The city of Dnipro (formerly Dnepropetrovsk, earlier Ekaterinoslav or Yekaterinoslav) is Ukraine’s fourth largest city, with a population of almost one million. In earlier times, its Mennonite population was small but had significant political and economic influence. The wealthy Fast, Toews and Heese families had sizeable operations in the city.
Former Johann H. Toews mansion in the heart of Dnipro. GPS co-ordinates: latitude 48.474100, longitude 35.024733. Visible in Google Maps and Google Maps Street View.
Former Johann H. Toews mansion. When our tour guide, Paul Toews, was asked how he identified the location of this building after all these years, he said one of the people he was working with got access to a very old city telephone directory and looked up the Toews family, which provided an address. They then cross-referenced the building at that location against an historical photo of the Toews mansion.
Former Johann H. Toews mansion.
Dnipro Railway Station.
Potemkin Palace, now known as the Palace of Students of the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University. Inside we were treated to an impressive dance practice and brief performance by young adults.
Dnieper river loch our boat traversed.
Hall of Repression, an exhibit in an Ekaterinoslav museum documenting Ukrainian victims of repression during the Soviet era. This pyramid of photos are among the victims. This exhibit documents at least one Mennonite victim.
Former Johann Fast treadmill, just down the street from the Johann H. Toews mansion. One source notes that this mill was passed down in the Fast family through the generations and around 1866 was converted to steam power. In 1890, the mill was destroyed by fire and rebuilt about five years later. By 1911, the business was unfortunately insolvent and taken over by the financing banks.
Granite art. Statues were surprisingly common in the Ukrainian cities we visited.
Dnipro Meat and Vegetable Market
The market offered an impressive array of cuts of meat. Refrigeration was not a priority.
Attendant wears patriotic colors of yellow and blue.
FEATURE
Mennonites and the WWI Red Cross
During WWI, several thousand young Mennonite men faced conscription into Russian imperial service. Due to Mennonites’ recognized belief in non-resistance, the Russian government provided alternative service with the Red Cross Sanitätsdienst (hospital service).
Most of the Mennonites men in the Sanitätsdienst worked on medical trains, gathering and transporting the wounded from the front lines to hospitals.
One of three training facility of Mennonite Red Cross recruits was here in Dnipro. Red Cross emblems are embedded into the brick in a few locations.
Same Red Cross building. The building is abandoned and nearly crumbing.
Two more views of the building.
My great-grandfather Abram P. Bergmann (1884-1971) in his Red Cross uniform, 1915. The badge on his shoulder indicates he serviced on train number 184. The two stripes above the number suggest some type of rank.
Red Cross paperwork for Abram P. Bergmann (1884-1971) dated October 28, 1917 (Julian Calendar), three days after the Bolshevik Revolution. This document was issued from a sister Red Cross base in the city of Cherkassy (half-way between Dnipro and Kiev). English translation:
Main Committee
of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union
CERTIFICATE
Cherkassy Base
of Sanitary Trains
October 28, 1917
No. 1189
This certificate is issued to Abram Petrovich Bergman to certify that he is in the service of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union in the capacity of assistant to the manager of the Cherkassy Base of Sanitary Trains.
The documents of A. Bergman are kept at the Department of Sanitary Trains in Moscow.
Manager of the Base
(signature)
Abram P. Bergmann, back left, with others in the Red Cross service, 1915. Various uniforms are represented. The man in back middle is sporting a sabre and is very likely not Mennonite. The two women in the front are wearing Russian Sisters of Mercy nursing uniforms.