This site commemorates the arrival of Russlaender Mennonite immigrants from the Soviet Union to Ontario beginning in 1924. Their stories are told here through church records, oral history interviews and more, preserved in the collections of the Mennonite Archives of Ontario.

From 1923-1930, 21,000 Russlaender arrived in Canada. Ontario Mennonites received and billeted 1,340 of these immigrants in 1924. Many stayed in Ontario, moving between different communities, but others headed to western Canada. By 1927-1928, many who had gone west returned to Ontario. Meanwhile, still others were arriving from the Soviet Union, though this flow slowed significantly by the end of 1927. By 1939, 1,253 Russlaender families were counted in Ontario.


Photograph: Russlaender Mennonites walking from the rail siding at Erb and Caroline streets in Waterloo to Erb Street Mennonite Church to be recieved by their hosts, 1924.

Read more about the Ontario Russlaender experience:

• Epp, Frank H., Mennonites in Canada 1920-1940: A People's Struggle for Survival (pdf)
• Fehderau, Nicholas, Herbert Enns (trans.), Nicholas Fehderau in Canada: My First Impressions and Experiences in My Adopted Land (pdf), Ontario Mennonite History (22) no. 2, October 1999
• Konrad, Annie Dick, Finding Refuge Among Mennonites in Waterloo (pdf), Ontario Mennonite History (10) no. 2, September 1992
• Taves, Krista, Reinterpreting the Old Mennonite/Russlaender Encounter (pdf), Ontario Mennonite History (14) no. 1.
• Wiebe, Anne, The Mennonite Brethren Church of Ontario in Historical Perspective (pdf), XVII-1/2 MAO.

Featured Collection

Church registers

Lists and registers of Russlaender families compiled by church leaders in the Waterloo-Kitchener, Vineland, Leamington and Reesor areas. The time…