Outline Mennonite History Test, Prussia to end in Russia
1. Why did Mennonites go to the Danzig area of Prussia.
2. List of the types of restriction/ persecution Mennonites suffered
3. What are the remnants or effects of this persecution today? Does Isolation
creates a unique Mennonite identity? What were some of the cultural quirks
they had?
4. Vocab: umbitter, church, , ministers, church government, funerals, food,
language
5. Pacifism: What new challenges do the Mennonites in Prussia face with regards to
their pacifist convictions? What is their response? What were the historical shift
in pressures to conform to the military
“Happy Russia”: 1800-1914
6. What were the terms (7+2) offered by Catherine the Great?
7. Why did Mennonites emigrate to Russia?
8. Chortitza: What were the problems faced by the first Chortitza settlers.
9. Molotschna: Why was there settlement more successful than the Chortitza
settlement?
10. Which came first Molotschna or Chortitaz
11. In what ways did the Mennonites fall into the trap of creating a government that
combined “church and state” Explain with examples. Explain the irony in this
situation.
12. Cornies: who was he, what did he do? Why were people upset with him?
13. 1870’s. What were the three major problems that faced the Mennonites in
Russia? Why were they a problem.
14. How did they try to solve each of these issues above.
Revolution 1905 onward.
15. “When they Shall Ask”.
a. How did Russian Mennonites treat their Russian and Ukrainian
neighbours? “When They Shall Ask”?
b. Who do they interview? Whose stories do they tell? Why?
c. How were Mennonites involved in World War I?
d. Who were the White and Red Armies? When did they fight? How did
their fight affect Mennonites?
e. Who was Nestor Makhnov? What did he do? Why is he seen as good by
some and bad by others?
f. Discuss the rejection of pacifism by some Mennonites during the Civil
War? Was this the only choice available to them? the best choice? Why
(not)?
g. When and why was MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) created? How
did Mennonites react to the arrival of the German army in Russia during
WWI? What was the result when the army withdrew?
h. How many Mennonites emigrated from Russia in the 1920’s, where did
most of them go?
16. Vocabulary: kulak, white army, red army, black army, proletariat, Great Trek,
Holodomor, collectivization.
17. Why did the Communists not like the Mennonites?
18. Why was there a famine in the Ukraine in the 1930’s?
19. Why were most Mennonite men gone by the time the Germans came during
WWII?
20. What happened to the Mennonites who left Russia with the German army in
WWII?
21. What happened to the Mennonites who did not leave Russia after WWII?