LL-L: "Plautdietsch" LOWLANDS-L, 14.JUL.2000 (03) [E/German]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 14.JUL.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Plautdietsch at aol.com
Subject: LL-L: "Plautdietsch"

Dear Lowlanders,

Ron Hahn wrote:

"As we already know, there are or were many Mennonites in Russia and
Kazakhstan.  Kyrgyzstan, too, has been mentioned occasionally.  Can any of
you tell me if there are Mennonite communities (perhaps mistakenly called
"Baptists") in other former Soviet states as well?"

I know of Plautdietsch communities (Mennonite or Baptist) in Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania. Like the one in Estonia that my family joined after leaving a
village near Omsk/Sibiria, many of these were founded in the late 60s.
Plautdietsch families and other "Germans" moved there because it was a little
bit easier to emigrate to Germany from there. There also were (or still are?)
Mennonite/"Baptist" communities in Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and
Tajikistan. Many (or most of them?) are in Germany now. In Dr. Horst
Gerlach's history book "Die Russlandmennoniten. Ein Volk unterwegs" you can
find a map of today's Germany with over 228 "Aussiedlergemeinden aus den
GUS-Ländern", each one with about 300 members. Most of them are, or used to
be, Plautdietsch speakers.

There is a nice little book by Heinrich Löwen ("In Vergessenheit geratene
Beziehungen. Frühe Begegnungen der Mennoniten-Brüdergemeinde mit dem
Baptismus in Russland - ein Überblick") where Löwen discribes the relation of
Mennonites and Baptists in Russia. Here a few lines out of the preface by J.B.
Töws (Fresno/California):

"Die Anfänge der Beziehungen zwischen Mennoniten und Baptisten gehen zurück
bis zum Ende des sechzehnten und Anfang des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. Der
Name John Smith, der als Gründer der Baptistenbewegung in England anerkannt
ist, steht als erster auf der Liste der Ältesten der
Singel-Kanal-Mennoniten-Gemeinde in Amsterdam. Als Flüchtling der verfolgten
Erweckungsbewegung fand er sein geistliches Heim unter den Wiedertäufern in
Holland. In einem anderen Stadtteil von Amsterdam steht eine Kirche, die als
‚John Smith Memorial Baptist Church' bezeichnet ist.
[...]
Die zeitweilige Auflösung der Mennoniten-Brüdergemeinde in Russland
(1928-1935), erzwungen durch die schwere Unterdrückung jeglicher Religion von
Seiten der Sowjetregierung und die Verbannung aller deutsch-stämmigen Bürger
Russlands während des zweiten Weltkrieges, schuf Verhältnisse, in denen manche
Erben der Mennoniten-Brüdergemeinden im russischen Baptismus eine geistliche
Zukunft fanden."

So, no wonder you can find Plautdietsch speaking people in Russsian German
Mennonite AND Baptist communities...

Ron Hahn wrote:

"[...] Ever since then I've been wondering and have been assuming that those
(living not all that far away from China's border with Kazakhstan) were
Mennonites and that they had been classified as ethnic "Russians"
(_Eluosi-zu_) by the administration.  Does any of you know if there is any
truth to this "rumor"?

I forwarded this question to a friend, Arnold Thielmann, who is into Russian
German and Mennonite history. He wrote:

"Bekannt ist ja, dass in den dreißiger Jahren des 20. Jhd. zahlreiche
Mennonitendörfer im Amurgebiet in die chinesische Grenzprovinz und in die
Stadt Harbin (Charbin) vor der kommunistischen Einverleibung geflohen sind
und meines Wissens überwiegend nach Übersee (Nord- und Südamerika) durch
Hilfsorganisationen weiter vermittelt wurden. Bei der von Hahn beschriebenen
Turkestan-Gruppe wird es sich um andere Gruppen handeln, die aber vielleicht
ähnliche Motivationsgründe wie die Amur-Mennoniten hatten, die damalige
Sowjetunion zu verlassen. Um eine Missionsgründung wird es sich ja wohl nicht
handeln?"

Sorry, I left the quotations in German...

"Aulet Baste",
Peter Wiens

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language politics

Dear Peter,

Thank you very much for going to all the trouble of finding and sharing all
that information above.

Both China and Russia (especially the Soviet Union) have been playing the
power game with Eastern Turkestan.  China officially named the region
"Xinjiang" ("New Frontier") in 1768 and declared it a Chinese province in
1884, consistently declaring it Chinese territory since time immemorial, a
claim that is still the official line (applying also to Tibet).  There was a
period of Soviet control under Governor Sheng Shicai (Sheng Shih-ts'ai)
beginning in December of 1936, with Soviet intervention in a "Muslim revolt"
(i.e., a predominantly Uyghur uprising) in Qashghar (Kashghar, Kashi) in 1937,
ending with Sheng breaking with the Soviets and realigning the "province" with
Nationalist China in 1942.  Before that, between 1871 and 1881, Tsarist
Russian forces had occupied Xinjiang's Ili Valley, which later declared
independence for a brief period.  Russians and Central Asians immigrated to
Xinjiang on and off, and descendants of Russian, Uzbek and Tatar immigrants,
living mostly in Xinjiang, now count among China's officially recognized
ethnic groups.  (These official groups are often catch-all categories
including several "unofficial" ethnicities.  For instance, Oyrat and Tuva are
counted among "Mongol" and Chinese Jews among "Han" or "Hui/Muslim".)

I am aware of Protestant missionaries in Xinjiang prior to the founding of the
People's Republic of China.  However, I know only of activities of the Swedish
Mission, and the Swedish literature I read about it leads me to believe that
there were no other Protestant missions in the region.

Currently, my hunch is that, if there are indeed any descendants of Mennonites
among the regional (currently dwindling) "Russian" minority, they or their
forebears must have come from neighboring Kazakhstan, not via Harbin or any
other place in Manchuria (or "Northeast": the provinces Heilongjiang [Amur],
Jilin and Liaoning).  If so, this probably happened *after* the mentioned
Soviet deportation of what were considered ethnic Germans

Thanks again.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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