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The Russian Mennonites are a group of Mennonite s descended from Dutch and mainly Germanic Prussian Anabaptists who established colonies in South Russia (present-day Ukraine ) beginning in 1789. Since the late 1800s, many of them have come to countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. In the early-to-mid 1500s, Mennonites began to move from the Low Countries (especially Friesland ) and Flanders to the Vistula delta region in Royal Prussia , seeking religious freedom and exemption from Military Service . They gradually replaced their Dutch and Frisian languages with the East Low German dialect spoken in the area, blending into it elements of their native tongues. Plautdietsch is the distinct Mennonite language which developed over a period of 300 years in the Vistula delta region and south Russia. In 1772, most of the Mennonites' land in the Vistula area became part of Prussia in the first of the Partitions Of Poland . Frederick William II Of Prussia ascended the throne in 1786 and imposed heavy fees on the Mennonites in exchange for continued military exemption. In the same year, Catherine The Great of Russia sent a special invitation to the Mennonites, offering them land where they could have partial autonomy and military exemption. The territory was northwest of the Sea Of Azov , and had just been acquired from the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774 . Many of the Mennonites in Prussia accepted this invitation, establishing Chortitza on the Dnieper River as their first colony in 1789. The other primary colony, Molotschna , was founded in 1803. In 1814, the Kleine Gemeinde, which would become the Evangelical Mennonite Conference , separated from the main body of the church in Molotschna. The Mennonite Brethren Churches (Brüder Gemeinde) was formed in 1860. The introduction of a conscription law in 1871 was one of a number changes ending special privileges, prompting community leaders to seek immigration options. In 1873 a delegation twelve explored North America, seeking large tracts of fertile farmland. This group consisted of Leonhard Sudermann and Jacob Buller representing the Molotschna settlement; Tobias Unruh from Volhynia settlements; Andreas Schrag of the Swiss Volhynia congregations; Heinrich Wiebe, Jacob Peters and Cornelius Buhr from the Bergthal Colony; William Ewert from West Prussia; Cornelius Toews and David Classen of the Kleine Gemeinde and Paul Tschetter and Lawrence Tschetter representing the Hutterite s.Kaufman p. 78. This group returned with positive reports of good land available in Manitoba, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. Consequently between 1874 and 1880, 18,000 of the approximately 45,000 Mennonites in South Russia left for North America. See also
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