The Public and Private Lives of Mennonite Kolkhoz Chairmen in the Khortytsia and Molochansk German National Raĭony in Ukraine (1928-1934)

Abstract

This article examines the role that Mennonites played in the establishment and management of kolkhozy in the two largest Mennonite settlements (Khortytsia and Molochansk) in Soviet Ukraine during dekulakization and collectivization (1928)(1929)(1930)(1931)(1932)(1933)(1934). More specifically, it investigates the social and ethnic criteria used in selecting Mennonites to be kolkhoz chairmen; the duties and daily routines of chairmen; the conflicted relationships that chairmen had with local authorities and kolkhoz members; the numerous challenges that chairmen encountered during the 1932-33 famines; and the mechanisms that local authorities and kolkhoz members used to control, embarrass, and discipline chairmen. It also discusses the negative repercussions that the rise of Nazi Germany had for Mennonite chairmen, and how political, economic, agricultural, social, and ethnic policies and conditions made it very difficult for Mennonite chairmen to succeed.