October 6, 2025
Good morning,
I finished the last of my Top Ten books. The Russlander by Sandra Birdsell. She is a Metis/Mennonite from Manitoba. This story is a fictional story about the violence done to Mennonites from about 1914-2023. I believe it is her mother’s story. It is about a massacre of a rich Mennonite family. At the beginning of the book is a new item telling about the event, and all the people who died. The rest of the novel is told through the young girl, Katya, who survived. There are parts from the end of her life after she emigrated to Canada. So, throughout the book, you know what is going to happen.
The story is also my mother’s story. She was born in 1919 after the violence had begun. Her family had to move off their large farm estate to a small town in the Mennonite colony. Her memories were only about what others told her. My grandmother was the storyteller, and she told us about everyday life events like farming, cooking and nature. No one talked about the violence. They wanted to leave it behind ?\
In her storytelling, Birdsell is very critical of the Mennonite treatment of the Russian people. Mennonites treated them like slaves and saw them as less than human. They whipped their workers, and gave them less than enough food. Some people say this is why the Russians treated them so badly after the Revolution, taking their anger and violence out on the Mennonite wealth and security.
Thank you for listening to me reflect on the books that have shaped my life and faith.
Fred
black and white shadows
crush humanity’s freedom
am I complicit ? MPL 2025
Ponder Anew 