Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe

This book documents the Tsarist Mennonite experience through the papers of Johann Cornies (1789–1848), an ambitious and energetic leader of the Mennonite settlement of Molochna. Cornies’ papers offer a widow onto both the Mennonite world, and onto the Tsarist state’s relationship with minorities of the frontier.

Harvey L. Dyck is a professor emeritus in the History Department at the University of Toronto.
Staples John R. :

John R. Staples is a professor of Russian and Soviet history at the State University of New York at Fredonia.
Epp Ingrid I. :

Ingrid I. Epp is the former librarian of University College at the University of Toronto.

"Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe is a marvelous project. The letters and documents allow us to see firsthand the internal workings of one of tsarist Russia’s most interesting and most important non-Russian communities, to explore the settlement and economic transformation of the steppe region, and to analyze the intricate relations between tsarist state agents and the heterogeneous subjects and settlers of the empire."

Heather Coleman, Department of History, University of Alberta:

"Volume II of Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe opens a fascinating window on the evolution of Mennonite social, religious, political, and economic life in southern Ukraine in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The extraordinary activity and personality of Johann Cornies comes even further into relief; his correspondence is an unparalleled source for the fine texture of daily economic life and the environmental history of the region."