my harp is turned to mourning coloquial terms anwohner · katya loewen, - sister to “snapper”,...
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My Harp is Turned to Mourning Coloquial terms
Anwohner: landless workers, trades people living on the Mennonite
colonies
Bauernkultur: farmers’ culture: implies a narrow, confined world view
Burzhuz: bourgeois middle class, materialistic
Droskies: horse drawn carriage
Durak: idiot
Faspa: mid-afternoon lunch, …buns, pickles, cheese
Gemeinde: congregation
Grootestow: great room, living room
Haube: head covering, kerchief
Jugend: youth
Khata: village
Khutor: estate
Nalyotchik: bandit
Njemet: foreigner, plural is njemtsi
Nogaies: Tatar nomads, Turkish background ethnically
Nogaika: whip
Obershulze: administrative officer for the colony
Platz: sweet open face fruit pie
Reisiprediger: itinerant-travelling preacher
Samogon: home made whiskey
Schnorrijch: tranquil, serene, quiet, lazy
Schoen ist die Jugendzeit, sie kommt nicht mehr: wonderful is the
time of youth, for it will not return.
Seelengangst: soul’s angst, fear of the sinner before judgement
Sommastow: summer room, porch sun room
Tweebach: two bake pull apart buns, buns baked in two parts so that
they may be split without a knife
Wirtschaft: agricultural estate, large farm.
Characters in Novel
Kolya Fast, -real name is Nikolai, Kolya is a nick name, Willy Fast’s radical brother
Willie Fast - main character, in love with Clara Bock, artist and school teacher.
Erdman Lepp - extremely evangelical preacher, favourite book is Martyrs Mirro, hopes
to someday be a martyr. Preaches lots about the coming “end times;
Nestor Makhno - historical anarchist, Ukrainians love him, Mennonites thought
(still think) he was spawn of Satan. Might have been a nice guy if
you can get past the murder raping and pillaging.
Katya Loewen, - sister to “Snapper”, Martin Loewen, Makhno has a serious crush
on her.
Martin Loewen - son of the owner of a large estate. Rich Mennonite who’s
become upper class.
August Bock - self made, rich Mennonite industrialist.
August Bock Jr. - Son of above, snob, spoiled.
Mrs. Bock, - wife of August, snob, originally German, thinks Russia is a
backwater
Clara Bock, - daughter of August, is a love interest of Willie’s but leads him on
because she is not allowed to marry a “commoner”
Marusya - Russian peasant servant who is August Bock Jr.’s mistress
Rasputin - charismatic priest who has a strange relationship/connection with the
royal family. The queen thinks that he can keep her hemophiliac son safe.
Alexander Burzev – Russian art teacher
Johann Cornies – Mennonite “tsar” using the Tsar’s authority he forced
agricultural reform on the Mennonite colonies and upgraded their
educational system as well.
Vox Populi – voice of the people, pen name for Kolya or Nikolai Fast, Kolya’s
brother.
Bernhard Harder –preacher with in the Mennonite Colonies
Eschatology - study of Revelations and the biblical end times.
Anarchist - socialist/communist group that believes organized centralized
government is bad.
Piestic - Christian movement that emphasizes following the “rules of
Christianity”
Russia in the Revolution
The part of the book that you will be reading takes place from 1914- to the 1930’s
Below is a map of Europe at the start of the First World War.
During the revolution
Russia
Germany
Black Sea
Setting: Molochnaya Colony, Southern Russia May 1905
Chapter One
The setting is the quiet village of Blumental, as yet untouched by the building social
pressures of the coming revolution. It moves to the Fast farm where we are introduced to
two brothers Willie and Kolya. (Nikolai) Willie feels a real but inadequate connection
and understanding of the settlers who came to this steppe one hundred years earlier. His
brother Kolya is bitter and rebellious about the constraints this Mennonite life places on
him.
They are visited by a traveling preacher named ‘Onkel Lepp” or Erdmann Lepp,
he is fascinated (obsessed?) with eschatology, the ‘end times” as prophesied in the Bible.
