, Imperial regional and central state papers, Mennonite and non-

Mennonite newspapers, statistical surveys, and foreign observer accounts. There

are also a number of dissertations, articles, and book-length studies of the

Molochna settlement.30 Integrated into this source and study base, the Braun

archive will allow scholars to explore, in fresh and concrete detail, the development

of the Black Sea steppe frontier, the history of ethnic and religious minorities in the

southern Ukraine, and, of course, the Russian Mennonite story.

It should be noted that Mennonite church organizations and life are less well

represented in the Braun archive than are secular activities of the greatest

profusion. Official document and letter files provide much information on Mennonite

relations to the state and to surrounding non-Mennonite areas. The settlement's

economic and social life is richly documented. The archive contains a horde of

statistical and other data on changes in branches of the economy such as

16

silkworm culture, livestock breeding, field tillage, land-holding relations,

inheritances, the early history of industrialization, financial and credit operations,

and the organization of estate husbandry. The biographies and times of Johann

Cornies and his collaborator, successor, and son-in-law, Philip Wiebe, are reflected

in a particularly ample collection of private and official letters, documents, and

studies.

The Braun archive also contains detailed District/Volost and village records

bearing on local and regional administration and on the genealogies and social

history of the Molochna population. In the archive, for example, is a jewel, unique

in its facets, for demographers and genealogists: a complete census of the

Molochna population, person by person, family by family, village by village (there

were 41 at the time), for 1835. Finally, constituting the essential core of the

archive, are the records of key Mennonite institutions containing much anecdotal

and statistical data on their structures and activities: the Agricultural Society, the

District-Volost administration in its early years, village administrations, the Forestry

Service (Forstei), social welfare agencies, schools, the Bible Society, financial

institutions, and many others.

UNFINISHED TASKS

The discovery and microfilming of the Molochna Mennonite collection

provides scholars with extraordinarily rich opportunities for significant new work.

It should be recalled that prior to its confiscation in 1929 the Molochna archive had

17

been used in the preparation of only one scholarly article. Written by Peter Braun

himself, it was published without documentation in English translation in 1929 in

the Mennonite Quarterly Review under the title "The Educational System of the

Mennonite Colonies in South Russia." As the author sadly acknowledged at the

time, it "is all that I have been able to save from the entire archive."

Yet shortly before his death from tuberculosis in 1933, Peter Braun seemed

still to clutch at the slender hope that his beloved archive had somehow survived

destruction and would one day be found. In words that might fittingly be addressed

to users of this microfilm collection, he concluded: "I would point out that the

simple acquisition of historical material is not sufficient and offers no absolute

guarantees. Almost more important is the need to digest the gathered material in

a scholarly manner and to publish the results. Only then can we say that the

material is truly un-lost and only then will society benefit from it."31

RECOVERING A LOST INHERITANCE

Cooperative efforts by a number of people and institutions have brought this

project, undertaken at a time of disabling instability and crisis in the USSR, to

fruition. After disappearing for two generations, the Molochna archive was re

discovered in the summer of 1990 in the Odessa Regional State Archives,

independently of one another, by Dr. George Epp, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and by

me. From 1990 to 1992,1 visited Odessa on four occasions for significant periods

of research and work relating to the microfilming project. At the end of my first

18

stay, in September 1990, in the excitement attending the find, and following difficult

r* negotiations that threatened several times to break down under the weight of a

functioning, but weakened, centralized Soviet archival system, I negotiated and

signed a personal barter agreement with Vladimir Malchenko, Director of the

P Odessa Regional State Archives. In exchange for a microfilming system andi

photoduplicating machine, the Archives undertook to microfilm the entire Molochna

Mennonite collection for me.

n On a second visit, in December 1990, arriving in the dead of night with an

unwieldy, oversized crate containing the microfilm system and cases with reels

of microfilm, I encountered a city lost in gloom, Black Sea mists swirling along

!"" darkened, empty streets, store shelves bare, rumours of a military putsch rife. Yet

by daylight, incongruously, almost cheerfully, I found the Archives' staff hard at

work in cramped office space restoring the Mennonite collection, preparatory to

1 microfilming, painstakingly removing stitchings from each file and mending

r damaged documents. Shortly before Christmas of 1990, anxious about a possible

coup predicted by Soviet foreign minister Sheverdnadze in a radio broadcast

! overheard on the way to the airport, I left Odessa with the first lot of microfilm of

r some 25,000 pages.

The microfilming project proceeded in 1991 and was completed in mid-

\ August of that year. A few days before what proved to be the abortive August

p 1991 coup in Moscow (the trigger to the breakup of the Soviet empire and the

proclamation of Ukrainian independence), in a palpably tense political atmosphere,

19

anxious about personal safety and government clearance, I passed custom's

control of Moscow's Sheremetiev airport with a suitcase bulging with the microfilm

of the remaining more than 100,000 pages of the Molochna Mennonite collection.

Engulfed by conflicting feelings, I experienced my leave-taking as painfully ironic.

At my feet, in the suitcase stuffed with reels of microfilm, lay the promise of a

renaissance in Russian Mennonite studies. Yet at the same time, Soviet

Mennonites from cities in central Asia and still surviving Mennonite villages in

western Siberia and the Trans-Volgan Orenburg region were fleeing to Germany

by the tens of thousands as immigrants, bringing virtually to an end two centuries

of Mennonite history in Russia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In overseeing this enterprise I have incurred many debts that I gladly

acknowledge. I thank the following institutions, groups, and individuals for help in

bringing this project, accompanied by so many hopes and fears, to a successful

conclusion: Vladimir Malchenko and Olga Konovalova of the Odessa Regional

State Archives, for agreeing to new forms of international cooperation, including

a mutually beneficial barter arrangement, for supervising the microfilming, and for

their unfailing courtesy and aid; Svetlana Vishtalenko, then an Odessa radio and

print journalist, for sound advice and help in negotiations of the barter agreement,

for monitoring strict compliance with its terms, and for translating the Russian-

language index; Anya Galkina for help with translations and keyboarding; and the

20

Canada-USSR Exchange Program and Soviet Academy of Sciences for

sponsoring two periods of my research in Odessa in the summers of 1990 and

1991.

The late and much mourned David Rempel, Menlo Park, California, a

pioneer and trail blazer in Russian Mennonite studies, open-heartedly gave moral

and financial support. When, sleepless with exhilaration, I first telegraphed him

from Odessa that the long-lost Braun archive had finally been found, he replied

delightedly, "It is incredible in its historical significance."

