LL-L "Low Saxon" 2002.03.26 (09) [E]

Wed Mar 27 00:38:48 UTC 2002

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 26.MAR.2002 (09) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Mike Aryunov" <kraai at mail.ru>
Subject: Question

Dear Ron,

In one of your recent letters you wrote:

> Later on they <Low Saxon speakers> took this dialect
> with them when they emigrated to "New Russia" (Ukraine)
> and later farther on into Siberia ...

I wonder where did you take that alias for Ukraine? In Russian tradition
the
three East-Slavonic countries are called sometimes as follows: Ukraine
"Little Russia" (Malorossiya), Byelarus "White Russia" and Russia itself
"Great Russia" (Velikorossiya) respectively. But I have never heard
someone
calling Ukraine "New Russia" in any geographical or historical context.
Or
was it so for those German settlers? It's interesting that the territory
of
modern Ukraine was in VIII-IX cc. A.D. the center of an early Russian
state
'Kievan Rus' and Kiev is often called 'Mother of Russian cities'. Thus
Ukraine is rather "Old Russia".

Sincerely,
Mike Aryunov

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Low Saxon

Mike,

Stravstvujte!  Good to hear from you from Russia!

I totally see your logic (above).  I also hope I had written the name in
quotation marks as I intended to do.  (Let's check ... Yes, I did.)  I
found it as strange as you do.  I believe I first found it in Reuben
Epp's writings about Plautdietsch, and I know Reuben for his
conscientious scholarship and would not expect him to make up such a
name.  (Or did I misread his work and follow a figment of my own
imagination?  Help!  I don't have his very recommendable book right
here.)  Perhaps this was a name in use at the time the Mennonites
emigrated to that area.

Here is the result of a quick search on the web, according to which "New
Russia" was a part of Ukraine:

---start quote---
... In 1847, according to official sources, there were almost 600,000
Jews in the Ukrainian regions belonging to Russia (the provinces of
southwestern Russia—Volhynia, Podolia, and Kiev; of "Little
Russia"—Chernigov and Poltava; and of "New Russia"—Yekaterinoslav
(Dnepropetrovsk), Kherson, and Taurida), though they actually numbered
up to 900,000. ...
---end quote---
"Jewish History of Ukraine": http://www.heritagefilms.com/UKRAINE.html

---start quote---
See David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Colonies in New Russia: A Study of
their Settlement and Economic Development from 1789-1914” (Ph.D. diss.,
Stanford University, 1933)
---end quote---
"Two Moments in the Search for a Mennonite Brethren Identity":
http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?839

---start quote---
A Success Story: The German Colonists in New Russia and Bessarabia,
1787-1914. In: Acta Slavica Japonica 9 (1991), S. 32-46.
---end quote---
"Forschungen zur Geschichte, Sprache, Literatur und Gegenwart der
Rußlanddeutschen":
http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/geschichte/kgdoe/f92.htm

---start quote---
Born in Germany in the mid-eighteenth-century, Samuel Contenius sought
his fortune abroad by entering Russian state service in 1785. He served
in the diplomatic corps for a decade and was sent on various missions.
Subsequently he spent some years with the government geography
department in Riga. In 1800 Contenius was appointed as the head of the
newly-created Office of Guardianship for Foreign Settlers in New Russia.
This agency, often called the Supervisory Commission, was first located
in Yekaterinoslav. Its intended role was to address the difficulties
experienced by foreign settlers in the southern lands newly conquered by
Russia.
---end quote---
'Samuel Contenius to the Elder and Minister of the Mennonite Churches
Cornelius Warkentin[1] of Rosenort near Elbing. 22 August 1802.' :
"Mennonite documents from the St. Petersburg archives:
New resources for telling an old story" : _California Mennonite
Historical Society Bulletin_ No. 35: January 1998

---start quote---
One part of this Mennonite story that is less known to many contemporary
Mennonites is the story of the Mennonite Church in Russia, part of which
takes place in what is now known as Ukraine. It is a story which began
in 1789 when upon the invitation of Catherine the Great Mennonites of
Prussia joined others of German ethnic background to begin a new life in
what was then “New Russia.”
---end quote---
'Ukraine's Story of Glory, Tragedy' : "Three Articles or Reflections":
http://home.ica.net/~walterunger/Esau.html

---start quote---
The Russian Mennonite immigrants, therefore, were granted the right to
transplant their traditional way of life and settlement pattern from New
Russia to southern Manitoba, including block settlement which would
provide the much sought after isolation they were accustomed to in
Russia.
---end quote---
"Inter-Mennonite Cooperation and Promises to Government in the Repeal of
the Ban on Mennonite Immigration to Canada 1919-1922" : _Mennonite
Historian, Volume XIX, No. 1, March, 1993_

---start quote---
Von den Zaren adoptiert: Die deutschen Kolonisten und die Balkansiedler
in Neurußland und Bessarabien 1751-1914. (Monographie)
---end quote---
"Forschungen zur Geschichte, Sprache, Literatur und Gegenwart der
Rußlanddeutschen":
http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/geschichte/kgdoe/f92.htm

Mennonites settled in two areas: "Chortitza (Colony)" and "Molotschna
(Colony)" (i.e., Khortitsa and Molochna).  You can find the Russian and
German settlement names (unfortunately not the Ukrainian and
Plautdietsch ones) here:

Khortitsa: http://www.mmhs.org/russia/chortitzavillages.htm
Molochna: http://www.mmhs.org/russia/molotschnavillages.htm

In Mennonite studies, the areas are also frequently referred to as
belonging to "South(ern) Russia."

Thanks for your interest, and friendly regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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