Akmolinsk (Akmola Province, Kazakhstan)
Akmolinsk (now Akmola; Kazakh: Ақмола облысы, Aqmola oblısı) was a district in the Kirghiz steppe of West Siberia, 240,000 square miles in area. Near Omsk, the capital of the district of Akmolinsk, Mennonites from the Russian provinces of Taurida and Samara settled in 1899, among them the families of John Matthies, Franz Balzer, Julius Dick, Peter Dick from Taurida, and H. Ewert and Gerhard Ewert from Samara. Peter J. Wiens started a business in Omsk in 1897. These were the first Mennonites to settle in Siberia. In the year 1899 the brothers Peter, Nikolai and Johann Friesen with several other families bought a tract of land 160 miles (260 km) west of Omsk near the railroad station Tokushi, and founded the settlement of Friesenov. In the following years numerous families settled on both sides of the Siberian railway. They secured their land usually from Russian officers and preferred to settle on individual farms. Some villages were, however, also formed, including Margenau, Alexandrovka and Hamberg, near the station Gorkoye. The number of Mennonites in the district of Akmolinsk was about five thousand in 1913.
The settlements in Akmolinsk achieved relative prosperity, whereas the large settlements in the districts of Pavlodar and Barnaul (province of Tomsk) were very poor. Near Omsk (New Omsk) a four-year continuation school was established in 1910 in connection with the village school, which had a six-year course. It was planned as a teachers' seminary for the Siberian Mennonites. Near Omsk the Mennonites Lepp and Friesen founded (1913) a farm implement factory.
Bibliography
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 17.
| Author(s) | A. J Kröker |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1955 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Kröker, A. J. "Akmolinsk (Akmola Province, Kazakhstan)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1955. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Akmolinsk_(Akmola_Province,_Kazakhstan)&oldid=74571.
APA style
Kröker, A. J. (1955). Akmolinsk (Akmola Province, Kazakhstan). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Akmolinsk_(Akmola_Province,_Kazakhstan)&oldid=74571.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 30. All rights reserved.
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