Basic facts of Alexanderthal:
– founded in 1820, named in honour of the Czar, Alexander I
– 1835 population: 177 (living in 27 houses)
– 1857 population: 294, and the local school had 60 students
– 1902-03: Mennonite Brethren build a church on the western edge of the village
– 1908 population: 365
– 1908 had a few businesses: a windmill, a steam mill, grocery and manufactured goods store
– 1920s: at least 57 families totalling 231 people fled to Canada
– 1930s: some Mennonites dispossessed of their property, some others are exiled including 50 men in the Purge
– 1941: Mennonites are ordered to collect at train stations, from where they are sent to exile in Asia
– 1942 German army statistics: 22 remaining Mennonites represents 30% of population of 73
– 1943: remaining few Mennonites presumably population joined “Great Trek” westward to Poland and Germany
– 2025: the former Alexanderthal and Elisabethtal are called Oleksandrivka in Google Maps
source: Molotschna Historical Atlas, pp. 106-107.
Color photos below are from my 2007 trip to Ukraine.
