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An Unknown Turkestan Mennonite

by Victor G. Wiebe

Since learning of the participation of my wife’s family in the Trek to Central Asia I have maintained an interest in the stories of Mennonite sojourn in the region. Mennonites, of course, have written some accounts of the area and a number of books by travellers comment on the Mennonites and the occasional specialized history gives nod to a Mennonite presence. Often the Mennonites in the expansive area formerly known as Turkestan and now divided into five separate republics, were just called German. One of the most interesting stories from a non-Mennonite comes from the book: Mission to Turkestan: Being the Memoirs of Count K. K. Pahlen 1908-1909 (London, Oxford University Press. 1964).

Count Konstantin Konstatinovich Pahlen¹ (1861-1923), a German speaker of Latvian origin, was a jurist, career civil servant and loyal citizen of the Russian Empire. He served in a variety of administrative positions like Volst elder, commissar for peasant affairs, and Vice-Governor of the guberniya of Warsaw. Pahlen was an Evangelical Lutheran and the Christian faith was a vital force in his life. He, like his father before him, showed marked sympathy for Jews and other harshly ruled ethnic groups. After the 1905 Revolution, in which he was wounded in an assassination attempt, he was made a Senator of the First Department of the Senate and he moved to St. Petersburg. Revolutionary disturbances in Turkestan in 1905 and 1906 and pervasive corruption in the region caused the Imperial government to order a Senatorial investigation. Czar Nicholas II entrusted the investigation to Pahlen and this lasted from June 1908 until June 1909. With a number of assistants, Pahlen carried out his investigations with great vigour and enthusiasm, travelling the breadth of Turkestan. He examined all aspects of the economy, government, agriculture, justice and colonization. Pahlen made full use of his powers to suspend or prosecute officials involved in outrageous or criminal activities. In the end, however, because Russian Prime Minister Stolypin disagreed with suggested changes to colonization practices, his lengthy 20 volume report², which is an outstanding source of information on Turkestan, was just put on the shelf and ignored. Nothing fundamental was changed until the Red tide of Revolution swept through Turkestan in 1917. Meanwhile, Pahlen returned to the Senate. With the beginning of World War I and the Russian Revolution he felt first the sting of Germanophobia and then persecution by the proletariat. Thus in 1917 he fled to Finland and finally to Germany. Pahlen’s last three years of life were spent at Wernigerode, Germany, where he was active in the ecumenical mission society “Licht im Osten” (Light in the East) where the Mennonite evangelist Jacob Kroeker also laboured.

In 1922, during a visit to relatives in Finland, he dictated in German, solely from memory, an account of his mission to Turkestan. This was never published and only appears in the English translation in the book indicated above.

In the course of his mission to Turkestan, Pahlen encountered the Mennonites who lived there. They were joyful at meeting a German speaking Russian official and he was impressed by their accomplishments, mostly agricultural, and their obedience to the law. However, he did find one Mennonite who spent time in jail. This is Pahlen’s story of him.

In Tashkent I examined the dossier of a pardoned German Mennonite who at the demand of the Russian Chief District Officer in Andizhan had been sentenced to three year’s imprisonment with hard labour for libel. Like many of his brother sectarians he had been exempted from military service and given a government job instead – in this case that of state forester in the Andizhan³ district. The Mennonites were quite justly renowned throughout the Empire for their honesty, trustworthiness, and obedience to the laws of the realm, which none of them had ever broken. The case was, therefore, somewhat unique in the annals of Russian justice. It started over a report the Mennonite had submitted to his immediate superior, the Domain Head Forester. In this he stated that he had learned, from perfectly reliable sources which however he could not reveal, that a rising of Muslims in the Andizhan district and surrounding region was being actively prepared. It happened that the Chief District Officer in Andizhan at the time was a jovial, kind hearted colonel possessed of a blind faith in the integrity of his subordinates. When he had read the Mennonite’s report, which had been passed to him by the Head Forester, he asked his District Officer how much of it he thought was true and was reassured by the latter’s assurance that the whole thing was a tissue of lies and an infamous libel. By now the report had reached the Governor-General and was provoking quite a stir in high administrative circles. This prompted the District Officer to stage exemplary proceedings against its author. As the Mennonite was holding a government job in lieu of military service he was subject to military jurisdiction. He was in consequence tried by a military court and sentenced to three years hard labour. By the time he had served half his sentence an astounding event occurred in Andizhan District (pp.53-54).

Pahlen then describes the astounding event which happened on 18 May 1898. A rich Uzbeck of the Andizhan district, an Ishan (that is a Sufi teacher or guide) under the spell of Islamic passion planned, organized and proclaimed Holy War against the Russian infidels, gathered his murids (i.e. disciples), about 400 in number, and attacked the local garrison in their barracks⁴. Though surprised and many of the garrison of 160 were killed, the Russian soldiers fought back, drove off the attackers, and captured their leader. This revolt caused a great concern in St. Petersburg. The Ministry of Defence over-reacted and started a vicious campaign to punish all the local Uzbecks. The local Russian officials, however, tried to minimize and paper over the extent of the revolt. Pahlen continues:

The Mennonite who had given advance information of the Ishan’s intentions was of course pardoned, and was granted a large indemnity in compensation for the wrongs he had suffered (p.55).

In this example of corruption in Turkestan Pahlen relates that the District Officer who was both an officer in the Russian army and the principal author of seeing the Mennonite punished was also a Mohammedan follower (murid) of the revolt leader. Further, this District Officer who lulled his Chief into a sense of false security was never punished in an effort to hush up the episode. Pahlen implies that he was to correct both this oversight and to mitigate the harsh punishment given to innocent Uzbecks.

Pahlen obviously had previous knowledge of Mennonites as privileged and accomplished Russian citizens and admired them. Unfortunately this specific Mennonite is never identified by name. Who was he and is his story the same as that remembered by Pahlen?

Endnotes

Various spellings of the name are used; Pahlen is German and used by Pahlen himself, the transliteration from Russian is Palenom and some English sources give Palen. K. K. Palenom. Otchet po revizii Turkestanskago kraia. St. Petersburg, 1909-10, 19pp.+ supp. Andizhan is in the Oblast of Fergana about 260 kilometres west south west of Tashkent. A description of the Andizhan revolt can be found in Richard A. Pierce. Russian Central Asia 1867-1917: A Study in Colonial Rule. Berkeley, California, University of California Press. 1960, p. 226-233. Because Pahlen relied solely on memory some of the details in Pahlen’s account differ from Pierce’s description.

Victor Wiebe is a librarian at the University of Saskatchewan.

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Last modified October 31, 2000.

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