Bachmut, a district in the Russian province of Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), with highly developed industries: rich salt mines, coal mines, a mercury mine, and also factories for the manufacture of railroad ties and cars. In 1889 the Chortitza colony bought in Bachmut 13,019 dessiatines (about 32,000 acres) of Count Ignatyev, upon which seven Mennonite villages were built, viz., New York at the south railway station Zheleznaya, Leonidovka, Ekaterinovka, Romanovka, Alexeyevka, Nikolayevka, and Ignatyevka. The principal occupation of the Mennonites was farming, in which they achieved thriving prosperity. They were also engaged in industry, such as mills, factories, and tile-works, especially in New York. In 1892 the Mennonites of Chortitza established the Borissovo colony with two villages, Kondratyevka and Nikolaipol, near the south railway station Drushkovka. This land was even better than that in the Ignatyev territory. The church center of both the settlements was in New York, where the elder also resided.

The Memrik colonies formed a third settlement in Bachmut, founded in 1885 by independent Mennonite buyers from the province of Taurida. Their principal village was Memrik, about six miles (10 km) west of station Zhelannaya on the Catherine Railway. The village of Alexandropol, established in 1888, was affiliated with the church at Memrik.

In the district of Bachmut many individual Mennonites owned farms and large holdings not far from the Memrik settlement, also near New York and Bachmut

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 204. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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