The Russian Mennonite Story

“Our memories of Mennonite life in this region are etched with deeply contradictory images. On the one hand, we remember a resplendent culture …. We celebrate an idyllic pastoral existence …. These images have encouraged us to revere the Mennonite story as a golden age—an age of economic prosperity, political engagement, cultural richness, and religious vitality. But memories of a very different kind are also deeply embedded in our imagination—scenes of waste, destruction, and pillage, of fields, villages, and factories laid bare, accounts of starvation, torture, and death that are almost too horrific for us to remember …”