Mennonite Weekly Review

SLAVGOROD, Russia — In this city there is a mass grave for at least 1,400 people, many of them Mennonites.

The Baptist-Mennonite church in Slavgorod, Russia, hosted a North American delegation June 7-10. — Photo by Art Friesen

Yet Mennonites continue to live here, raising families, running businesses and worshiping in a Baptist-Mennonite church.

A group of 10 North American Mennonites came to visit them June 7-10. The group had attended the “Germans of Siberia: History and Culture” international conference June 2-4 in Omsk.

Alexander Weiss, a local historian and minister, traveled with the group on the 12-hour trip, mostly over dusty gravel roads.

The North American visitors attended a service at the Baptist-Mennonite church, an active church of about 300 members.

The church was two-thirds full for Wednesday evening services when two of the visitors from North America, Walter Sawatsky and Hans Werner, preached in Low German, a language common to most of the adults of that congregation.

Many of the adults and children played musical instruments. They gave each of the North American visitors CDs of their music, a compilation of instrumental music and hymns in four-part harmony.

The Siberian Mennonites hosted the North Americans in their homes. Most of the hosts had families of nine to 16 children and told their guests they chose to stay in Siberia and want to raise their families here.

Few of the adults have gone to university, but they are self-educated. Some own furniture factories and other businesses. They spoke to the visitors in Low and High German. Yet Russian is becoming the dominant language. The younger children no longer use Low German.

Mennonites settled in Siberia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were persecuted under Communist rule. Thousands were shot or sent to gulags, forced work camps. Around the area people periodically find bones and skulls with bullet holes in them.

Most of the Mennonites left the Slavgorod-Barnaul colony after 1990 and went to Germany. The local church shrunk considerably, but some families stayed or came back.