Remembering Russia 1914-1927: War and the End of Mennonite Tranquility

The Mennonites in southern Russia, present-day Ukraine, had become affluent. They worked hard in their tight-knit communities, bound by a common language and faith. The level of cultural and social achievement had surpassed their Russian neighbours. For most Mennonites, life was what they made it, largely undisturbed by national or international events.

That all changed with the beginning of World War I in 1914. Political, social and economic events in Russia had eroded the authority of the Tsarist regime in the year's leading up Russia's entry into the war. Dissatisfaction with the regime and Russia's military performance in the war eventually led to the 1917 Russian Revolution. A bloody civil war followed, churning through the country and ending the Mennonite's way of life. Farms, enterprises and churches were expropriated and families died at the hands of marauding anarchists. As their world crumbled around them, thousands of Mennonites fled to Canada.

Winnipeg film-maker Otto Klassen was born in Russia and has spent a lifetime chronicling the Russian Mennonite experience. This DVD offers a historical snapshot of the cataclysmic events leading to the immigration of the Russian Mennonites to Canada in the 1920's.

The sequel is also available in DVD - Remembering Russia 1928-1938