California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin 11

Siberian Mennonite History Conference by Paul Toews

ermans of — took place in European History and Culture” between 1789 and 1943. The was a conference that Siberian and Asiatic Russian took place in , Russia, June chapter opened in the 1890s and G2-4, 2010. It was a unique and has been the center of the story historic gathering. Academic since the 1940s. gatherings focused on the history Omsk was a strategic location and culture of Germans in Tsarist for it is adjacent to one of the Russia, the and the largest Siberian Mennonite Commonwealth of Independent populations. A minority group long persecuted in the Omsk region because of their stubborn resistance to Sovietization, Mennonites now were sitting in the academic and political centers discussing their history. Conference sessions took place in the assembly rooms and halls of the Omsk (region) governmental building, F. M. Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Karl Marx Scholarly Center, and the Omsk Oblast Musuem of Regional studies. Omsk State University, University of Winnipeg, and Fresno Pacific University spon- sored the conference, which brought together academics from , Russia, Germany, Canada and the United States. The Mennonite The three organizers of the States (CIS) occur with some Section included twelve papers conference in Omsk on Germans regularity. What made this one prepared by scholars from North of Siberia were Royden Loewen different was a section devoted America, twelve from Russia, of the University of Winnipeg, Tatiana Smirnova of the F. to the history of Mennonites two from Kazakhstan, and one M. Dostoyevsky Omsk State in Siberia. Never before had by an aussiedler with roots in University, and Paul Toews of a collection of international Kazakhstan. Two of papers Fresno Pacific University. scholars gathered to discuss this from Russian participants were (Photo Credit: Paul Toews) significant, and often neglected, from representatives of existing chapter of the Russian Mennonite Mennonite communities in the story. Writing about the Russian Omsk and Slavgorod regions. Mennonite story has been In addition to those who dominated by the chapter that presented scholarly papers other 12 California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin

The discussions, while ranging from the initial beginnings of the Mennonite presence in Siberian The California Mennonite and Asiatic Russia to the present, Historical Society centered on the long Soviet period. Aileen Friesen, a member of the North American organizing committee, in a press release for Membership the Mennonite media summarized parts of the conference in the Current membership status may following way: “The majority of be determined by checking the conference presentations addressed mailing label on this issue of the Bulletin. A date in the upper Dr. Peter Wiebe, director of the the experiences of Mennonites Omsk Museum of Regional Studies during the Soviet period. A number right corner indicates the month (Photo Credit: Paul Toews) of Russian scholars utilized archival and year in which your member- sources from the Soviet secret ship expires. A series of dashes police, the NKVD, to uncover the indicates that you are not cur- treatment and the responses of rently a member of the Society. Mennonites to the state’s repressive policies.... The atmosphere of Annual membership dues: $25 repression and uncertainty Membership dues are tax deductible influenced the relationship to the extent provided by law. between Mennonites, Baptists and Evangelicals in Siberia.” Dues, changes of address and Scholars from the former other correspondence should be Soviet Union are increasingly sent to: finding it more difficult to access

archival sources that were readily The California Mennonite available to researchers in the 1990s. Historical Society Dr. Tatiana Smirnova, Professor of Fortunately, the collaborative work Ethnography at F. M. Dostoyevsky Omsk of the Fresno Center for Mennonite 1717 S. Chestnut Ave. State University (Photo Credit: Paul Brethren Studies with the Russian Fresno, CA 93702 Toews) Academy of Science has published Phone: 559-453-2225 representatives from Mennonite many documents and thus ensured communities in Siberia, Germany their widespread availability. and Canada were in attendance. The Russian Mennonite Executive Committee The papers written by the communities of Siberia and Russian scholars were largely North America are both diaspora Alan Peters, President drawn from materials of state settlements from European Peter J. Klassen, Vice President archival institutions. Both the Russia. Both shared a common Jane Friesen, Genealogy Committee Chair Tsarist government and the history into the late nineteenth Soviets kept many records on and/or early part of the twentieth Ron Froese, member foreign peoples and differing century. Since then, their histories Steve Goosen, member confessional communities. Scholars have diverged and yet there remain Rod Janzen, member in search of the Mennonite story many commonalities. It is a bit have discovered an abundance of surprising that the post-Soviet Bruce Leichty, member materials in many different regional period, which again permitted Hope Nisly, member/CMHS Bulletin Editor and central archival agencies in contact between the two diasporas, Paul Toews, CMBS Director Russia, , Kazakhstan and has not produced a more sustained Uzbekistan. The papers written relationship between them. The Kevin Enns-Rempel, CMBS Archivist by North American scholars were organizers of the conference hope Valerie Rempel, member based more on family materials, that the contacts growing out of this Corrina Ruth, member memoirs and interviews with academic event may foster stronger Siberian Mennonite emigrants to relationships and more exchanges the West or their descendants. in the future.