He explains over supper about the threats he sees in socialist ideology and the working
classes’ trend toward forming labour unions. He connects this to the ever increasing
anarchist looting that is going on around the colonies.
“So far our Mennonite colonies have been spared violence: here my friends you
live in a peaceful village far removed from the outside world. You and others like
you live under God’s special protection as a chosen people. But there is a trend
towards disobedience and lawlessness, towards anarchy and chaos in our cities
and elsewhere that is gathering force quickly. As Christians, of course we need
not fear or despair over this evil force…There is much unholy talk in the cities
now about socialism, trade unions, the new proletariat - all Satan’s work to try
and undermine a God ordained monarch and government.”
Note: He views a parallel between Mennonites’ and the biblical story and the history of
God’s chosen people, the Jews, in the Old Testament. He also views the government as
being God ordained and thus, worthy of support.
Erdman Lepp grew up guided by the two books in his household, the Bible and a
copy of the Martyr’s Mirror. The Mirror was his inspiration and he read it passionately.
The result was a very piestic man. This meant not only sincerity of belief but a heavy
emphasis on a disciplined spiritual lifestyle and a literal belief in the scriptures. Erdman
began his career preaching in the Mennonite Colonies, but he longed to spread his
message to the “unsaved” the Russian population. He began illegally preaching the word
to Russians when possible.
In 1893 he alerts Russian authorities of his intention to preach to the Russian
population, he is arrested. Eventually he is released because of the political influence of
Countess Mathilde Glaznova. He met her in his earlier years and they fell in love, gave
in to physical desires once, and then they both swore to rededicate themselves to a
celibate life. Erdman took his guidance in affairs of the heart from St. Paul who said that
it was better if Christians remained single and evangelize if they had the strength to bear
it. Erdman desired to be an evangelist more than anything, so his choice was made.
Having been denied his preferred mission field by the Russian government,
Erdman dedicated himself to the study of eschatology, the biblical end times, meditating
and studying over prophecies of the end times.
“ Yes he could drive himself into frenzies of frustrated zeal just by thinking of all
those millions of unsaved peasants in their sprawling, muddy, dog teeming,
anonymous villages of white washed khatas and scrawny chickens, gaunt cows
and horses and free ranging pigs, living forever in hopeless poverty and violence.
How he longed to bring those simple, loveable people to the warm bosom of the
living Christ- away from the meaningless church ritual and the worship of painted
idols on shelf or wall. If only he could have devoted his entire life to that
precious work. But to “Go forth … and make all nations my disciples” had been
so clear and compelling. Why had God not permitted him to answer it more
often?”
Deep within his soul, Erdmann Lepp still clung to the hope that God had something truly
momentous in store for his servant, a grand, ultimate campaign or mission that would end
all his frustrations, justify all of his tenacious zeal, fulfill all his dreams and prayers for
success in fighting his holy war.
“He would wait as patiently as he could for that final call. There were loud
rumors of war coming from the European countries these days. The frog shaped
evil spirits were louder and more venomous than ever. The sixth vial was nearly
empty. It had to be. Then would come the seventh vial and Armageddon.
It must be now. War in the West, followed by the Final Battle in the East.
Armageddon!
It would be now. In the midst of war and strife the Lord would issue the final
command to go forth” p. 199
Foreshadowing!
Ch. 2 1852
Daniel Fast the Grandfather of Willie and Kolya. Explains why they left Prussia.
“ I was shocked by the loose living and growing worldliness I saw among God’s
people. The spirit of Babylon seemed to be let loose among us. We were rapidly
becoming a dwelling for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit. I observed that
even some of our church teachers, who should have led their flocks in purity,
were not walking in God’s ways. They usually looked the other way when it
came to Schnapps drinking and other bad habits. They seemed to tolerate even
the fierce wine of fornication, as the prophet says… p. 30
Ch.3 Loewen Estate “Voronaya August 1905
Nestor Ivanovich Makhno, a farm labourer employed by “Papasha Loewen”
(Father Loewen). Nestor is whipped to the point of welts and bleeding for stealing a
chisel. Machno feels hatred for his employer over what he considers to be an
insignificant crime. He is angry that Loewen, a foreign German Mennonite, and others
like him have become wealthy while Ukrainian peasants labor fruitlessly for their benefit.
