Basic facts
In 1830, renowned Mennonite leader Johann Cornies established a prototype farm on about two square miles of land he rented from the government. He had numerous buildings erected, promoted stock breeding, and established a tree nursery and gardens. Among the crops produced were cash crops of tobacco, silk, and honey. Six years later, Czar Nicholas I, impressed by the undertaking, granted Cornies and his descendants the land as a private estate. In 1879, the estate was purchased by Heinrich Reimer. Sometime after the Bolshevik Revolution, the estate was nationalized and became part of a collective farm. Today, Google Maps names this area Lahidne.
source: Molotschna Historical Atlas, p. 139.
Color photos below are from my 2007 trip to Ukraine.
