All-Russian Mennonite Agricultural Association
The All-Russian Mennonite Agricultural Association (AMLV) was an association of Mennonite farmers in the Soviet Union during the NEP ( New Economic Policy , 1921–1927) . It has seen remarkable growth in its short existence. After the great famine of 1921–1922 , the number of cooperatives established by the AMLV grew steadily. In 1928 the AMLV was forced to dissolve by the Soviet government.
History of the AMLV
Creation of the AMLV 1922–1923
After the October Revolution of 1917, Peter F. Froese and Cornelius F. Klassen were sent to Moscow by the Mennonite congregations to represent the interests of the country's Mennonites. As members of the "United Council of Religious Brotherhoods and Groups in Moscow" they had a basis for their work, which, however, ceased when this council was dissolved. This gave rise to the need and desire to set up a purely Mennonite organization. For this purpose, a conference of Mennonite representatives was held in Alexandertal ( Alt-Samara ) in October 1922 , in which the establishment of an organization for ecclesiastical and economic affairs of the Mennonites was decided. A committee elected for this purpose met in November 1922 in Alexandertal and, after careful consideration, drew up a statute for the newly founded All-Russian Mennonite Agricultural Association. However, since the idea of an ecclesiastical and economic association was not possible under the laws of the Soviet Union, the Commission for Church Affairs (KfK) was also founded.
After lengthy negotiations, the statute for the All-Russian Mennonite Agricultural Association (AMLV) was accepted by the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Soviets and in October 1923 the first meeting of representatives took place in Alexandertal (Old Samara). PF Froese, CF Klassen and FF Isaak were elected to the Executive Committee. In order to regulate urgent matters between the meetings of the association, if necessary, a council was formed from representatives of the larger localities.
Development of the AMLV until 1927
The AMLV met four times: in Alexandertal in 1923, in Davlekanovo in 1924 and in Moscow in 1925 and 1927. The meetings of the representatives and the association itself played an important role as a link between the individual Mennonite settlements. The AMLV represented the settlements of Alt-Samara, Ufa , Orenburg , Am Trakt , in the North Caucasus, in the Crimea, in Western Siberia, in Kazakhstan and Turkestan - in other words all settlements except those in Ukraine .
The AMLV consisted of 19 larger local organizations and 56 sub-organizations. It included 4,965 family farms (80% of all peasant farms) with around 44,000 people - about ⅖ of the Mennonites in the Soviet Union, the other ⅗ lived in the Ukraine.
Work in all counties was primarily focused on improving the seeds and livestock. First, second and third reproduction seeds were produced, as well as selection seeds. The products of the Mennonite seed cooperatives were highly regarded by the state research institutes. Significant achievements have also been made in the field of livestock. In Siberia and in the steppes of Orenburg it was the German red cattle , on the Volga the Dutch and Simmenthal cows . The dairy industry also achieved excellent results, especially in cheese making. Tilsiter and Dutch cheeses of excellent quality held their own on the market. There were also noteworthy companies for the processing of wheat, as well as machine-tractor stations.
The AMLV also had representatives abroad: AA Friesen in North America, Benjamin H. Unruh and AJ Fast in Germany.
The valuable help that Russia received from the American Mennonite Relief and the significant benefits of the AMLV network enabled the Mennonites to obtain a repeat permit in Moscow to allow the excess population of the Mennonite villages to emigrate. This was not seen as “ emigration ”, but merely as a remedy for the overpopulation.
Over the course of several years, the efforts of the representatives in Moscow made it possible for some Mennonites to leave the country at a lower cost. From 1925 to 1926 Franz C. Thiessen coordinated the technical side of the emigration under the patronage of the AMLV. In 1927 Mennonite emigration from the Soviet Union was practically stopped. The large eight-room apartment on Taganskaya ulitsa, which served as the AMLV branch in Moscow, became the center for all Mennonites visiting Moscow.
From May 1925 to December 1926 the AMLV published the newspaper Der Praktische Landwirt under the motto: "Strength lies in unity."
The relationship between the AMLV and the Soviet government
During its entire existence the AMLV was forced to fight for its function and even for its right to exist. It was particularly hard pressed by the German Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But the Russian entrepreneurs also saw him as a foreign body in the Soviet cooperative movement. One of them suggested its dissolution for the following reasons:
- The AMLV has fostered the illusion among Mennonites that they have the right to their own organizations and independent development.
- The AMLV represents an obstacle to the Sovietization of the Mennonite settlements.
- From the standpoint of Soviet policy, the central government made a mistake in recognizing the AMLV because it promoted Mennonite separatism, which does not fit the program of nationality policy of the Soviet Union .
In 1927 it was evident that the Communist Party was not going to dissolve the AMLV administratively, but by throttling it financially and pulling local organizations out of the network of the entire body. The association should be driven into deficit and thereby compromised in the eyes of its members. A lawsuit was initiated against the AMLV, which the club of course lost. When the NEP period came to an end in 1927, the party had already decided on a collectivization program . The AMLV could no longer exist and in the summer of 1928 the Executive Committee was forced to agree to the proposal of the Central Body of the Soviet Agricultural Cooperatives (selskossoyus) to liquidate the AMLV. In the year of the great economic revolution, 1929, the great catastrophe for the Mennonite communities began.
Important representatives of the AMLV
- Peter F. Froese
- Cornelius F. Klassen (1894–1954)
- Johann W. Ewert from Alexandertal
- Hermann Fr. Dyck