I am indebted to the following individuals and institutions for providing

encouragement and financial assistance: Robert Johnson, Director of the Centre

for Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto; Carol Moore, Chief

Librarian of the University of Toronto Libraries; the Office of Research

Administration, University of Toronto; Lawrence Klippenstein, Archivist of the

Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg; John Friesen, Canadian Mennonite Bible

College, Winnipeg; and Sam Steiner, Archivist, and Rodney Sawatsky, President

of Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo.

The microfilming project was organized by the University of Toronto/Conrad

Grebel College Research Program in Russian Mennonite Studies, a collaborative

enterprise of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of

Toronto, and the Institute for Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies, Conrad Grebel

College. Leonard Friesen, my co-chair of the program, has been actively involved

in the project, and I thank him warmly. The direct costs of microfilming the

21

collection and preparing this Finding Guide were cooperatively funded by three

Canadian Institutions: Conrad Grebel College; the Mennonite Heritage Centre,

Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Robarts Library and the Centre for Russian and East

European Studies, University of Toronto. They are the first repositories of the

microfilmed archive.

In 1992-93, in the final stage of this project, using space and facilities

generously provided by Robarts Library, University of Toronto, Ingrid Epp reviewed

the entire microfilm collection and compiled and edited this English-language

Finding Guide: The Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive, 1803-1920. It is

a much-revised and corrected version of the 1937 Russian-language index. A

trained historian and professional librarian herself, Ingrid Epp worked with skill,

enterprise, cheerfulness, and efficiency. I gratefully acknowledge her help.

NOTES

1. Thus listed in Russian in the State Archives of the Odessa Region (hereafter SAOR),

as collection (fond) #89.

2. Biographical information from: Cornelius Krahn, Peter Jacob Braun," Mennonite

Encyclopedia, I, 408; biographical notes of Manja Lauer, daughter of Braun, Nov. 1974;

and interview with Martha Wiss, daughter of Braun, Apr. 1992. Braun was father to four

children, three daughters and a son, all of whom are still living. See also, "The

Educational Record of Peter Jacob Braun (1880-1933)," in N.J. Klassen, "Mennonite

Intelligentsia in Russia." Mennonite Life 24 (1969), 51-60.

3. This short history of the Molochna Mennonite archives is based on an interview with

Martha Wiss, daughter of Braun, April 1992, and on Peter J. Braun: "Das Mennonitische

Archiv." Volksfreund. June 11,1918; "Mennonitisches Archiv." Friedensstimme. Nov. 19,

1918; "Archive von Bolschewisten zerstoert: Wichtige Urkunden der Mennoniten in

Russland vernichtet," Mennonitische Geschichtsblaetter. I (1936), 32-36; letter to B.

22

Schellenberg, Winnipeg, Man., Apr. 22, 1931, Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg,

Man.). I thank J. Urry for sending me a copy of Braun's letter.

The confiscation of the Molochna archive had an important sequel, the founding

of a new archive by the Conference of Mennonites in Canada. (The Mennonite Heritage

Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, is its direct descendant.) This came in response to Braun's

above-mentioned letter to Bemhard Schellenberg, pleading: "Since the rich material in

Russia must now be regarded as lost, it is important that you in Canada start over again

and gather everything that is available." In June 1933, the General Conference of

Mennonites in Canada approved a proposal by Schellenberg for the appointment of a

Conference archivist. See also, B. Schellenberg, "Das mennonitische Archiv," Die

einunddreissiaste Allaemeine Konferenz der Mennoniten in Canada von 26. bis 28. Juni

1933 in Gnadenthal bei Plum Coulee. Manitoba (1933), 78-83. Peter Rempel, Acting

Archivist, Mennonite Heritage Centre, kindly drew this story to my attention.

4. David G. Rempel, "The Expropriation of the German Colonists in South Russia during

the Great War," Journal of Modern History. IV (1932), 49-67.

5. P. Braun, "Archive von Bolschewisten zerstoert."

6. P. Braun, "Das Mennonitsche Archiv."

7. Recollections of Martha Wiss, daughter of Braun, interview April 1992.

8. Interview with Martha Wiss, April 1992.


10. P. Braun to B. Schellenberg, Apr. 22,1931.

11. John B. Toews, ed. and transl., Letters from Susan: A Woman's View of the Russian

Mennonite Experience (1928-1941) (North Newton, Kan., 1988), 57-60.

12. As related to me by David G. Rempel.


14. Braun to Schellenberg. Apr. 22,1931.

15. The SAOR file regarding fond 89 contains little more than a capsule survey of

Mennonite history starting with Menno Simons, a brief listing of general subjects reflected

in the collection, and listings of file counts made in 1937, 1950, and 1966.

16. SAOR, fond 89, opis (inventory list) 1 (there is only 1 list).

17. A.D. Bachinskii, V.P. Koniuk and I.A. Khioni, comps., Gosudarstvennvi arkhiv

Odesskoi oblasti: Putevoditel (Odessa, 1961).

23

18. Based on Braun, "Archive von Bolschewisten zerstoert," and Braun to Schellenberg,

Apr. 22, 1931.

19. All that survives of the voluminous Halbstadt volost archive after its total destruction

during the civil war.

20. Founded at the state's behest, this Society (Commission in Russian) became the

main vehicle of agrarian and educational modernization among Russian Mennonites

under the forceful leadership of its lifetime chairman, Johann Cornies (1789-1848). The

Society survived Comies's death, but thereafter its influence gradually waned.

21. Johann Cornies, the most celebrated Russian Mennonite of imperial times, was

enormously influential throughout his Mennonite world and the southern Ukraine. He is

treated as a hero figure in the otherwise informative biography by David H. Epp. Johann

Cornies: Zueae aus seinem Leben (Ekaterinoslav and Berdiansk, Russia, 1909). Most

recently, Cornies is described as "The Prophet of Progess" in James Urry, None but

Saints. 1789-1889 (Winnipeg: Hyperion Press, 1988), 108-22. For a historiographical

overview of Cornies' career, see Harvey L Dyck, "Russian Servitor and Mennonite Hero:

Light and Shadow in Images of Johann Cornies,11 Journal of Mennonite Studies II (1984)

9-41.

22. The chief agency of educational updating in the Molochna Mennonite settlement, the

school council pushed many initiatives from its founding in 1869 until the Russian

revolution.

23. Negotiated with the imperial government in the 1870s as an alternative to military

service, the Forestry Service (Forstei), strictly speaking an Afforestation Service,

operational from 1881 in a series of camps, was largely Mennonite-financed and

administered. See Lawrence Klippenstein, "Mennonite Pacifism and State Service in

Russia: A Case Study in Church-State Relations, 1789-1936" (Ph.D. diss., University of

Minnesota, 1984).