There is also a sincere sense of love for the man who beats him. Part of Nestor
recognizes that the man, who is beating him, when calmer and more sober, also cares for
him. Nestor is a historical figure who will become an anarchist leader who terrorizes the
Mennonite villages.
Ch. 4 Halbstadt, Molochnaya April 1908: Bluenau July 1908, Voronaya, August
1908
Willie’s artistic ability gains the recognition and praise of his Russian art teacher.
He is encouraged to pursue art school at a more advanced level, Willie’s art has until now
reflected his appreciation of his heritage and the village lifestyle. He is told that in order
to grow as an artist he will have to leave behind, what his Russian teacher describes as
the “stifling”, Mennonite Colony lifestyle. His father, Mr. Fast, considers art to be
frivolous and pushes Willie to concentrate on something practical and constructive.
The Loewen family hears Erdmann Lepp preach and become “converted” and
donate their jewelry to missions and offer their estate to host a local “Bible Conference”.
Their son Martin, nicknamed, “Snapper”, shows Willie around their huge estate. Snapper
is less concerned with spiritual issues and more concerned with managing the estate in a
businesslike prosperous way. He feels his father is too soft on the workers. He is the son
of the man who whipped Makhnov.
While staying at the estate Willie meets Snapper’s sister Katya. He also hears
that the Loewen’s fired worker, Nestor Makhno has been arrested. Snapper recollects
that Makno used to “look” at Katya a little too long. Foreshadowing? (yup! Makhnov
had/has a crush on Katya)
At the Bible Conference there is an altar call by Erdmann Lepp and Willie Fast
answers it. Reflecting back later he feels that somehow Erdmann Lepp has a type of
charismatic control over him.
Ch. 5 Alexandrovsk, August 1908
We find Nestor Makhno in prison. He is going to be hung as an anarchist even
though he had only been the look out for a robbery. The gang had been caught because
he had gotten drunk and bragged about their actions. He muses about his circumstances,
he remembers how he hated arrogant “Snapper” Loewen, but how he much he liked
Katya Loewen his sister. She had been kind, happy, pure and good and she had made
him feel happy every time he was around her. After losing his job on the Loewen estate
Makhno had worked in a factory, but a strike there ended violently when they were
attacked by government Cossacks. This had led him to a life of crime and now jail.
Ch.7 St. Petersburg Nov. 1912
August Bock Jr., the son of a rich Mennonite farm equipment factory owner, is
critical of the way Mennonite colonies have isolated themselves from the rest of Russia.
He argues against the idea prevalent among many Mennonites that without German
language and culture, the Mennonites will not survive. Willie and August debate over
whether Mennonites are an ethnic group or a faith. August, whose mother is “pure”
German, leans toward them being an ethnic group. Willie argues that without the church
there are no Mennonites.
Willie Fast and his friend Jacob Priess were in school in St. Petersburg studying
to be secondary teachers. Both were facing the likely prospect of being drafted into the
army and then having to do three years of forestry service. Jacob then planned on
teaching five years and finally aimed to go into the ministry. Willie Fast was unsure
what he would do, he currently was enjoying studying art.
Snapper Loewen was in business school in Halbstadt and hoped to return to his
farm and make things.
It is here that Willie meets Clara Bock, August Bock Jr.’s sister. She is studying
voice, although she knows that she is not good enough to become a professional, her
father’s money allows her this diversion before marriage. Willie is smitten by her; (crazy
in love!) she is also out of his league. Her parents expect her to marry someone of her
class, and Willie does not qualify, but she enjoys the attention and … leads him on.?...?
