Unbelonging and the Search for Home: Narratives of Transnational Mennonite Migrants from Soviet Union to Canada

• In Event: Homeland in Exile: Navigating Belonging in the Soviet Union

Abstract

This research examines the multifaceted experience of Mennonites who came to the Russian Empire from Germany at the invitation of Catherine II in order to avoid religious persecution in Europe and who faced displacement and discrimination following the Second World War. Using archival sources and excerpts of oral history interviews conducted by the author, this paper will examine how the concept of belonging and, more precisely, unbelonging has manifested itself throughout the multiple migrations that Russian-German Mennonites faced starting from their life in the Soviet Union, specifically Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan where many were exiled, to their later migrations to Germany and Canada.

Author

• Anna Kozlova, Carleton U (Canada)