24. Abraham Goerz (1840-1911), longtime church elder in the Molochna settlement, was

deeply involved in public life, including negotiations of the alternative service system, the

Forstei. See A. Braun, "Abraham Goerz," Mennonite Encyclopedia. II, 536.

25. The invaluable sourcebook and in-group history, Die Alt-Evanaelische Mennonitische

Bruederschaft in Russland (1789-1910) (Halbstadt: Raduga, 1911); trans, and ed. J.B.

Toews et al., The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia (1789-1910) (2nd ed., rev.: Fresno,

Calif.: Board of Christian Literature, General Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches,

1980). See Also Abraham Friesen, ed., P.M. Friesen and His History: Understanding

Mennonite Brethren Beginnings (Fresno, Calif.: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies,

Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, 1979).

24

26. Presumably the individual documents and small collections of documents donated in

response to Braun's repeated appeals.

27. Search undertaken in the summer of 1991.

28. Estimate by staff of the photographic laboratory of the State Archives of the Odessa

Region, Dec. 1990.

29. This table is based on an analysis of SAOR, fond 89, opis 1. Since some files contain

material for more than one year, and thus cut across the decade-by-decade categories

of this table, the given figures are only approximate.

30. See Peter J. Klassen, "Under Tsarist Crown and Soviet Star: An Historiographical

Survey," in John Friesen, ed., Mennonites in Russia: Essavs in Honour of Gerhard

Lohrenz (Winnipeg, Man.: CMBC Publications, 1989).

31. P. Braun, "Archive von Bolschewisten zerstoert," 36.

ma bJ

USING THE MICROFILM AND ITS FINDING GUIDE

by Ingrid I. Epp1

The Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive consists of seventy-eight

reels of microfilm, the present-day contents of collection (fond) 89, inventory

guide (opjs) I, in the State Archives of the Odessa Region. The title of the

collection in the Odessa archives is "Mennonite society In the county of

Berdiansk, Tavrida gubemiia, 1803-1820". Originally it consisted of 3618

chronologically arranged files. Approximately 17 percent of the collection was

lost during World War II or was damaged and cannot be read.

Microfilming in Odessa was done in 1990 and 1991, first with 35 mm.

equipment, then with a 16 mm. camera. There are 31 reels of 35 mm.

microfilm, covering the earlier period, 1803 to 1840 (files 89-1-1 to 89-1-643),

and 47 reels of 16 mm. microfilm for the years 1840 to 1920 (files 89-1-644 to

89-1-3618). The original Russian-language inventory, dating from 1937, appears

on the last reel of microfilm. The master copy of the microfilm remains the

property of Harvey L. Dyck. Duplicates thereof, copied in Canada, have been

deposited in three repository collections: Robarts Library, University of Toronto;

Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Conrad Grebel College,

University of Waterloo.

1 Ingrid I. Epp, former librarian of University College, University of Toronto, is a

historian and librarian living in Toronto, Canada

; Russian inventory (opis), checked for accuracy and corrected, and uniformly

r formatted, after a careful review of the microfilmed files. To give users a picture

of the contents of the original archive, as organized and indexed in 1937, and as

! context for the files that survive, the missing files and their contents (around 17

percent of the original 3618 files number, as mentioned), as numbered in 1937,

appear in their appropriate place in the index, in translation from their descriptions

in the original Russian-language index.

ri

SCOPE AND CONTENTr»

The Peter J. Braun Russian Mennonite Archive contains documents for the

r years 1803 to 1920. As originally organized by Braun, the documents of various

p, institutions formed separate, logical entities, which Braun was careful to preservej

(see pp. 13-14, above). The integrity of the original Archive's individual collections

no longer exists, however. The chronological arrangement imposed by Odessa

r archivists reorganizing the collection in the 1930s took scant notice of the

connections among files.

! While this loss of association is significant, it does not impede scholarly use of

r the individual files or prevent scholars from at least partially reconstructing the

contents of some of the original collections and identifying the provenance of files.(TCI

Since it is not possible to recatalogue a microfilmed archive, the Russian index has

r been followed in preparing the English Finding Guide. Descriptions of individual

files indicate briefly the probable source of a file, when this can be established,

27

and the subject or form of its contents.

The origins of files in the first part of the Archive, to approximately 1860, are

obvious, in most cases, to a researcher conversant with a few elementary facts

about Johann Cornies, Philipp Wiebe and the Agricultural Society (Wirtschaftlicher

Verein). Thus, in this section of the Archive, Peter Braun's original categories of

Cornies's and Wiebe's official papers, estate papers (including those from the

lushanlee, Tashenak and Altahir estates), and personal papers can easily be

traced by simply going through the entries for the applicable time period. The same

applies to the documents of the Agricultural Society (Verein). Documents

emanating from the Halbstadt Volost archive, 1803-1820, and the private papers

of Reimer, Orlov, are more difficult to identify.

The provenance of files for the post-1850 period originating in important

Mennonite institutions can be established in many cases. This applies to papers

from the Molochna Mennonite School Council, and its predecessor, and those from

the Forestry Service (Forstej). Family, business and official papers originating with

Johann Wiebe, descendant of both Johann Cornies and Philipp Wiebe, can often

be identified by someone familiar with his activities and holdings, including his

ownership of the Kampenhausen estate, managed by Nicolai Penner. These latter

collections suffered considerable wartime loss, but many files nevertheless

survived.

It is in the smaller collections of the latter part of the Archive that the damage

from cataloguing and war is most evident. Files originating with the Pedagogical

28

IV!!II

' Programme or the Menno Centre, and of individuals like Elder Abram Goerz and

p P.M. Friesen are more difficult to pin down, though an informed search by subject

will identify many of them as well.

! The language of the earlier files is mainly German. Russian gradually assumes

P a larger role until the majority of official files, after 1890 onwards, are in Russian.i

Other languages, principally Tatar and French, appear only occasionally.

P USING THE MICROFILM AND ITS FINDING GUIDE

The microfilm is generally of high quality. It can be read using a good

microfilm reader with occasional assistance from further magnifying devices. To

^ become familiar with the character and the chronological format of the Archive, to

p, recognize its variety and order, is to appreciate the achievement of the Odessa

archivists in organizing what must have been a veritable mountain of assorted

i papers into chronologically sequential files. Though the Odessa file descriptions

r and classifications are not always precise, the basic sequential ordering of the files

is remarkably accurate. Moreover, given the varied origins of the documents and

': the practical difficulties still facing archivists in Odessa at the time of microfilming,

r one is grateful for the clarity of most of the microfilmed documents.

