A Mennonite in Russia: The Diaries of Jacob D Epp, 1851-1880

Hans B. Neumann is a history lecturer at Scarborough College, University
of Toronto.

Dyck, a professor of history at the University of Toronto, has long had
a professional interest in the Mennonite community of Russia. This
scholarly interest combined with his own Mennonite origins eventually
led to the publication of this book—a translation from the German of
the voluminous diaries kept by one of the Mennonite community leaders
over a 30-year period. The diarist, Jacob D. Epp, lived in what is today
the southern Ukraine but, at the time of the Mennonites’ arrival there
in the late eighteenth century, was called “New Russia.”

The translated diaries serve as a valuable source of information and
insight into Russian rural life at a time when the region was undergoing
far-reaching economic and social changes. Since source material of this
kind is relatively scarce, the book fills a sizeable scholarship gap.
This assessment applies in spite of its obvious limitations to the
Mennonite community. (However, sufficient common factors in farming life
on the steppes exists to permit the drawing of parallels to the wider
community, especially if supplemented by other source material.)

Readers not familiar with the Mennonite community will be extremely
grateful for Dyck’s 74-page “introduction and analysis” because it
competently explains the text. Maps and illustrations further aid the
reader.

Dyck has accomplished no small task in his translating and editing. He
has reduced, as much as possible, the rigid formality of the original
text, providing a smooth English rendering that brings to life the
day-to-day matters Epp describes. The material is approachable and
comprehensible—and all within an expected scholarly framework (save a
bibliography).