The Russian Mennonites are a group of Mennonites who are descendants of Dutch Anabaptists who settled for about 250 years in the Vistula delta in Poland 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, and Brazil.
Steinbach is a city located about 58 km south-east of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. According to the Canada 2016 Census, Steinbach has a population of 15,829, making it the third-largest city in Manitoba and the largest community in the Eastman region. The city is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Hanover to the north, west, and south, and the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie to the east. Steinbach was first settled by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from the Russian Empire in 1874, whose descendants continue to have a significant presence in the city today. Steinbach is found on the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, while Sandilands Provincial Forest is a short distance east of the city.
Niverville is a town in the Canadian province of Manitoba, located approximately 42 km (26 mi) south of Winnipeg. The town is located at the crossing of Provincial Road 311 and the CPR Emerson rail line, between Provincial Road 200 and Provincial Trunk Highway 59. The town lies between the northwest corner of the Rural Municipality of Hanover and the southeastern portion of the Rural Municipality of Ritchot. Niverville's population as at the 2016 Census is 4,083 and is one of the fastest growing communities in Manitoba.
Altona is a town in southern Manitoba about 100 km south-west of Winnipeg and 133 km north of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The population at the 2011 Census was 4,123 residents. Old Altona was founded in 1880 by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from the Russian Empire. It is surrounded by the Municipality of Rhineland. Much of the surrounding area is devoted to farming and agriculture-based business.
Kleefeld is a small community in the Rural Municipality of Hanover in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was settled in the 1874, the first Mennonite settlement in Western Canada, and was originally called Gruenfeld.
Chortitza Colony was a volost Yekaterinoslav Governorate granted to German-speaking Mennonites for colonization northwest of Khortytsia Island and is now part of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Chortitza was founded in 1789 by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonite settlers from the Vistula delta and consisted of many villages. It was the first of many Mennonite settlements in the Russian Empire. Because the Mennonites living in these villages emigrated or were evacuated or deported at the end of World War II, or emigrated after the collapse of the Soviet Union no Mennonites are living there today.
A block settlement is a particular type of land distribution which allows settlers with the same ethnicity to form small colonies.
The Council of Keewatin was an unelected legislative body and territorial government for the now-defunct District of Keewatin in Canada. The District of Keewatin was created by the passage of the Keewatin Act on October 7, 1876 from a portion of Canada's North West Territories. Lieutenant Governor Alexander Morris convinced the government that the new territorial government of the North West Territories would be unable to effectively administer land to the north and east of Manitoba. Shortly after the District of Keewatin was formed a large group of Icelanders arrived, infected with smallpox which quickly spread to the indigenous First Nation population. The Government of Canada allowed the Council to be formed for the purpose of containing the smallpox epidemic. The Council also administered Indian treaty claims, immigrant land claims, Hudson's Bay Company trading post concerns as well as policing and health care. The Council lasted from November 25, 1876, until April 16, 1877, after which control of the territory was returned under federal jurisdiction.
Menno Colony is a settlement founded by Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites from the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in 1926 in the central Chaco of northwest Paraguay occupying an area of 7500 km² (2900 mi²). Neighbouring Mennonite settlements are Fernheim Colony and Neuland Colony. The main settlement of the colony is Loma Plata. Menno is the largest of the Mennonite colonies in Paraguay.
Rosenort is an unincorporated community recognized as a local urban district in Manitoba located about 17 kilometres from Morris and about 47 kilometres south of Winnipeg. It is located in the Rural Municipality of Morris which had a population of 3,047 inhabitants in 2016.
New Iceland is the name of a region on Lake Winnipeg in the Canadian province Manitoba which was named for settlers from Iceland. It was settled in 1875.
Waldheim is a town of 1,035 residents in the rural municipality of Laird No. 404, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, located 57 km north of Saskatoon. Waldheim is located on Highway 312 in central Saskatchewan, the "Heart of the Old Northwest". Fort Carlton, Batoche, Battle of Fish Creek, and Seager Wheeler's Maple Grove Farm are all near Waldheim.
Reinland is a Mennonite village in Manitoba located in the Rural Municipality of Stanley, about ten minutes south of Winkler and about five minutes north of U.S. border. Its population numbers about five hundred, with a agrarian economy.
The history of Winnipeg comprises its initial population by Aboriginal peoples through its settlement by Europeans to the present day. The first forts were built on the future site of Winnipeg in the 1700s, followed by the Selkirk Settlement in 1812. Winnipeg was incorporated as a city in 1873 and experienced dramatic growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following the end of World War I, the city's importance as a commercial centre in Western Canada began to wane. Winnipeg and its suburbs experienced significant population growth after 1945, and the current City of Winnipeg was created by the unicity amalgamation in 1972.
Blumenort is an unincorporated community recognized as a local urban district in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located in the Rural Municipality of Hanover, just north of the city of Steinbach. It was founded in 1874 by Russian Mennonite farmers. Today, its economy is based on agriculture and the service industry.
Jacob Yost Shantz was a Mennonite farmer, businessman, and industrialist from Ontario, Canada. He played a significant role in the urban development of Berlin, Ontario, where he held a succession of civic roles over a period of almost three decades, culminating in a term as mayor in 1882. Over the span of his life, Berlin was transformed from a rural agricultural settlement known as Ebytown into a bustling manufacturing centre; this was a change mirrored by Shantz, who began his adult life as a farmer and sawmiller, and ended it as a prominent local industrialist.
Fort Dufferin is a former Canadian government post near the Canada–United States border at Emerson, Manitoba. The fort was used during the 1870s as a base for the North American Boundary Commission and the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), and as an immigration station. It was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1937.
Randolph, originally known as Chortitz, is a small community in the Rural Municipality of Hanover, Manitoba, Canada. The community has an estimated population of 70 and is located 1.6 kilometres north of Highway 52 on Provincial Road 206 about 11 kilometres east of Steinbach, Manitoba. Randolph is located within a half kilometre of the longitudinal centre of Canada.
Neubergthal is unincorporated rural community and a National Historic Site of Canada in the Municipality of Rhineland, Manitoba, Canada. Neubergthal was founded in 1876 as a Mennonite community with settlers who came from the Bergthal Colony in Russia. The historic site encompassed six sections of land and the village was laid out in traditional long narrow farmsteads. The village is famous for its traditional Mennonite housebarns and other historic buildings.
The East Reserve was a block settlement in Manitoba set aside by the Government of Canada exclusively for settlement by Russian Mennonite settlers in 1873. Most of the East Reserve's earliest settlers were from the Kleine Gemeinde or Bergthaler Mennonite churches.
