Preservings 11 (1997) - Plett Foundation

with each new religious fad and mania which
swept east across the steppes of Russia from Germany
as did many other Mennonites. Through
the empowerment of the Holy Spirit they remained
true to the faith once received in spite of ridicule
and scorn from Separatist-Pietists.
As a result of such faithfulness, the Bergthaler
were granted the blessing to discern the coming
storm clouds in Czarist Russia and heeded the
call of God to take the pilgrim’s staff in 1874.
This steadfastness was to spare the Bergthaler/
Chortitzer from the holocaust of the Soviet inferno
which erupted in 1917.
The Bergthal Colony.
The Bergthal settlement was founded in 1836
by 136 young families mainly from the Chortitza
“old” Colony, but also including a significant number
from the Molotschna. The settlers were reasonably
well-provisioned as each family was allowed
5 wagon loads of goods, in addition to cattle
and horses. Many were sponsored by well-to-do
parents who had the foresight and vision to establish
their children on land of their own, something
which only 1 in 4 Russian Mennonites could
aspire to by this time.
The settlement of Bergthal was located 20
miles northwest of Mariupol and approximately
50 miles northeast of Berdyansk, both seaports
on the Sea of Azov. The land consisted of 26,000
acres or about 40 sections. Between 1836 and
1853, five villages—Bergthal, Heuboden,
Schönthal, Schönfeld and Friedrichsthal—were
laid out along the Bodena River and various tributaries.
The land was relatively level, treeless and
grass covered interspersed with occasional deep
valleys. A small mountainous formation 3
kilometres north of the village of Bergthal was
known as the Kamennaya Mogila, literally “stone
graves”. The name “Bergthal” was suggested by
the Chortitzer Oberschulz Bartsch as it described
the physical setting, with the miniature mountain
range to the north, and the Bodena valley in which
Bergthal, the first village, was laid out—Wm.
Schroeder, The Bergthal Colony, pages 9-28.
The Bergthaler were spared much of the social
disfunction caused by landlessness within the
Mennonite colonies in Russia. By 1857 the population
had grown to 367 families of whom 149
(40%) were landowners and 218 (60%) were
Anwohner (126) and labourers (92). These statistics
compared favourably with Chortitza and
the Molotschna where 42% and 44%, respectively,
were landowners. The same statistics also
show that 38% in the Molotschna were landless
labourers compared to 10% and 20% in the
Chortitza and Bergthal colonies. Another source
refers to 266 families in Bergthal in 1857: 140
landowning families and 126 Anwohner families
who owned up to 32 acres—John Dyck,
Oberschulz, pages 31-32.
In 1867 the average land ownership in Bergthal
was 23.0 desjatien per family compared to 20.5
Old Colony and 24.5 % Molotschna. 36 % in
Bergthal were landowners compared to 40 % in
the Old Colony and 38 % in the Molotschna.
Bergthal had 397 families, Chortitza 1451 and
Molotschna 4229—A. Klaas, Unser Kolonien,
pages 231 and 232. Bergthal had a higher per-
No. 11, December, 1997
A view of the Kammennaya Mogila, photographed in 1979 by Bergthal historian and cartographer, William
Schroeder, back when travelling in the Soviet Union was still a scary adventure. Photo courtesy of Bergthal
Colony, page 13. Bergthal’s neighbours were Russians to the West, Catholics to the North, Greeks to the East,
and Cossacks to the South.
centage of pasture and hay land indicating a
greater specialization in sheep, dairy and beef, as
opposed to the wheat cash crop economy which
prevailed in the older colonies, a characteristic
well suited for the more primitive Manitoba
economy.
By 1874 when the decision to emigrate was
made, the population of Bergthal had grown to
525 families (Note One). The ratio of Vollwirthen
(full farmers) to Anwohner (the landless) had
fallen, but at 33 per cent was still well above the
average among Russian Mennonites of 25 per cent
which decreased even further to 20 per cent by
1910.
Bergthal was organized as part of the Agricultural
Society (Landwirtschaftlichen Verrein)
established in 1817 under the leadership of Johann
Cornies (1789-1848), the great Russian Mennonite
social reformer. The purpose of the society
was to improve farming methods and technologies
among the Mennonites, in areas such as animal
breeding, crop improvements, etc. similar to
the Department of Agriculture in modern times.
In the elections held March 5, 1869, in Bergthal,
the following were elected as Vorsitzer (“Chairmen”)
for their respective villages: Bernhardt
Wiebe - Heuboden, Jakob Kaempfer - Bergthal,
and Jakob Braun - Friedrichsthal—Oberschulz,
page 122.
The 1858 Revisions-Listen (census) for the
five Bergthal villages are extant—the lists for
Heuboden and Friedrichsthal “remain in the Deposit
of the Alexandrowsk Town-Hall (SAZR)”
and the lists for Bergthal, Schönthal and Schönfeld
are “contained in the Deposit of Mariupol district
treasury in State Archives Donetsk region
(SADoR)”—Alexander Tedeyev, Preservings,
No. 8, June 1996, Part One, page 58. These
records, when available, will provide a highly
accurate cross section of the population of the
Bergthal villages in terms of age, number of
Wirtschaften, etc. and facilitate more detailed
socio-economic analysis, genealogical and family
history studies. Such information will also
make it possible to study Bergthaler settlement
patterns in the E. Reserve, and on the W. Reserve
in 1878-81, and to appraise the extent to which
old-world village and kinship networks impacted
on them.
3
Leadership.
The Bergthaler were blessed with wise and
far-sighted leaders. Like a Moses, Aeltester
Gerhard Wiebe (1827-1900), Heuboden, led his
people from forthcoming danger to a new home
and refuge in Manitoba in 1874-76. In 1874 the
Imperial Czar offered Gerhard Wiebe a feudal
estate complete with land, serfs and the title of
nobility for himself and his descendants, if he
would persuade his people to remain in Russia.
Although severely tempted, he choose the pain
and sacrifice of the pilgrim and remained faithful
to God even though he was warned by His Imperial
Majesty that scorn and ridicule would be his
reward.
Other important leaders included Oberschulz
Jakob Peters (1813-84), Heuboden, district mayor
of the Bergthal Colony in Russia, who received a
gold watch and commendation from the Imperial
Czar for “diligence in the years 1854 and 1855”
when Bergthal provided nursing care and other
aid during the Crimean War. Peters was a skilled
politician who acted as overseer of the emigration
of 3000 people from one continent to another
and the transplantation of their communities and
social institutions into a new land. Peter Friesen
(1812-75), Bergthal, served as Waisenman for the
Bergthaler Waisenamt from its inception in 1842
until his death and was the patriarch of three generations
of Friesens in Manitoba who followed
him in this office.
The settlement had many enterprising citizens
such as Abraham Doerksen (1827-1916),
Schönthal, who “had a machine shop .... where
he manufactured farm machinery, such as plows,
harrows, cultivators and wagons. He employed
four carpenters and one blacksmith—Wm.
Schroeder, The Bergthal Colony, page 35. His
vision was demonstrated by the fact that three of
his sons served the ministry of their church including
Abraham, founding Aeltester of the
Sommerfelder Gemeinde. Peter Neufeld (1821-
1922), Schönthal, was another successful entrepreneur
“who operated a store and inn (Schenke)
and later owned a Wirtschaft... He evidently
owned cattle since he had considerable knowledge
of the treatment of cattle ailments common
to herds in Russia”—John Dyck, “Kleefeld,” Historical
Sketches, page 150.
Another individual of some distinction was