Claas Epp Jr.

Claas Epp Jr. (1838–1913) is the leader associated with the timeline’s 1880 trek. He must be distinguished from his father, also named Claas Epp, who helped lead a migration from Prussia to the Volga region in 1853. The younger Epp grew up in the Am Trakt settlement.

As changes to Russian privileges brought uncertainty about military obligations, he taught that believers should seek refuge in the east in preparation for Christ’s return. In 1880 he led a group toward Central Asia. The migration divided, and his smaller group eventually settled at Ak-Mechet in the Khanate of Khiva in 1882.

Epp’s predictions of Christ’s return did not come to pass, and his authority over the group later broke down. His history is therefore an account of a particular leader, expectation, and migration within Russian Mennonite experience. The archival and biographical references identify the people and route without turning the chart’s brief trek marker into a general movement of all Mennonites.