Münsterberg (South Russia)
Münsterberg, the name of two villages in the Mennonite settlements in Russia. The first was founded in the southwest of the Molotschna settlement in South Russia in 1804 by Mennonites from West Prussia and named for a village in the old home country. It was one of the nine oldest Mennonite villages of the Molotschna settlement and embraced 4,592 acres of land. Some of the land was salty. The land on the elevations was fertile. The lower lands with their fields and orchards suffered from floods. The families that arrived later usually settled on the higher land. In 1913 the village had two motor-driven mills, a tile factory, and four large shops. It had about 400 Mennonite inhabitants in 70 families. During and after the Revolution the village suffered under Communism. Many inhabitants were sent into exile and some have come to America.
A second village with this name was founded by Molotschna Mennonites in the Zagradovka settlement in 1874 in the province of Kherson. It contained 3,200 acres and had a population in 1913 of about 250. In October 1919 the village was attacked by bandits, and most of the inhabitants lost their lives. Neither of the two villages was occupied by Mennonites in the 1950s.
Bibliography
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III, 184 f.
Lohrenz, Gerhard. Sagradowka: die Geschichte einer mennonitischen Ansiedlung im Süden Russlands. Rosthern, SK: Echo, 1947.
Lohrenz, Gerhard. Zagradovka: history of a Mennonite settlement in southern Russia. Winnipeg : CMBC Publications, 2000.
| Author(s) | Christian Hege |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1957 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Hege, Christian. "Münsterberg (South Russia)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1957. Web. 3 Dec 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=M%C3%BCnsterberg_(South_Russia)&oldid=144456.
APA style
Hege, Christian. (1957). Münsterberg (South Russia). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 3 December 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=M%C3%BCnsterberg_(South_Russia)&oldid=144456.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 784. All rights reserved.
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