The English-language Finding Guide is based on a review of the microfilmed

! files and on a translation of the original Russian-language inventory. The Guide

p aims to provide an accurate description of the contents of each file (whether a

single set of related documents or items of varied origin or subject matter) in an

29

inventory entry that is easily accessible. Many document files bear original

German-language headings or titles going back to their beginnings, and these

appear in the Guide in translation or as paraphrase. The identities of

authors/sources of documents given in a file description are those that appear on

the documents. Square brackets are used to identify authors/sources given in the

Russian index but not evident from the file, or authors/sources that I surmise from

the context, handwriting or other internal evidence of a file.

Most files were correctly dated in the Russian index. A number, however,

were misdated and these mistakes have been corrected. Where a file lacks a date

or the date is still in question a question mark appears after the date. No special

mark is included to identify those few files only slightly out of chronological

sequence. But files seriously out of sequence are identified with an asterisk before

the file title. Also appearing with an asterisk are a few files covering a longer time

span that the Odessa archivists did not locate precisely at the start of such a

period (eg. the listing of individuals attending the Pedagogical programme in

Halbstadt, 1878-1922, appears next to files originating in 1882).

The names of institutions have been translated into English to capture their

meaning in the German language. Thus, Landwirtschaftlicher Verein has been

translated as Agricultural Society even though its Russian-language name,

kommissiva. more properly translates as "Agricultural Commission", a designation

suggesting a body with executive authority, which it was. Equally, although the

Forstei was principally an "Afforestation Service", it has been rendered as "Forestry

30

! Service" in the Guide in accordance with its German-language use and flavour.

r The Guide avoids difficult or cumbersome English renderings of names or titles

i.

from either the Russian or German languages.

i For ease of use, index entries employ uniform terms and forms of

r description, using standardized descriptive terms for similar cases without

sacrificing accuracy. Guide entries seek a uniform depth or detail of description for

each file. This was often not the case in the 1937 Russian-language inventory

P listings.

In seeking material on a particular subject, a researcher should use a mix of

subject and chronological approaches in scanning the Guide's file descriptions.

^ Since the chronological sequence of files is not always accurate, a researcher

m should further scan the Guide index for files with asterisks, indicating material out

of sequence (eg. 1855 items in 1885). A "see also" reference (eg. SEE ALSO 89-

' 1-1500) may denote material that is linked essentially to the document contents

,» of that particular file. For example, several versions of the same, or similar,

documents may turn up in different files. Such references are not frequent, and I

have clearly not identified all of them.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

; 1789 First settlement of Mennonites in southern Russia at Khortitsa on the

f Dnieper River

1804 Beginning of a second settlement of Mennonites from Prussia on

31

approximately 123,000 desiatinas of land east of the Molochna River in

Tavrida Gubemiia. By 1811, twenty villages had been established in the

Molochna Mennonite settlement. The number of villages and population

continued to multiply rapidly so that by mid-century there existed a shortage

of land and serious economic and social problems.

Under the administrative aegis of an Imperial office, the Guardianship

Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia, the settlement enjoyed

considerable autonomy, functioning with village councils and officials and

a settlement, or district, council and officials.

1812 Johann Cornies established the estate lushanlee on the river of that name.

1817 Johann Cornies received his first crown appointment. His association with

the Russian government continued throughout his life.

1818 First of a number of royal visits to the Molochna settlement (also in 1825,

1837, etc.)

1820 Orlov school society founded to provide better education than that available

in village schools. In 1822 the Orlov secondary school began operations.

1821 A division of the Russian Bible Society was established.

1824 Johann Cornies travelled to the Imperial summer residence of Tsarskoe

Selo to purchase improved sheep stock for the settlement.

183? Agricultural Society was founded by the Guardianship

Committee. Its German title, Verein zur foerdersamen Verbreitung des

Gehoelz. Garten. Seiden und Weinbaus. inaccurately renders the original

32

Russian name, kommissiva. which suggests more the reality, a state-

p affiliated institution with executive authority. The name was changed to

Verein zur Erhoehunq der Landwirtschaft und Gewerbe in 1836. The Society

' was generally known as the Landwirtschaftiicher Verein. or simply as the

P Verein. Johann Cornies was its permanent chairman. During his lifetime and

for several years thereafter, the Society was a major force in the

development of the Molochna colony, and surrounding area. Later, its

effectiveness declined, although it reappears in less powerful form in the

late nineteenth century.

1837 Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Souther Russia, with

"* headquarters first in Ekaterinoslav and then Odessa and regional offices

and inspectorates throughout the southern Ukraine, transferred from the

jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to that of the Ivflnistry of Slate

Domains (responsible for Russia's non-serf peasantry, about half the total).

» 1838 Johann Cornies appointed member of the Learned Committee of the

Ministry of State Domains.

i 1843 Guardianship Committee expands duties of Cornies and the

«-» Agricultural Society to include development and supervision of schools.

1848 Johann Cornies died and was succeeded as Chairman of the

; Agricultural Society by his secretary and son-in-law, Philipp Wiebe.

r 1850 General teachers' conferences were established to improve the quality of

teaching.

33

1850s and 1860s Strife erupted between landed and landless Mennonite villagers

over the division of land in the settlement. Eventually surplus and reserve

lands were distributed and additional land purchased for new settlements

at various times until the beginning of World War I.

1860s Mennonite Brethren Church established as a breakaway reform

movement within the religious life of the Russian Mennonite colonies.

1869 Molochna Mennonite School Council was established.

1871 Changes introduced in the forms and names of local government

institutions in Russia's foreign settlements. This involved little real change

in the functions of existing institutions, however. Additionally, the Molochna

Mennonite settlement was now divided into western and eastern districts,

now called volosts. with administrative centres in the villages of Halbstadt

and Gnadenfeld respectively.

1874 Introduction of compulsory military service. After several years of

negotiations, the pacifist Mennonites were exempted from direct military

involvement and given an alternative service in afforestation camps largely

under their own supervision. Threatened military service, however, triggered

the emigration to Canada and the United States of from one-quarter to one-

third of all Russian Mennonites.

1880s Establishement of a number of Mennonite afforestation camps, the Forstei

or Forestry Service.

1883 First General Conference of Mennonite Churches succeeded earlier

34

1880 Establishment of the School for the Deaf and Mute (the Marien

Taubstummenschule). The school opened in the village of Blumenort in

1885 and moved to new buildings in Tiege in 1890.

1890 Under pressure from a strident Russian nationalist movement, Russian

language made compulsory in many school, government and official

functions.

1915 Russian government issued decree liquidating property held by

foreigners. War and revolution prevented its full implementation.

1917 All-Mennonite Congress meets in village of Orlov in August.

Mennozentrum (Menno Centre) was formed.

FURTHER REFERENCES

Dyck, Harvey L "Russian Servitor and Mennonite Hero-Light and Shadow in

Images of Johann Comies," Journal of Mennonite Studies 2(1984):9-28.