Ch.9 p.108 Butyriki Prison, Feb. 1913
Makhno gains respect in his prison as a poet. His death sentence had been
reduced to life in prison but the prison was brutal and vicious. It is here that Nestor
Makho learns about anarchism and becomes an anarchist.
Ch. 10
Clara and Willie are walking hand in hand and their feelings for each other are
growing, but there are problems in the relationship.
“Though they were quite aware of their feelings for each, other they hadn’t
expressed them openly. For the moment they enjoyed the spontaneity of their
relationship…. Willie was also aware of a certain emotional reticence in Clara.
There were moments when he felt a need to declare his feelings for her directly,
was on the verge of doing so but was stopped by something suddenly
guarded in Clara’s manner.”
“ For her part, Clara found Wilhelm most exciting to be with when he
talked about his art and his dreams as an artist, when he explored realms of
thought and feeling that were new to her. She admired the introspective play of
his mind, the quick steep flights of his imagination, the remorseless way he
attacked pretension and hypocrisy, his own included. She knew he was in love
with her, that he would soon want her to be more than a soul mate. Her own
feelings were complex and confusing. She could not quite sort them out. She
was very fond of this intense young man, adored him, in fact, but was not quite
ready to have him declare his love- not yet. Their relationship seemed so exactly
right as it was. As a friend he was exciting to be with, but as a lover he would
become possessive, demanding, hem her in. She wasn‘t at all sure she was ready
for that.”
Willie meets Mr. and Mrs. Bock in Moscow. It becomes very clear that Mrs. Bock does
not approve of a farm boy artist, Willie. She refers to him in third person through out the
meal, “ask your young man if he would like some more tea”. Clara obeys her mother and
apologizes in a whisper to Willie when her mother asks her to retire to bed early.
“With a sinking heart he realized that between Clara and himself now stood a very
determined and ruthless mother obviously used to getting her own way.
Somehow he could not see Clara successfully defying her mother’s will.” p.123
August Bock Sr. had met Mrs.Bock while he was studying in Germany. Her
family had been concerned that she was marrying “beneath” her status but she had been
strong willed and in love and they were married despite her family’s warnings. Mrs.
Bock had found that life in Russia was not as culturally rich or sophisticated as that in
Germany. It was a shortcoming that she unsuccessfully tried to make up for with an
upper class lifestyle. (She is a snob)
At the Bock’s Willie, August Jr., August Sr. and Clara meet the “famous
Mennonite historian” P.M. Friesen. He discusses his view of the Mennonite existence in
Russia. August Sr. says:
“I accept what you say, Peter M. (Friesen), but I can’t help feeling that our people
are obedient and loyal more out of ignorance and indifference than out of
conviction. We sit behind out mulberry hedges in our closed villages not
knowing or caring what is happening in the outside world.
That’s very true, Redekop. It always made P.M. Friesen happy when he
could agree with an opponent, especially after just scoring points against him. I
can’t defend our isolation from the world, our cultural isolationism in particular. I
wrote in my book that the leaders of the migration to American were shockingly
ignorant of all things Russian –language, history, culture. Since then, of course
things have improved somewhat. Our children now learn Russian in school. I
myself feel more at home in Russian at times than in German. But we have a long
way to go. We still tend to hold ourselves aloof from the Russians around us.
We still tend to look down on our non-Mennonite neighbors, arrogance bred of
ignorance, as you say. p. 126
After P.M. Friesen leaves August Jr. takes Willie and
Clara out to a “risqué” night club that has Gypsy singers- and
dancers. While there they are confronted by a drunken
Rasputin, ( the Russian Monk who is having affairs with
many in the Royal Court) who paws at Clara. Clara is shaken
and they immediately go home. There they break in on the
tail end of an argument between Mr. and Mrs. Bock; it seems
to be about Willie. Mr. and Mrs. leave the room as does
August Jr. At last alone, Clara cries on Wilhelm’s shoulder
and …. They kiss.
