Russian Mennonite communities

Prussian Mennonite settlers established Chortitza near the end of the eighteenth century. The archives preserve letters between the early settlers and the communities they had left, including correspondence dated 1789. Later settlements included Molotschna. Much of this history took place in what is now Ukraine; Russian Mennonite is a historical cultural description, not a claim that every community was ethnically Russian.

The exhibit follows several different lines from these settlements: congregational Mennonites, Mennonite Brethren, Kleine Gemeinde, and Old Colony communities. Migration, war, and political repression carried their histories beyond the Russian Empire. These branches retained different practices and developed new fellowships in their later homes.