History of Mennonites, Ukraine ‘entangled’

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This article was published 15/01/2024 (1010 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For many Manitoba Mennonites, Ukraine is a place of historical connection. It was the country where their ancestors lived before fleeing for new lives in Canada.

For Nataliya Venger, the connection is more recent and personal.

Because of the Russian invasion, the 58-year-old academic fled that country as a refugee to live in Winnipeg in 2022. She left behind her husband, who is serving in the Ukrainian military. Her daughter lives in New York.

Venger, a professor of history at Dnipropetrovsk National University, had been doing research into Mennonite life in Ukraine in the 19th and 20th centuries before coming to Canada. When she arrived, she was offered an opportunity to continue that research as a visiting professor at Canadian Mennonite University and the University of Winnipeg.

Venger will use her research to speak about Mennonite life in Ukraine at CMU’s annual Friesen lectures on Thursday.

In the first lecture, she will talk about how Mennonites engaged with the imperial Russian government in the 19th century, gaining special privileges that allowed them to develop their communities, businesses and religious life.

In the second lecture, Venger will talk about how Mennonites from Canada and the U.S. went to Soviet Ukraine, first as tourists in the 1970s and later as humanitarians to provide aid.

She didn’t know anything about Mennonites in Ukraine until secret archives containing files about the more than 200 years of Mennonite life in that country were opened in the early 1990s.

“Those archives were forbidden to researchers,” Venger said, noting they were only opened when Ukraine became independent amid the fall of the Soviet Union.

After a couple of weeks doing research about Mennonites in those archives, she became fascinated by the subject.

“I understood it would become the subject of my life,” Venger said.

Through her research, Venger learned that while Mennonites were a small group in Ukraine, “They were involved in everything. I see so many connections with the history of the Ukrainian people,” she said.

It led Venger to conclude it was impossible to “understand the history of Ukraine without taking Mennonites into account. Their history and the history of Ukraine is entangled. Whatever happened to the Mennonites happened to Ukrainians,” she said.

Venger is continuing her research at the Mennonite Heritage Archives at CMU. Her ability to read Russian and Ukrainian is a major asset in reading old records and documents. At the same time, her thoughts are often on the current situation in Ukraine.

“I am always checking the news,” she said, adding her house there is still undamaged.

Venger also thinks about her husband, noting it isn’t possible for him to communicate with her often because of his role in the fighting.

“I talk to him every couple of weeks,” she said.

Venger isn’t sure how long she will stay in Manitoba,.

“As long as possible,” she said. “The situation in Ukraine is very bad.”

Venger’s first lecture, Mennonites and the Romanov Dynasty: Loyalty and Impasse, is at 11 a.m. in the CMU chapel at 600 Shaftesbury Blvd.

The second lecture, The Mennonites ‘Return’ to Ukraine: Dialogue with Lost and Regained Motherland, is at 7 p.m. in CMU’s Marpeck Commons at 2299 Grant Ave.

Both Thursday lectures will be available online at a later date.

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