Description:
This book offers a history of Mennonites from their initial settlement in the Russian Empire to the collapse of the USSR.
Brief description:
Leonard G. Friesen is a professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Review Quotes: "An ambitious study of the Mennonites, stretching from the foundation of Anabaptism to the end of the Soviet Union ... Friesen offers a compelling and coherent survey of the history of Mennonites in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, providing a useful guide to the questions answered by current historiography and the holes in scholarship yet to be filled."--Aileen Friesen, University of Winnipeg, The Russian Review
"An expansive history of Mennonite communities from their initial settlements in imperial Russia to their near universal emigration in the waning days of the Soviet Union ... The history that emerges from Friesen's narrative is one of a coherent, but complicated Mennonite identity that is adaptive and layered in response to massive internal and external processes of transformation and rupture."--Emily B. Baran, Middle Tennessee State University, Slavic Review
"Leonard Friesen has written an exceptional book on Mennonites of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union that is destined to generate further conversations among academic and non-academic readers alike."
--Karl Koop, Canadian Mennonite University, Mennonite Historian"Mennonites in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union is an engaging and informative journey through the intricacies of Mennonite history and historiography, specifically that of eastern Europe, and should prove to be a useful resource to a reader familiar with the nuances of the subject."--Nicole Harry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, H-Russia
"This book offers a wealth of historical knowledge and provides a cogent examination of Russian Mennonites and modernity. It is certain to become a standard textbook in the field."--Sean Patterson, University of Alberta, Journal of Mennonite Studies
"A new account that for the first time covers the Tsarist and Soviet periods across the entire Mennonite experience in Russia and Ukraine. An original approach written in an enlightening manner that features both the triumphs and sufferings of Mennonites including an original examination of issues of faith. A major contribution of interest to a wide number of readers, academic and non-academic."
--James Urry, Author of None but Saints and Mennonites, Politics, and Peoplehood"This is a welcome new study of so-called Russian Mennonites from their early Dutch origins through to the end of the Soviet period. Through a masterful narrative that draws on an evolving historiography, Friesen considers how this particular branch of Mennonites was transformed by the political, economic, and religious contexts in which they lived over four centuries. This will be the definitive reference for years to come."
--Marlene Epp, Professor Emeritus, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo"Friesen has written the most thorough 200+ year story of growth and transformation of Russian Mennonites. Relying on the most lasting and up-to-date research, it surpasses anything written in the past 50 years. Using rich archival source and oral histories in Russian, German, and English, Friesen demonstrates how a minority church tradition found strategies for survival, while helping shape modernity.."
--Walter Sawatsky, Professor Emeritus of Church History and Mission, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary