Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk), a province (Russian, oblast) of the Ukraine, USSR, crossed by the Dnieper River, founded in 1786, named after Catherine II, changed to Dnipropetrovsk in 1917. Ekaterinoslav is bordered on the north by Poltava, on the east by Kharkov, on the south by Taurida, and on the west by Kherson. In 1946 it had an area of 12,590 sq. mi. (size of all Holland) with an estimated population of 2,200,000. The capital city by the same name as the province had in 1939 a population of 500,000.

The Mennonites settled first in this province in 1789, establishing the Chortitza settlement with 18 villages. Daughter settlements which originated in this province were as follows: Bergtal (1836), 5 villages; Tchernoglas (1860), 1 village; Borozenko (1865), 7 villages; Brazol (1868), 4 villages; Yazykovo (1869), 8 villages; Neplyuevka (1870), 2 villages; Baratov (1872), 2 villages; Schlachtin (1874), 2 villages; Neu-Rosengart (1878), 2 villages; Wiesenfeld (1880), 1 village; Memrik (1885), 10 villages; Miloradovka (1889), 2 villages; Ignatyevo (1889), 7 villages; Borissovo (1892), 3 villages. Before World War I the Mennonite population of the province was 30,000, distributed over 74 villages and some large estates. Including both the village settlements and the large estates, they owned a total of 761,400 acres. Next to the province of Taurida, Ekaterinoslav had the largest Mennonite population in Russia. The center of government, education, and industry for the Mennonites was Chortitza. Alexandrovsk (Zaporizhia) also became an industrial center.

Most of the Mennonites who came to Canada after World War II came from the province of Ekaterinoslav, since the Soviets did not succeed in evacuating the settlements from west of the Dnieper River to the east when the German Army invaded the Ukraine in 1941.

For information on the Mennonites of this province under the Soviets, see Chortitza, Ukraine, Russia, and the individual settlements listed above.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 174. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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