Each year on the second Saturday of September a festival is held in the small south central Minnesota town of Mountain Lake. It is a celebration of Russian Mennonite heritage appropriately called Heritagefest. It is my paternal heritage.
I grew up thinking that my father's family was of German ancestry; evidently it was not popular to think of yourself as a Russian in the 1950s and 1960s. To my surprise a few years ago I discovered that I actually have no German ancestry. My paternal relatives originally came from the Netherlands, then settled in West Prussia (today it is Poland). They moved on to the Ukraine before immigrating to Canada and then the United States.
The fest is held on the edge of town on the grounds of a reconstructed Minnesota Mennonite village. A one-day event, volunteers work in the buildings of the mercantile, blacksmith, school, and summer kitchen replicating the life and work of days gone by.
The food building serves borscht (beef & cabbage soup), perieschkje (fruit-filled turnovers, mooss (fruit soup), dark bread and sausage (homemade, of course!), zwieback (buns), and a variety of other traditional foods that I remember my grandmother serving in her home. It is a wonderful way for my children to learn about their heritage first-hand.
I feel that our ancestors are an anchor for our family. I want my children to know and appreciate the folks who came before them. Besides attending the Heritagefest, I have also learned how to make the traditional Russian Mennonite foods. When I serve them I explain to my family what their significance was to the culture of their ancestors.
A few years ago I discovered two books specifically on the history of the Mennonites of South Russia. I learned that in 1786 the Empress Catherine II of Russia invited the Dutch Mennonites living in West Prussia to settle in the Ukraine. She wanted the vast virgin steppes of the sparsely populated agricultural lands settled. She knew the Mennonites as restorers and stewards of the earth. People who would live according to their religious convictions.
In 1870 there were 45,000 Mennonites in Russia. About this time, the promises of Catherine - exemption from military service forever, absolute religious freedom, control of their own schools, and use of their language - were threatened. Whole Mennonite villages began emigrating to North America. By 1884, some 18,000 had emigrated.
My grandmother, Kate Willems Klein, was born in Cottonwood County, Minnesota in 1896. Her parents had settled in Minnesota with their whole village. Our family is fortunate that Grandma Kate is still with us today and living a full life at the age of 98. The stories she tells of her life are fascinating and so vital to the preservation of our family's history.
Unbelievably, last year I won a handmade quilt at the Heritagefest. I took the opportunity to write a letter of appreciation to the local newspaper. I not only expressed my gratitude for the beautiful quilt but I also thanked the countless volunteers who unselfishly organize and work at the annual festival. It is their volunteerism that has allowed my family to experience our history in a wonderful living fashion.
