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Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, Volume II: 1836–1842

Edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples

© 2020

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Russian empire opened the grasslands of southern Ukraine to agricultural settlement. Among the immigrants who arrived were communities of Prussian Mennonites, recruited as "model colonists" to bring progressive agricultural methods to the east. The three volumes of Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe document the Tsarist Mennonite experience through the papers of Johann Cornies (1789–1848), an ambitious and energetic leader of the Mennonite colony of Molochna.

This volume covers the years between 1836 and 1842, beginning with the creation of the Mennonite Agricultural Society and ending with the Warkentin Affair, which pushed the Mennonite settlement to the precipice of potential religious and political disaster. Throughout this era, Johann Cornies negotiated a shifting political landscape while guiding his community through equally challenging economic times.

Cornies was well connected in the imperial government, and his papers offer a window not just into the world of the Molochna Mennonites, but also into the Tsarist state’s relationship with the national minorities of the frontier: Mennonites, Doukhobors, Nogai Tatars, and Jews. This selection of his letters and reports, translated into English, is an invaluable resource for scholars of all aspects of life in Tsarist Ukraine and for those interested in Mennonite history.

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Product Details

  • Series: Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies
  • World Rights
  • Page Count: 752 pages
  • Dimensions: 6.5in x 1.8in x 9.3in
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SKU# SP005386

  • PUBLISHED FEB 2020

    From: $82.50

    Regular Price: $110.00

    ISBN 9781487504496
  • PUBLISHED JAN 2020

    From: $82.50

    Regular Price: $110.00

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Quick Overview

This book documents the Tsarist Mennonite experience through the papers of Johann Cornies (1789–1848), an ambitious and energetic leader of the Mennonite settlement of Molochna. Cornies’ papers offer a widow onto both the Mennonite world, and onto the Tsarist state’s relationship with minorities of the frontier.

Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, Volume II: 1836–1842

Edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples

© 2020

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Russian empire opened the grasslands of southern Ukraine to agricultural settlement. Among the immigrants who arrived were communities of Prussian Mennonites, recruited as "model colonists" to bring progressive agricultural methods to the east. The three volumes of Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe document the Tsarist Mennonite experience through the papers of Johann Cornies (1789–1848), an ambitious and energetic leader of the Mennonite colony of Molochna.

This volume covers the years between 1836 and 1842, beginning with the creation of the Mennonite Agricultural Society and ending with the Warkentin Affair, which pushed the Mennonite settlement to the precipice of potential religious and political disaster. Throughout this era, Johann Cornies negotiated a shifting political landscape while guiding his community through equally challenging economic times.

Cornies was well connected in the imperial government, and his papers offer a window not just into the world of the Molochna Mennonites, but also into the Tsarist state’s relationship with the national minorities of the frontier: Mennonites, Doukhobors, Nogai Tatars, and Jews. This selection of his letters and reports, translated into English, is an invaluable resource for scholars of all aspects of life in Tsarist Ukraine and for those interested in Mennonite history.

Continue Reading Read Less

Product Details

  • Series: Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies
  • World Rights
  • Page Count: 752 pages
  • Dimensions: 6.5in x 1.8in x 9.3in

  • Reviews

    "Volume II of Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe opens a fascinating window on the evolution of Mennonite social, religious, political, and economic life in southern Ukraine in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The extraordinary activity and personality of Johann Cornies comes even further into relief; his correspondence is an unparalleled source for the fine texture of daily economic life and the environmental history of the region."


    Heather Coleman, Department of History, University of Alberta

    "Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe is a marvelous project. The letters and documents allow us to see firsthand the internal workings of one of tsarist Russia’s most interesting and most important non-Russian communities, to explore the settlement and economic transformation of the steppe region, and to analyze the intricate relations between tsarist state agents and the heterogeneous subjects and settlers of the empire."


    Nicholas Breyfogle, Department of History, The Ohio State University

  • Author Information

    Harvey L. Dyck is a professor emeritus in the History Department at the University of Toronto.


    John R. Staples is an associate professor in the Department of History at SUNY Fredonia.


    Ingrid I. Epp is the former librarian of University College at the University of Toronto.

  • Table of contents

    List of Maps
    Preface
    Acknowledgments
    Translator’s Note
    Introduction

    Part One: Correspondence

    1836
    1837
    1838
    1839
    1840
    1841
    1842

    Part Two: Johann Cornies’ Archaeological Excavation Reports

    Editors’ Introduction
    Reports

    Appendix I: Genealogy of Johann Cornies’ Immediate Family
    Appendix II: List of Correspondents
    Appendix III: Glossary
    Appendix IV: Chronology

    Index

By the Same Author(s)