Katya

Katya is one of the Canadian Mennonite novels we read this semester in Mennonite Lit.  It tells the story of how Mennonites living in a culturally isolated village came upon hard times during the time period close to WWI and the Russian Revolution.  It illustrates how larger themes in history can shape personal stories.

Mennonites first went to Russia under the protection of Catherine the Great.  She invited them to come and farm in what is now the Ukraine.  While this was originally a great opportunity, it caused many problems later on for the Russlanders (Canadian Mennonites who migrated from Russia in the second wave) (also the title of the book when it was originally published in Canada).  One such issue is that of land.  The Mennonites were unable to distribute land and thus those who owned property became the upper class.

Abram Sudermann is an example of this.  His estate is gigantic and because of this, he is targeted for by bandits. The book begins with a newspaper article that reports on his death and the several others.  While we see throughout the novel that he is greedy, and if came about as close to deserving that fate as one could, it still illustrates how disparity leads to violence.  The novel also hints that one of the local non-mennonites that Abram treated badly struck the first blow when the gang came to kill him.