Work Paper #25 (Winter 1977)

Work Paper #25 (Winter 1977)

Cover depicts Russian German emigrants in 1896 in South Dakota modeling their traditional dress. This issue contains the first in a series of articles, those by Lew Malinowski on the colonization of Russia, “Passage to Russia: Who Were the Emigrants?”, translated by Dona B. Reeves; and those devoted to letters, diaries, and journals of Germans from Russia, excerpts from the autobiography of Gottlieb Isaak, translated by Otto Wenzel. Adam Giesinger provides new information in his translations of “The First Statistical Report on the Volga Colonies, ” which was presented to Empress Catherine II on February 14, 1769; a Volhynian-German Contract; “The Rebuilding of German Evangelical Parishes in the East,” an appeal to the Nazi authorities by Pastor Friedrich Rink in 1943; and reminiscences of Heinrich Erfurth, S. Koliweck, and Kaspar Scheck in “Early Chronicles Among the Volga Germans.” Featured articles include W. S. Harwood’s “A Bit of Europe in Dakota: The German-Russian Colony at Eureka” and two reprints from Mennonite Life on South America: Peter Klassen’s “Mennonites in Brazil and Jacob B. Reamer’s “Mennonite Colony in Paraguay.” Continuing a series, Adam Giesinger has translated a selection of chronicles by Emil Blank on the Prishib col- onies (Prishib, Weinau, Heidelberg, Hochstadt, Friedrichsfeld, and Kostheim); John B. Toews offers a translation of Jacob B. Janz’s 1909 account of a Russian Mennonite village, Fischau; and Lawrence Weigel shares his research on the song, Befiehl du deine Wege. Also included are book reviews by Emma S. Haynes on Paul Kalmbach’s An Angel on My Shoulder, East Wind & The Story of Maria Zeitner Linke, along with a genealogy section (“Queries” and “Surname Exchange”).