“The Mennonites in Southern Russia, present-day Ukraine had become affluent. They worked hard in their tight-knit communities, bound by a common language and faith. The level of cultural and social achievement had surpassed their Russian neighbors. For most Mennonites, life was what they made it, largely undisturbed by national or international events.” In the years leading up to Russia’s joining of the war in 1914, social, economic and political changes broke down Tsarist regime authority. The film covers all of this information, along with the ways that the 1917 Russian Revolution occurred. Following this, was the civil war which had many negative affects on the Mennonites. As a result, Mennonites fled to Canada. Much of this knowledge is of firsthand experience re-visited by Otto Klassen.
Remembering Our Mennonite Heritage: (2007) (45 min.)
This film is number 3 out of 5 in a series produced by Otto Klassen, which documents Mennonite experiences in Russia and the Soviet Union. This film covers information regarding the movement of Anabaptist-Mennonites, 16th century migration to Polish-Prussia of persecuted believers, response to invitation to settle in southern Russia (present day Ukraine) of the Russian Tsars, in the years 1789-1836 and 1853-1870. “Here Mennonites established prosperous agricultural villages with their own administrative and educational system, their own hospitals, welfare and insurance programs. The ‘golden years’ of this Mennonite Commonwealth came to an end with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.”