Mennonites in Russia

When it just doesn't fit anywhere else.
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Neto
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Location: Holmes County, Ohio
Affiliation: Gospel Haven

Re: Mennonites in Russia

Post by Neto »

Thank you Erika for the link to that article.

I noticed that the woman's name is Sperling - I am also a Sperling - my Great Grandmother Buller was Maria Sperling, the daughter of Abraham Sperling.

There is a lot of confusion about the ethnicity of the "Russian Mennonites" (of whom I am one). We are primarily Dutch, not German. Before immigrating to the Russian Empire under invitation from Catherine the Great, we/they lived in what is now a part of Poland, an area known to us as "Prussia". It was there that the Dutch dialects spoken by the Dutch Mennonites mixed with one of the Low German dialects, what at least some linguists call Middle Low German. (It is my understanding that this mixing involved both grammar & vocabulary, essentially producing a new language, what is referred to as a Pigin in linguistic circles.) Middle Low German is no longer spoken anywhere in a form not influenced by the Dutch Mennonites. (According to most sources, it ceased to be spoken some time in the 1600's. The new form of Low German that resulted from the contact with the Dutch dialects spoken by the Mennonites is sometimes referred to as Mennonite Low German, and I have been told that it is also spoken by some non-Mennonite descendants of the native people of that area of Poland, even today.
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Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.
Neto
Posts: 4574
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 5:43 pm
Location: Holmes County, Ohio
Affiliation: Gospel Haven

Re: Mennonites in Russia

Post by Neto »

I follow a FaceBook group called Mennonite Farmer, a historical blog about my people.
Here is a post from today.
https://www.facebook.com/MennoniteFarme ... =3&theater
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Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.
Neto
Posts: 4574
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 5:43 pm
Location: Holmes County, Ohio
Affiliation: Gospel Haven

Re: Mennonites in Russia

Post by Neto »

This was a very interesting post (to me, anyway) by Mennonite Farmer (FaceBook group), because I had not known that the German (Nazi) army was ordered to take with them the German-speaking residents of the USSR after their defeat (in their attempt to invade Moscow).
Post 341 - Agriculture among the Mennonites of Russia, The great Trek 1943-1945 – “The Trek was the period from 1943 to 1945 when thousands of Mennonite refugees left the Soviet Union in an attempt to escape to the west. With its retreat westward after the capitulation at Stalingrad, the German army was ordered to take with it the remaining population of Soviet Germans, numbering approximately 350,000; this number included 35,000 Mennonites.” Source: Huebert, Helmut T. and Susan Huebert. "Great Trek, 1943-1945." GAMEO. April 2009. Web. 27 Jan 2018. Image: Mennonites on the trek from Ukraine to Germany, fall 1943; Mennonite Library and Archives image 2004-0383, online 1.24.18
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Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.
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Josh
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Re: Mennonites in Russia

Post by Josh »

Erika wrote:Sorry team. With the last post I forgot there were some unsavoury remarks made about the video clip by obvious atheists. Again my apologies.
Not offensive to me. I don't expect atheists to live up to the standards we set for ourselves as Christians. May we be wise as serpents, but innocent as doves.
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