Forestry service (Russia)

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The forestry service [1] was a form of alternative service offered to German speaking Mennonites in lieu of military service in Russia from 1881 to 1918. At its peak during World War I, 7,000 men served in forestry and agricultural pest control in Ukraine and South Russia. The program ended in the turmoil of the Russian Revolution.

German language West Germanic language

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol in Italy, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and Liechtenstein. It is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages that are most similar to the German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

Russian Mennonite ethnic group

The Russian Mennonites are a group of Mennonites who are descendants of Dutch Anabaptists who settled for about 250 years in West Prussia and established colonies in the Russian Empire beginning in 1789. Since the late 19th century, many of them have come to countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. The rest were forcibly relocated, so that very few of their descendants now live at the location of the original colonies. Russian Mennonites are traditionally multilingual with Plautdietsch as their first language and lingua franca. In 2014 there are several hundred thousand Russian Mennonites: about 200,000 in Germany, 100,000 in Mexico, 70,000 in Bolivia, 40,000 in Paraguay, 10,000 in Belize and tens of thousands in Canada and the US and a few thousand in Argentina, Uruguay, Belize, and Brazil.

Ukraine Sovereign state in Eastern Europe

Ukraine, sometimes called the Ukraine, is a country in Eastern Europe. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Kiev. Ukrainian is the official language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy. Ukraine is currently in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi), making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world.

Contents

Background

Nonresistant Mennonites from West Prussia started settling in Russia in 1789, induced by land and special privileges including exemption from military service. By 1870 their population had grown to over 45,000 and was a significant economic force in south Russia. In 1870 the government announced that special privileges enjoyed by all colonists would end by 1880. Mennonite leaders sent delegations to Saint Petersburg for three successive years, but failed to retain the military exemption they so valued.

Nonresistance is "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy. It is considered as a form of principled nonviolence or pacifism which rejects all physical violence, whether exercised on individual, group, state or international levels. Practitioners of nonresistance may refuse to retaliate against an opponent or offer any form of self-defense. Nonresistance is often associated with particular religious groups.

Vistula delta Mennonites

Vistula delta Mennonites settled in the delta of the Vistula between the mid-16th century and 1945. The so-called Russian Mennonites trace their roots to the Vistula delta Mennonites.

Saint Petersburg Federal city in the Northwestern federal district, Russia

Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with 5 million inhabitants in 2012, part of the Saint Petersburg agglomeration with a population of 6.2 million (2015). An important Russian port on the Baltic Sea, it has a status of a federal subject.

With loss of privileges looking likely, emigration to North America was promoted as a viable alternative. Realizing that 40,000 of Russia's most industrious farmers were preparing to leave for North America, the Russian government sent Eduard Totleben to the colonies in May 1874. Meeting with community leaders, he exaggerated the difficulties that would be encountered in North America and promised some form of alternative to military service. His intervention convinced the more liberal Mennonites to stay in Russia. [2] After negotiations with the government in 1880 over acceptable types of alternative service, the forestry service program was deemed the best of the alternatives because it would have no military connection.

Eduard Totleben Russian general

Franz Eduard Graf von Tottleben, better known as Eduard Totleben in English, was a Baltic German military engineer and Imperial Russian Army general. He was in charge of fortification and sapping work during a number of important Russian military campaigns.

Structure

The forestry service began in 1881, after the end of special privileges granted to colonists in Russia. Men served in large groups for four years planting and caring for trees on the steppes of South Russia. Phylloxera units in Crimea focused on eradicating harmful insects from vineyards. Mennonite congregations provided for housing, feeding and all other necessities of the men. The Russian government provided supervision of the projects, tools needed for the job and paid each man 20 kopeks (a minimal amount) per work day.

Steppe ecoregion in the montane grasslands and shrublands

In physical geography, a steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. The prairie of North America is an example of a steppe, though it is not usually called such. A steppe may be semi-arid or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude. The term is also used to denote the climate encountered in regions too dry to support a forest but not dry enough to be a desert. The soil is typically of chernozem type.

Phylloxera species of insect

Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaera vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America.

Crimea Peninsula in the Black Sea

Crimea is a peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe that is almost completely surrounded by both the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast. It is located south of the Ukrainian region of Kherson, to which it is connected by the Isthmus of Perekop, and west of the Russian region of Kuban, from which it is separated by the Strait of Kerch though linked by the Crimean Bridge. The Arabat Spit is located to the northeast, a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to its west is Romania and to its south Turkey.

Just as Mennonite colonies [3] were insulated from Russian society, the forestry camps were also sheltered from outside contact. Mennonite congregations provided a pastor and a superintendent to oversee each camp. The expense of running the camps, which included constructing barracks, was quite high. Voluntary contributions from Mennonite congregations, who had an incentive to provide an alternative to military service, were sufficient to run the program for nearly three decades.

Initially about four hundred men served in this program annually. By 1913 up to a thousand were serving and during World War I, 7000. [4] A similar program allowed Mennonite men to serve in hospital units and transport wounded from the battlefield to Moscow and Ekaterinoslav hospitals.

Moscow Capital of Russia

Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits, 17 million within the urban area and approximately 20 million within the metropolitan area. Moscow is one of Russia's federal cities.

Demobilization

The forestry units functioned right up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. The camps became impossible to maintain in the chaos of South Russia and the assets, all church property, were sold and camps closed in 1918 with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. [5] Alternatives to military service remained available, but under military control, until 1936. [4]

Epilogue

The lessons learned with respect to providing an alternate to military service for conscientious objectors was a model for Civilian Public Service in the United States during World War II. Peace churches almost exclusively financed Civilian Public Service, while draftees served in forestry, agricultural and other types of units.

Notes

  1. ↑ From German Forsteidienst
  2. ↑ Smith, p. 291.
  3. ↑ See Chortitza and Molotschna, the two largest colonies.
  4. 1 2 Braun.
  5. ↑ Smith, p. 311.

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References

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