Epp, David H. Johann Cornies; Zueae aus seinem Leben und Wirken.

Ekaterinoslav and Berdiansk, Russia, 1909.

Friesen, P.M. The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia (1789-1910). Transl. J.B.

Toews and others. Fresno, California, 1978.

Goerz, H. Die Molotschnaer Ansiedlunq: Entstehunq. Entwickelunq und

Unterqanq. Steinbach, Manitoba, 1951.

Isaac, Franz. Die Molotschnaer Mennoniten: ein Beitrao zur Geschichte

derselben. Halbstadt, Russia, 1908.

Mennonites in Russia. 1788 - 1988; Essays in Honour of Gerhard Lohrenz. Ed.

John Friesen. Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1989. This volume contains a basic

bibliography.

Rempel, David G. "The Mennonite Commonwealth in Russia; A Sketch of its

Founding and Endurance, 1789-1919," Mennonite Quarterly Review

35

Rempel, David G. "The Mennonite Commonwealth in Russia; A Sketch of its

Founding and Endurance, 1789-1919," Mennonite Quarterly Review

47(1973): 259-308 and 48(1974): 5-54.

Urry, James. None but Saints: the Transformation of Mennonite Life in Russia,

1789-1889. Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1989.

36

I

f&r&

KEY TO USE OF INDEX

ALSO Denotes documents of different origin or subject from the main

subject matter of that file.

Asterisk indicates files not in chronological sequence or files

that include material for a longer time span.

G,R,0 Languages of documents, listed in order of their

prominence in the file: G=German, R=Russian, O=other, principally

Tatar, French or English.

SEE ALSO Documents sometimes appear in various drafts in several

files. Where these have been identified, SEE ALSO is an attempt to

tie them together.

89-1-00 References to files are given in their bibliographical

format with collection(fond) number 89, inventory

guide (opis) number 1 (there is only one opis for this collection)

preceding the file number.

[ ] Square brackets are used to indicate attributions not explicit in the

microfilmed documents. They occur in regard to files that the

Odessa index attributes to a source/author, or where handwriting

or format indicate their origin.

37

FILE DESCRIPTION DATE PAGES LANG

Be*MISSING - Registration of settlers 1803

arrived in Ekaterinoslav and their

distribution on Molochna River

MISSING - List of 50 1803-4

proprietors who arrived in colony in

1803-04 and place of settlement

* Administrative documents: 18 04-

Guidelines for assistance to the aged 38

and the infirm, 1814, also some

accounts, of various dates; outline of

inheritance practices, 1814;

correspondence, 1804; list of cattle

delivered to Sarepta, 1838;etc.

Establishment of colonies - 1804

Directives and correspondence between

Guardianship Office of New Russian

Settlers and leaders of new Mennonite

settlement, also some items from

Khortitsa district office

(Microfilmed in two sections with

some duplication)

* Establishment of 48 colonies of 18 04-

Molochna Mennonite District - List of 52

dates

MISSING - List regarding 1804-

IS5J

42 G&R

88 G&R

* Guardianship Office for Foreign 18 12

Settlers in New Russia - Directive to 29

Molochna District Office, 1812

ALSO Ekaterinoslav Office for

Foreign Settlers - Directive, 1829

ALSO Johann Cornies - Contract and

accounts, etc., 1812

- 18 G&R

FILE DESCRIPTION DATE PG LNG

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

* Improvement of sheep and wool

products - Instructions, minutes,

reports from imperial association

ALSO Further notes and reports on

agricultural methods and various

conditions in Molochna and other

colonies

MISSING J. Cornies - Notebook

MISSING Ditto

Martin Cornies - Letter to Johann

Cornies

Guardianship Office for Foreign

Settlers in New Russia - Directives

to the Molochna Mennonite District

Office

ALSO Copy of surnames of Danzig

Mennonites (Copy made after 1903)

[Johann Cornies] - Notebook

Johann Cornies - Notebook

MISSING Ditto

Guardianship Office; Ekaterinoslav

Office for Foreign Settlers

Directives to the Molochna District

Office

1812?

29

- 96

1814

1815

1816

1817

6

49

18 17

18

18 12

16

1817

1818

79

86

56

G&R

G

G

G&R

39

FILE DESCRIPTION DATE PAGES LNG

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

* Johann Cornies - Agreement on

rental land with local villages

ALSO Population of villages 1818;

[agricultural] statistics, 1810-1818

(Some headings missing - SEE ALSO

statistics sheet at end of file 89-1-

19)

Johann Cornies - Correspondence from

Mennonites

Ekaterinoslav Office for Foreign

Settlers - Directives to the Molochna

District Office

ALSO District Office accounts,

including those for expenses for

government visitors, and some

statistics SEE ALSO 89-1-17

School in Orlov - Accounts, 1820-27

Johann Cornies - Appointment by

village authorities, directives from

Ekaterinoslav Office of Foreign

Settlers, reports, administrative

papers and notes, correspondence,

statistical summaries

MISSING Orlov School Society

Financial account

MISSING Cornies family - Account

book


Settlers - Directives to Molochna

District Office, 1823-24,

administrative documents, accounts

and statistics, 1820-24

Collection of excerpts in prose and

verse (appears to be handwritten copy

of items from collection called

Leitziele des Guten published

Stuttgart, 1821)

Bible society - Letter requesting

permission to found such a group (to

Prince A. N. Golitsin)

1810

18

- 28 G&R

1818

19

1819

11

63

G

G&R

18

27

18

28

2

1

0-

7-

30

135

G

cm

G&R

1820

27

1820

1820

24

- Ill G&R

1821 203

1821 G&R F&t)

40


27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

Affidavits DAMAGE 1821

MISSING Prince A. Golitsin - Letters 1821

to the Committee of the Molochna

branch of the Bible Society

MISSING Correspondence with trading

firms in St. Petersburg and Moscow

MISSING Johann Cornies - Expense

book



District Office

Bible society - Excerpts from minutes

ALSO Johann Cornies - Account

[Johann Cornies] - Notebook

MISSING Accounts with Nogais

* Bible Society - Minutes, accounts

Johann Cornies - Correspondence

MISSING Bible society

Participation of the colonists

Bible society - Lists of members and

benefactors, constitution, accounts,

etc. SOME DAMAGE

Alexander Paterson, Scottish colonist 1822

Letter with questions about

Mennonite beliefs (originally sent to

Johann Cornies)

MISSING Drainage of swamps near 1823

Kakhovka - Notes by Klassen and S.

Kh. Contenius

MISSING Income and expense book

Summary statistics of population and 1823

land in the Molochna Mennonite

District

R&G

1822

1822

1822

1822-

23

1822

1822

1822-

36

1822

1822

1822-

43

40

17

88

23

19

101

G&R

G

GRO

G

G

G&R

41

PILE DESCRIPTION DATE PAGES LNG

43 Brewing and brandy production - 1823- 30

Accounts 25

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

MISSING Bible Society - Journal of

the committee of the Molochna

Protestant Bible Society

MISSING Catalogue of plants for

planting

* Johann Cornies - Lists of fruit and

forest trees available, price lists,

accounts

Brewing and brandy production

Accounts

Bible society - Correspondence

Bible society - Accounts

ALSO Waldensians - Translation of

article from English magazine, Feb.

1822

ALSO Brewing accounts

Bible society - Book accounts

Evangalical Mission Society of Basel

Publication with letters from

missionaries

Accounts for rents, agricultural

activities, debts, etc.

MISSING

materials

Doukhobors Literary

Trip to St. Petersburg - Accountbook

of travel expenses, etc. [Johann

Cornies] SEE ALSO 89-1-55

Accountbook of travel expenses

[Gerhard Martens] SEE ALSO 89-1-54

MISSING Accounts of Inzov (head

guardian of colonies) with Gerhard

Dyck

1823

41

1823

1823

42

1823

26

1823

24

1822

23

- 29

- 14

- 59

- 124

1824?

1824

25

20

G&R

G&R

1823-

26

1822-

23

1824

1824

1824

26

90

22

77

G

G

G

G

42

PILE DESCRIPTION DATE PAGES LNG

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

MISSING Distribution of the

publications of the Bible society

* Johann Cornies - Documents and

accounts dealing with trip to St.

Petersburg, correspondence,

directives, appointments, etc. SEE

ALSO 89-1-54 and 89-1-55

ALSO Elders of Khortitsa colony -

Letter dated 1819

Inspection trip of sheep farms run by

foreigners on former crown lands in

South Russia - Notes, documents,

accounts of trip by Russian official,

Kusovnikov, with Johann Cornies and

others

Bible society - Accounts

* Johann. Cornies - Correspondence and

accounts

Johann Cornies - Correspondence from

foreign and other sources

Johann Cornies - Journal recording

outgoing letters; some correspondence

received and accounts

MISSING Dispatch of horses to the

fair in Novo-Moscowsk

MISSING Samples of fabric from

Johann Klassen's enterprise in

Halbstadt

Horse and cattle profits - Accounts


Settlers - Directive

Iushanlee, Tashenak, etc. - Accounts

for rented land

1824

1819 ,

1824

1824

1825

108

120

1824 6

1820, 33

1829

18 25- 68

27

87

1825

1825

1825-

41

1825

1825

54

4

11

G&R

G&R

G

G

G

G

43


69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

Johann Cornies - Manuscript of

document:"Something about the Nogai-

Tartars in Russia...especially about

those Nogai...settled on the Molochna

in 1809...." as reported by a

neighour in 1825

Brandy production and brewery

Accounts

* Sheep-farm - Accounts

Discovery of water sources, drilling

wells, and defining of boundaries -

Accounts, signed by Johann Cornies

Johann Bartram

descriptions, etc.

Letters,

* Iushanlee estate - Summary accounts

of sheep-farming

Johann Cornies - Bills, accounts

* Johann Cornies - Correspondence


Genuinely Spiritual Christians,

settled in the province of Tavrida -

List of names

Wilhelm Martens, Halbstadt - Accounts

for brandy and beer production, land

dealings, etc.



District Office

ALSO Sheep raising during 1826 -

Statistics

* Johann Cornies - Correspondence and

book accounts


outgoing letters

1825

1 825

26

1825

42

1825

29

1825?

29

1825

46

1825

36

1824

1825

1825

1826

1826

1826

37

1826

193

19

39

10

161

12

38

18

51

31

38

108

11

158

G

G

G

G&R

G

G

G

G&R

R

R&G

G

G

44


83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98



Bible society - Correspondence


Certificate to Nogais regarding the

sale of horse


Molochna District Office - Directives

received on sheep purchases

[Bible society] - Book accounts

Book catalogue - Alphabetical listing

of books belonging to ?

Way-bill for horses sent to Smolensk

Province

Assorted documents: explanation of

rental of brandy production; accounts

involving livestock sales to

Khortitsa, etc.

Johann Cornies

correspondence,

documents

Certificates,

bills, travel


Bible and book sales; brewery

Accounts

Iushanlee, Tashenak - Accounts for

rented lands



District office

1826 9

18 22- 64

30 16

1826

1826

1826

1826

1826

1826-

34

1827

1827

1827

1827

4

9

5

81

10

12

26

4

10

39

G

G

G

G&O

R

G

G

99 Johann Cornies - Bills for book

purchases in German states

1827

1826-

28

1827-

28

1827

1827-

30

30

19

23

9

13

G&R

G

G

G&R

G

45


100 Bible society - Correspondence

101 Commentary on a newspaper article

about attitudes to Germany - signed

J.H. Lange

102 Johann Cornies - Journal recording

letters written while on a journey to

Saxony, February - June, 1827

103 Johann Cornies - Journey to Saxony

and Prussia, February - August, 1827

- Diaries, itineraries, accounts

104 Brewery - Accounts

105 MISSING Income and expense accounts

106 MISSING Directives of the


Settlers

107 MISSING Mennonite District Office -

Journal of accounts

108 Fruit trees - Lists of varieties

109 MISSING Journal of correspondence

with Mennonite communities in Germany

110 Accounts [for ?]

111 Accounts [paybook for individuals

working in various positions]

112 Johann Cornies, etc. - Appeals,

certificates, notes, descriptions

113 Accounts

114 Johann Cornies - Livestock account

115 MISSING J. Cornies - Correspondence

with Mennonites

116 MISSING Iushanlee estate - Main

account of J. Cornies

182 7- 82

39

1827 9

1827

1827

1827

1827

1827

1827

44

182

14

G&R

G

1828

1827

1828-

30

1828-

31

1828

1828

1828

1828

1828-

49

75

7

58

148

26

5

G

rap

Q m

G&R f-mI ..V....

G

G

46


117 Iushanlee, Tashenak estates

Accounts for rented land

118 * Johann Cornies, Orlov - Five-year

summary of accounts, 1828-32

119 Johann Bartram? - DAMAGED text

120 Johann Cornies - Accounts, bills

DAMAGE

121 Bible society - Correspondence and

accounts DAMAGE

122 * Johann Cornies - Credit account

book

123 School exercise examples

ALSO Brewery and brandy accounts

124 Household accounts

125 Johann Cornies - Accounts for sheep

farm, grains, etc.