“a sad, tentative kiss that awoke no strong response in
either of them.” p.130
Rasputin
Ch. 12
Clara is forced to return to their home by her mother in order to get her away from
Willie. Clara and Wilhelm continue to exchange letters. Wilhelm is invited to spend a
weekend at the Bock’s residence. He gladly accepts the invitation.
The Bock’s live a life of privilege in a gorgeous mansion. The wealth and
splendor distance begin to emphasize the distance already created between Clara and
Wilhelm. August Jr. leads Willie on a tour of their factory. During the tour Willie picks
up on the sullen animosity of the workers towards them; August Jr. is oblivious to the
hostility.
August Sr. was an ingenuitive self made man, a mechanical wizard who had
made the farm company successful. Reisen, his business partner, had supplied the funds
and Bock had provided the brains. Reisen’s lack of a male heir led August Jr. to believe
that one day he would take over the entire company. (Like his mother he was a spoiled
snob0
“Wilhelm felt a perverse urge to say the wrong thing, to prick August’s suave self
importance: he was after all merely the beneficiary of his father’s hard work and
skill. How like Snapper Loewen August was in this respect, but at least Snapper
was eager and ambitious to improve and expand his fathers estate. Somehow
Wilhelm doubted that August would ever add much to his father’s business. It’s
all impressive,” he heard himself say (he was after all a guest), “no wonder
you’ve become so absorbed in all of this.”
During his weekend at the Bock’s Wilhelm encounters one of the servants name
Marusya. “The food was again served by a Russian servant girl so striking in appearance
that Wilhelm could not keep his eyes off her. Even her stiff maid’s uniform could
not entirely mask the grace of her movements, the touch of insolence in her
bearing. The haughtiness in her broad, high cheeked peasant face came from a
pairs of flashing black eyes and a nose that had the delicate sweep of a scimitar.
There was nothing of the docile servant about her. Instead Wilhelm thought he
detected in her a smoldering resentment at their menial role. When she came
close he was aware of a gathered energy in her, a physical intensity that struck
him as almost masculine. Even her figure had a taut male flatness and angularity
that denied passive femininity.” p. 152
Clara has an obvious dislike for Marusya; she thinks she is lazy and impudent.
She confides to Wilhelm that she caught her with the coachman… but she did not tell her
mother, an action which would have gotten Marusya fired.
During the church service Sunday morning Wilhelm realizes that he and Clara are
done, the romance is has ended in her indifference.
“ His heart ached with the nearness of her, and with her utterly unattainable
distance. He felt depressed suddenly, and wished the day were over so he could
go home and try to forget this entrancing maddening girl who would never be his.
Who would, he thought bitterly, be sold to the highest bidder when her mother
decided the time was right. “
But perhaps he was being too pessimistic. He had not lost Clara yet. There had
been moments he knew when they had been more than just casual friends…. p.
154
“It was the moment he had been waiting for. It was now or never. The singer’s
vibrant tones were urging him. They turned to each other, their eyes bright with
shared feeling, cupping and holding the moment, neither wanting to break the
spell. Slowly, spontaneously their heads inclined, lips met trembling, and then
broke apart, their eyes still locked. But even as he opened his mouth to speak, she
shook her head almost imperceptibly and with a movement of delicate finality
placed her forefinger against his lips. … the moment had passed…”p. 155
Willie leaves the Bock’s, quits art school and accepts a teaching job in the village
of Schoensee, Molochnaya in Nov. 1913. By accepting the teaching job and committing
himself to it for 5 years Willie avoids being drafted into the army or the alternative
forestry service. Life moves slowly and bearably but Wilhelm finds that he does not like
teaching.
