Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2014 number

The article reviews the Mennonite community in the contemporary world including Mennonite communities in Russia. It also emphasizes tendencies and forms of transnational cooperation within the Mennonite community. According to the Mennonite world conference, which takes into account all the Anabaptist followers, world Mennonite community includes 1.7 million followers in 83 countries. Demographers register constant growth of the Mennonite followers due to their high birth rate in the developing countries, increasing life expectancy and migration. The Mennonite communities appeared in Russia in the XVIII century. The first Mennonites moved to Russia fr om Prussia in 1789 on invitation of the Russian government and settled the Khortytsia district of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate. Nowadays there are Mennonite communities in the southern parts of Russia, Orenburg and other regions. Most of them were formed in the wake of migrations in the late XIX - early XX centuries. Demographers note the constant Mennonite population increase due to a high rate of natural growth and migrations. There are several international Mennonite organizations aimed at creating a global community of Mennonites and mutual assistance. They act owing to the offertories gathered mainly by the American and Canadian communities; organize charity events in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America. In Russia they do not play such an active role. However there are some examples of foreign Mennonites’ charitable acts. For instance, in the 1990s in the village Neudachino in the Novosibirsk district representatives of the Central Mennonite Committee organized charity work for other Mennonites. This fact can be seen as an example of transnational cooperation. Mennonites are also characterized by a high migration activity lacking strong attachment to any state. High migration mobility is traditional for the Mennonites. They keep strong ties with members of other communities on a family and clan level. There is also a global confessional network which provides transnational cooperation. Modern Mennonites lead an active lifestyle including proselyte activities within the host regions wh ere they live and within the global Mennonite community in general. It can be assumed that religious characteristics and specific lifestyle of Mennonites were the main factors of the Mennonite community’s consolidation.