Reason for the emigration of Mennonites from Russia to Manitoba during the 1870s.

... were accustomed to being. They left Russia, fearing assimilation and the loss of their relative isolation, even fearing that they might expose "their young men to evil influences"(22) if an alternative to military conscription were implemented (they would be not be within the control of their community), yet upon arrival in a new land, some were forced into positions which were far more worldly, into dealings quite unlike anything they would have imagined during their one hundred year sojourn on the steppes of Southern Russia. This should serve as proof that the Mennonites were motivated more by their own religious principles than any elitist view that they were wholly deserving of having communities unto themselves.

Considering that a desire for isolation can not have been a great desire for the Mennonites, other causes must be determined. There are circumstances which might be considered universal, which can apply to any mass immigration. When the prospects of continuing one's way of life as desired are no longer promising, if in fact there appear to be no such prospects at all, a group may choose to immigrate. Nothing less than this should be significant enough to catalyse such large actions, of grave importance. What else is great enough to overcome the tremendous social upheaval and practical difficulty of such a migration?

No singular cause would be enough to motivate the Mennonites to uproot themselves. That decision could only have come with the realisation that the way of life which they desired could no longer be pursued under the conditions which they now faced in Russia. These conditions included the withdrawal of their exemption from military service, less independence in matters of education and government, and a growing problem of landlessness among the second and third generations of Russian Mennonites. But because such a large portion stayed behind, one must conclude that the way of life of the remaining group was different enough from those who departed.

The distinction between the departing Mennonites and the non-migrants is revealed when each major cause for departure is analysed. The first distinction is a theological one. It is accepted that Anabaptists, and Mennonites in particular, are entirely opposed to the act of war. However, the issue is muddied when, instead of being forced into full-fledged military service, the Mennonites were offered the prospect of civic duty during times of war. The departing Mennonites did not accept this alternative. Rather, these new terms were offensive enough that many began to see their departure "as a divinely inspired exodus."(23) It could therefore be concluded that they held a more conservative ideology than the Mennonites who remained. This conservative nature could well have been born out of the relative isolation the Mennonites were able to enjoy. This same conservative nature explains the offense certain Mennonites took to the replacement of German in the schools by Russian. The migrants would not have such a drastic change, which represented a loss of control over the education of their children as much as it was a shift away from their traditional language and culture. Resisting a change such as that would have been natural for a conservative group for whom the Russian language and culture was completely foreign. Those who had been more exposed to the language and culture would not have resisted as much, and this is probably the case with the non-migrating Mennonites.

Similarly, the problem of landlessness could not have so greatly affected the Russian Mennonites who chose to remain Russian. This follows logically as a product of being less conservative and more exposed to their Russian neighbours. The largely agrarian farming villages or colonies in which the Mennonites lived were not well-suited to large-scale prosperity, as long as they maintained their relative isolation. However, as certain Mennonite communities opened themselves to commerce with their neighbours, the relative wealth of these communities also increased. The problem of a lack of land, with money, is easily solved. The purchase of more land would not have caused nearly as much difficulty for this group as for the other, poorer Mennonites who could not face the landless issue for very long, and were therefore forced to pursue residence elsewhere.

As mercurial as were the Tsars during the dynasties of the 18th and 19th centuries, it was inevitable that the favourable arrangement which the Mennonites enjoyed should at some point or another come to an end. Because the Mennonites so heavily relied upon the agreement ...