126 School in Orlov - Student records,

accounts

ALSO Wilhelm Martens and Johann

Cornies - Correspondence from

Molochna District Office

127 Ekaterinoslav Office for Foreign


District Office

128 Johann Cornies - Summary household

accounts


draft letters and reports

130 Brandy production and brewery

Accounts

131 Wool production - Records and notes

132 Bible society - Correspondence

1828-

30

1828-

32

1828?

1828

1828

1828-

40

1828-

29

1828

1828

43

23

75

18

51

48

73

19

28

G

G

G?

G

G

G

G

G

G

1828 20

1828 53 R&G

1828

1828

1828-

29

1828-

29

1829

10

133

38

39

14

G

G

G

R&G

G

47


133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

Count K. Lieven

Cornies

- Letter to Johann

Wool production

contracts, records

Way bills,

Agreement or certificate DAMAGE

[Johann Cornies] - Summary accounts

of expenses for tilling land and

keeping livestock

[Johann Cornies] - Monthly records of

sales of sheep, horses and cattle

from sheep farm and of Nogai sheep

MISLABELLED 89-1-131 ON MICROFILM BUT

138 ON S.A.O.R. ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION

* [Johann Cornies, Philipp Wiebe] -

Draft letters and notes ca. 1844-45?


Johann Cornies - Summary household

accounts



District Office


outgoing letters, reports, appeal

Johann Cornies - Draft report, etc.

ALSO, Bible society - Accounts

Johann Cornies - Bills, accounts

District Office

including some to

Wilhelm Martens

of articles from

periodicals, 1829

ALSO Draft communications with

village authorities, n.d.

*? Mennonite

Correspondence

Johann Cornies

ALSO Copies

1829

1829-

45

1829

1829-

31

1828

-29

1844-

45?

1829

1829

1829-

30

1829

1829

1829

1829?

10

35

1

8

44

39

7

10

42

131

27

19

50

G

R&G

G

G

G

G&R

G

G

R&G

G

G&R

G

G

146 School exercise examples, signed by

Teacher Heese

1829 75 G&R

48


147 Johann Cornies - Accounts for sheep

farm

148 Books purchased in Ekaterinoslav -

Lists and accounts (Librarian Johann

Cornies)

149 Cash and credit accountbook

150 Philipp Wiebe, Halbstadt - First

journal or exercise book

151 * Johann Klassen, Halbstadt,

manufacturer, and Johann Cornies -

Accounts for indebtedness, payment,

etc.

ALSO Wool accounts, etc. from Moscow

152 * [Johann Cornies] - Cash and credit

accounts

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

1829

182

32

182

30

182

30

181

32

9-

9-

9-

7-

48

12

19

46

33

G

G

G

G

G

Brandy production, brewery - Accounts

SOME DAMAGED

Brandy production, brewery - Accounts

SOME DAMAGED

Bibles - Record of sales DAMAGE

* Johann Cornies - Credit account

book

Johann Cornies - Household accounts

DAMAGE

Iushanlee estate - Inventories of

forest trees and fruit orchards, with

notes and one letter DAMAGE

Johann Cornies

DAMAGE

Correspondence

Philipp Wiebe and Wiebe family -

Correspondence DAMAGE

f!'U3l

Johann Cornies

DAMAGE

Correspondence

1829-

46

1829-

30

1829

1829

1829-

43

1829

1830-

38

1830

1830-

49

1830

17

26

33

18

25

29

71

50

140

13

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G&R

G

G&R

49

fra


162

163

164

165

166

167

167a

Ekaterinoslav Office for Foreign 1830


District Office and an appeal

ALSO Fire insurance regulations for

Molochna Colony

ALSO Accounts for rent of brandy and

beer production facilities

ALSO Diary of weather conditions on

a trip to St. Petersburg, April to

July, n.y. DAMAGE

* School society in Orlov - Journal 18 2 8

with policy statement, 35

correspondence, reports

Johann Cornies

brewery accounts

Household and 1830

* Cornies - Accounts for sheep-farm


Settlers - Directive to the Molochna

and Khortitsa settlements for

^societies to improve gardens, tree-

*planting, silk culture andviticulture (copy, original signed

Fadeyev, n.d.)

Johann Cornies - Correspondence with

authorities on rental of brewery,

etc.; also correspondence of Bible

.society DAMAGE

* Johann Cornies - Correspondence and

directives received, draft letters

and appeals, etc.

ALSO Church councils - Appeals

ALSO Molochna District Office

Directive


Settlers, etc. - Directives to

Molochna District Office


draft letters, reports, etc.

170 Johann Cornies - Monthly accounts for

sheep farm and sheep accounts with

Nogais

1820

1830?

1830

183 1

34

1830

1830

1830

31

167

- 43

30

14

42

27

- 96

31

154

35

G&R

G

G

1351

G&R

G&R

R&G

G

G

50


171 Johann Cornies - Summary accounts for

estate

172 School exercise examples, signed by

Teacher Heese

173 MISSING Accounts

174 Johann Cornies - Court application

resulting from shipping irregularity

DAMAGE

175 Extracts copied from Odessaer Bothe

of February 1830

176 Johann Cornies - Accounts, bills,

records

177 MISSING A book with samples of wool

178 MISSING Receipts

179 MISSING Contracts

180 * [Philipp Wiebe] - Draft

communications with village

authorities and letters, some

correspondence

181 Johann Cornies - Correspondence for

Bible society and other accounts

182 MISSING Application by J. Cornies

183 Iushanlee estate - Inventory of

forest trees

184 * Ekaterinoslav Office for Foreign


District Office

185 Johann Cornies - Correspondence,

records, etc.

186 MISSING Tree planting and wine

growing - Instructions for

distribution of selected plants

187 * Johann Cornies - Bills, etc.

ALSO Draft report, 1840

51

1830

1830

1830

1830

1830

1829

32

1830

1831

1831

1847

49?

16

53

11

129

- 88

G

G&R

G&R

G&R

183 1- 26

32

1831

1830- 31

34

1819 , 7

1831 ,

1833

183 1- 63

33

1831-

54

1 8 3 2 - 12 G&R

40

G

G

G&R

Fi

FILE

188

189

190

191

DESCRIPTION DATE PAGES LNG

Johann Cornies, etc. - Correspondence 18 2 9-

31

Johann Cornies - Summary household

accounts

Johann Cornies [and

Correspondence, notes

School records of students signed

Teacher H. Heese

192 Brandy production and brewery

Accounts



District Office, 1831

ALSO Molochna District Office -

Administrative agreements, etc.

