• Ältester

• Azov

• Blumenfeld

• Chortitza (1788)

• Desiatina

• Dnieper River

• Halbstadt

• Kowalicha

• Kuban

• Makhno, Nester

• Mennonite Central Committee (founded July 27, 1920)

• Molotschna (1803)

The Molotschna Colony was founded by 193 Danziger Old Flemish Mennonite families from the Vistula delta in Polish-Prussia, who arrived at the Chortitza (Old) Colony on the Dnieper River in Fall of 1803. In the Spring of 1804 the first nine villages were laid out along the banks of the Molotschna River some 100 km. to the southeast. Another 165 families came that same Fall with eight new villages laid out in 1805. Much like the 19th century settlers of the American-midwest, the Molotschna pioneers traversed the 1000 miles of primitive roads and trails in covered wagon trains carrying their possessions and herding livestock. The journey took an average of five to seven weeks. The Molotschna Colony consisted of 120,000 desjatien (320,000 acres) of land lying to the east of the Molotschna River which flowed from north to south into the Sea of Azov. “A number of shallow streams crossed the colony, the larger ones flowing westward towards the Molochnaia (Milk) River, so named because in flood its cloudy waters resembled milk,” Urry, None But Saints (Winnipeg, 1989), page 83. When the settlers arrived on the Molotschna hills (escarpment) along the west bank of the river they made their first acquaintance with their new neighbours, the Nogaier, a nomadic and warlike people. A panoramic view of miles of waving grasses, as tall as a man, greeted the settlers from their vantage point on the heights. “The Nogai would burn off the tall grasses to enrich the soils and to provide fresh pasturage for their animals. Often the entire steppe horizon would be engulfed in flames and heavy black clouds would obscure the sky,” Urry, page 84. The colonists quickly built earth huts for themselves and their livestock to be followed within a few years by more substantial buildings constructed of brick. “These new immigrants included a number of progressive farmers and businessmen with considerable capital, equipment and livestock,” Urry, page 57. “In 1808 61 percent of household heads in the Molochnaia listed their previous profession as `farmer.’” Urry, page 91. By comparison, many of the early pioneers at Chortitza were skilled artisans and craftsmen. Although the Chortitza (Old) Colony, would surpass it in terms of manufacturing and commercial enterprise, the Molotschna Colony was the most successful agricultural settlement in Imperial Russia and frequently visited and cited as a model by Government administrators and bureaucrats. By 1861 the population had grown to 20,828. At its peak in 1918 the Molotschna Colony consisted of 57 villages and several estates with a population of 30,000 Mennonites ... [http://www.plettfoundation.org/Preservings/Preservings24.pdf ]

• Oberschulze

• Schönbrun (1885), Schönfeld

• Schönfeld (1868)

• Selbstschutz

• Schult 

• Vorstei 

• Vorsänger

• Wollost