EXPLORE SOVIET HISTORY
These essays give historical context to the Six Lives under Communism. Explore here.
The Mennonites in Russia
1789-1943
The German-speaking Mennonites had settled in Russia after 1789. By 1917, many were wealthier than their Russian neighbors, but communist rule would dismantle their community.
The Russian Revolution
1917-1922
Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky and other revolutionaries overthrew the Tsar in a 5-year bloody struggle that culminated in battles, banditry, epidemic, and famine.
Lenin's Communism
1917-1924
Lenin's policies created the secret police and the Gulag, and introduced rampant requisitioning and religious repression to the Soviet Union.
The Makhno Bandits
1918-1921
Nestor Makhno and his anarchist army fought for a stateless society, targeting the wealthy Mennonites for special brutality.
Stalin at the Helm
1928-1953
Stalin collectivized agriculture, industrialized the Soviet Union, dismantled his opposition, and won a world war...but at the cost of liberty and up to 20 million lives.
Collectivizing the USSR
1928-1933
Under communism, factory owners and wealthy farmers had to give their property over to an in incompetent state. This process of "collectivization" was wrought with difficulties and opposition.
Let's Call them Kulaks:
Getting Rid of Opposition
1928-1941
Wealthy and educated leaders opposed collectivization. They were deemed "enemies of the regime" and deported to Siberia.
An Unnecessary Famine:
The Holodomor
1932-33
In 1932-33, a year with an abundant harvest, 5 to 7 million people starved to death in Ukraine due to state policies. How did this happen?
The Gulag
1918-1970s
Thousands of political prisoners spent decades working as slaves in Soviet prisoner camps, suffering terrible conditions and the brutality of guards and criminals.
Exile in the Soviet Union
1928-1970s
Political dissidents and ethnic minorities were forcibly relocated from their homes in the Soviet Union to remote places in Siberia. A look at exile in the Soviet Union.
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Hein's Experience
Religion in the USSR
1917-1991
The USSR was an atheist state, and its attack on religion was overt and thorough. By the mid 1930s, most churches were closed and many church leaders had been exiled to Siberia.
World War II
1939-1945
Nazi Germany's attack on the USSR was swift and deadly, but gave the Mennonites a reprieve from communism and a chance to escape Soviet rule.
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German Occupation - Anni
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The Great Trek - Anna's Experience
Becoming Refugees
1943-1949
Many families fled the Soviet Union during World War II, leaving their homes behind to seek freedom in the west. Years of poverty and hardship ensued.
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The Great Trek - Anna's Experience
The USSR After Stalin
1953-1991
A series of Soviet leaders, including Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Androponov continued repressive Soviet policies until Gorbachev came to power.
Leaving the USSR
1920s, 1940s, 1990s
The repressive policies of the Soviet Union caused people to leave, first in the 1920s between Lenin and Stalin, then again during World War II, and finally after the fall of the Soviet Union.
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Leaving Russia - Hein -