ALSO Lists of forest and fruit

trees

1831

others] - 1831

1831-

33

1831

1831-

32

85

8

56

13

27

90

G&R

G

G&R

G

G

G&R

194 Iushanlee, Tashenak, Cornies family - 18 3 0- 48

Accounts for rented lands 32

195 MISSING Philipp Wiebe - School 1831

notebook

196 Extracts of articles copied from 18 2 6 - 49

foreign and Russian newspapers, many 31

of them on agricultural topics

197 MISSING School tests 1831

198 MISSING Register regarding income 1831

and expenses involved in sheep-

breeding

199 MISSING Ekaterinoslav Office for 1831

Foreign Settlers - Directives to the

Mennonite District Office

200 Johann Cornies - Journal recording 1831 148

outgoing letters, reports,

communications to village authorities

201 MISSING Household income and expense 1831

accounts

52


202 MISSING Account book

203 Cash and credit account book

204 MISSING Johann Cornies - Accounts

for sheepfarm

205 Johann Cornies - Bills or accounts

for several individuals

206 Bible and book sales - Accounts and

correspondence

207 Wiebe - Correspondence

208 Johann Cornies - Bills, etc.

209 Bibles, etc.- Salesbook

210 MISSING A subsidiary book

211 Draft accounts, including records of

sales of horses to various

individuals, some of them Molokans

212 * Gardening Society, Orlov - Records

of books lent to individuals

213 Agricultural implements - Records of

items in Molochna district, etc.

DAMAGE

214 School records and exercises signed

by Teacher Heese

215 [Philipp] Wiebe - Correspondence

216 Johann Cornies - Correspondence, etc.

ALSO H. Heese - Credit account

217 Ackerman colony - Drafts of

organization policy, internal

regulations, etc. n.d.

218 Bible society - Debt records and

petition by Johann Cornies

1831

1831

1831

1831

1831

40

1831

32

1831

1831

32

183 1

32

1831

33

1832

46

1832?

1832

1833

1828-

34

1832?

1832

16

17

31

69

73

25

- 53

13

9

88

49

11

71

12

G

G

G

G

G

G

G

G&R

G

G

G&R

R&G

53


219

——

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

Wool sale to Moscow

accounts

- Contract, 1832 13

* Agricultural Society, Johann

Cornies - Regulations, directives,

village inventories for tree

planting, 1832 DAMAGE

ALSO Johann Cornies - Journal

recording draft letters, requests,

etc. for 1834

Nogai raid on a herd of Mennonite

horses - Explanation by Mr. Efimenko,

submitted on the request of Melitopol

zensky court

Drawing for a mosque

Johann Cornies - Correspondence and

reports received; draft letters and

communication to villages DAMAGE

ALSO Molochna District Office

Correspondence

Cash and credit account book

Johann Cornies, etc. - Correspondence

* Tree plantings in the Molochna

Mennonite District - Survey

Variety of draft notes



District Office, etc.

Bills

* Johann Cornies - Correspondence

ALSO Orlov Mennonite Church - Draft

petition to Office for Foreign

Settlers, n.d.

Travel expense accounts [including

trip involving land purchases]

DAMAGE

1832, 131

1834

1832

1832? 6

1832? 102

1832 20

G&R

0

G&R

1832-

33

1832

1837

1832?

1832

1832-

34

1832?

25

25

7

18

42

23

18

G

G

G

G&R

R&G

G

G

54

r

i FILE DESCRIPTION DATE PAGES LNG

p» 232 Johann Cornies - Correspondence 1832 95 G&R

233 Johann Cornies - Bills and expenses 183 1- 66 G

33

!

234 * Greetings of Prussian and 1823 6 G

Lithuanian Mennonites on occasion of

p Prince Friedrich Wilhelm's marriage

235 Johann Cornies - Correspondence 1832 9 G

236 Johann Cornies - Journal recording 1832 122 G

draft letters, reports, appeals,

communications to village authorities

237 Brewery - Accounts 1832 11 G

r» 238 Dreisma, Peter Orens - Appears to be 1832 130 G

j handwritten copy of poetry for

various occasions, published in

„_ Grunau, 1832

239 Brandy production and sales - 1832 14 G

Accounts

240 * Cornies family accounts 182 9- 30 G

38

241 * Philipp Wiebe - Family 18 32- 58 G

correspondence SOME DAMAGE 46

r 242 * Johann Cornies, etc. - List of 1832- 176 Gplantings in villages; 43

pay book listing services of various

p individuals, 1832-33;

! accounts for brickmakers, 1832-43;records of bible sales, 1832-33;

accounts for rented lands, 1832-33;

accounts for sheep-farm, 1832;

summary household accounts, 1832;

draft notes

! 243 [Johann Cornies] - Household accounts 1832 47 G

244 Johann Cornies - Bills 1832 9 Gf$tffe

245 Iushanlee estate - Summary accounts 1832 14 G

for sheep-farm

55

FILE DESCRIPTION

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

254

255

Johann

DAMAGE

Cornies - Correspondence


received and some draft letters and

appeals

* Philipp Wiebe, Ekaterinoslav -

School exercise book

ALSO Johann Cornies - Register of

boys and girls in training on the

estate Iushanlee, July 29, 1841

Cornies family - Business notes

*? [Agricultural] Society, Johann

Cornies - Catalogue of documents in

the office of the Society and inJohann Cornies's possession

Johann Cornies, Agricultural Society

- Journal recording draft letters,

communications with village

authorities, reports

Household accounts

List of plant names

* Agricultural Society - Two reports

ALSO Draft letter, unsigned, 1840

ALSO Report on development of

Molochna colony, structure, etc.,

unsigned, n.d.

Johann Cornies - Bills

DATE

1832

1832

1832

1841

PAGES

158

80

, 15

LNG

G&R

G&R

G

256 Johann Cornies - Draft letters,

reports, accounts

257 Address book, etc.

258 Johann Cornies - Correspondence

ALSO Ekaterinoslav Office of Foreign

Settlers - Directive to Molochna

District Office DAMAGE

259 Johann Cornies - Correspondence

1832 10

1839? 9

1833 172

G

G

1833

1833?

1838 ,

1840

32

9

46

G

G

1833

1833

1833?

1833

5

58

35

22

G

G

R&G

G&R

1833 19 G&R

56


260

261

262

263

264

265

266

267

268

269

270

271

1833

Bible society - List of committee 1833

members of Molochna section and

accounts

Brewery accounts

Johann Cornies - Bills, etc.

Johann Cornies - Bills

ALSO Iushanlee estate - Inventory of

sheep

* Transfer of individuals from

Evangelical Church to Mennonite

brotherhood and the reverse process -

Directives from Ekaterinslav Office

of Foreign Settlers, correspondence

from officials and church notes

J