One day he reads a letter to the editor in the paper a letter he knows was written
by his brother Kolya (Nikolai)
“Dear Editor:
Is it not fitting that in the very year we Russians are celebrating the tercentary of
our glorious monarchy the reactionary forces represented by the Mennonite
leaders and men of wealth in the Molochnaya are displaying their patriotism by
(1) seeking permission to establish a seminary so they can spread their alien beliefs
even more effectively, (2) opening another commercial school in Alexanderkrone
in order to train young Mennonites in more efficient ways to exploit others,
particularly their Russian fellow-citizens: and (3) paying hypocritical lip service
to their government while working zealously to make themselves ever more
independent of the state. Witness for example, the disgusting spectacle of two
Mennonite church elders proudly receiving medals and thanks from our beloved
Tsar at the anniversary levee in St. Petersburg last February. There is Mennonite
hypocrisy for you! Even the all-powerful Johann Cornies in the last century
refused to bow his neck to servilely accept medals and formal honours from the
state.
The sooner these arrogant people of alien race and culture are brought to heel the
better! Like parasites they have sucked themselves fat on the backs of the
Russian peasant worker. And if war with Germany should come, where would
their loyalties be?
Vox Populi
(Nickolai, nick name Kolya is Willy’s brother)
Nickolai had gone to technical school and there learned the new revolutionary
political ideas as well as his other studies. They had found fertile soil in his
rebellious heart.
“My Dear Kolya,
The voice of the people (Vox populi) in the Odessa news is too full of anger and
spite to be a convincing spokesman for truth and justice. What blind fanaticism
drives you to make such charges? From a few grains of truth you raise a
vindictive harvest of accusations.
All my life, dear brother, I’ve tried to understand you, to see if I could justify your
strange views and odd behaviour. The ideas and ideals you profess are all twisted
and warped by your ugly prejudices and destructive passions. You have already
spat on everything our people stand for. Now you want to destroy them too, grind
them into the ground like vermin. Why Kolya why? To uphold the principles of
freedom and justice you are so proud of?
I can’t believe it has to be this way. I mean you turning on us so savagely, as
though we have all betrayed you and must now be punished. Think of the
suffering you have already caused our parents. Do you want to expose them to
public shame too? What if you should be arrested and tried as and enemy of the
state? Have you considered the consequences?
In God’s name come to your senses!
With Love,
Vasya (Willie)
Review Quiz
1. What is the name of the Mennonite colony in which much of the novel is set?
a) Chortitza d) Molotschna
b) Am Trakt e) Blumenau
c) Halbstadt
2. Name Willies home village
d) Chortitza d) Molotschna
e) Am Trakt e) Blumenau
f) Halbstadt
3. To what country is Daniel Fast referring when he calls it Babylon at the beginning of
the book?
a) Holland c) Prussia
b) Russia d) United States
4. What is August Bock’s opinion of the Mennonites?
a) close minded, backward, simple, uncultured church group
b) gifted, hard working, blessed, pious church group
c) superior culture, beacon to the Russians, chosen of God
d) infighting, backstabbing, nit picking, scoundrels
5. What is it that causes Willie to suggest that he is “crippled as an artist, probably always
will be?”
a) his lack of training at an earlier age
b) his lack of exposure to the great master’s works of art
c) his Christianity
d) his longing for Miss Bock
Match the following
6. _____ The arrogant son of a rich Mennonite a) Nikolai Fast or Kolya
industrialist b) August Bock Jr.
7. _____ The character who grows up wild? Vox Populi C) Nogaies
8. _____ The Rieseprediger (traveling evangelist) d) Nestor Makhno
Who is determined to preach to the Russian people. E) Burzev
9. _____ The native people who originally lived on f) Bernhard Dyck
the Mennonite lands g) Clara
10. _____ The Russian art teacher h) Daniel Fast
11. _____ The Russian peasant who is beaten by his I) Johann Cornies
drunken father and whipped by the Mennonite estate j) Jacob Priess
owner. K) “Snapper” Loewen
12. _____ The woman who wants to become an l) Erdman Lepp
opera star m) old Anton
13. _____ The girl who Makhno finds attractive n) Katya
14. What was the favourite sermon topic of the reiseprediger (traveling evangelist) who
visits the Fast home? And how does Willie react to this preacher’s message
15. What was Nestor’s Makhnov’s involvement with the group of anarchists, with whom
he was arrested in Chapter five?
16. What is the state of the relationship between Willie and Clara at the end of part one?
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