CAOBO Russian Land “Restitution” Plan;   October 2006 Update
by John Konrad, President, MHSBC

The Proposal as outlined in our April 2006 Newsletter

We reported that solicitations have been made to persons with “Mennonite” names in Canada and the US inviting them to participate in a plan for restitution and development of Mennonite lands in Ukraine. The project is driven by Paul H. Willms, chief executive officer of a company CAOBO, and a Ukrainian associate, Boris Tankhilevich, president. Both are shareholders of this Everett, Washington real estate development company, incorporated in Delaware for this specific purpose. The plan was to negotiate with the Ukrainian government the conveyance to CAOBO all of the lands generally in the Chortitza and Molotschna colonies (over one million acres) on the basis that they were forcibly confiscated from Mennonite landowners by the Soviet Regime.

Our recommendation was that descendants of former Mennonite land owners reject any appeal for subscriptions by CAOBO to invest in the proposed business venture because it was ill conceived, almost certain to fail and inconsistent with Mennonite values. Such effort would harm humanitarian efforts currently underway by our Mennonite institutions in the region.

Update

Complaints have been filed with several securities commissions in Canada drawing attention to this scheme, requesting that they investigate and take appropriate action to shut down any efforts to solicit funds from Canadians, as the documents that describe the venture are highly misleading and, according to our advice, violate securities laws in Canada. We have received responses from Manitoba and BC. The latter’s response, based on information they have received, is that it does not appear that any BC residents have purchased securities in CAOBO. BC Security Commission has cautioned principals of CAOBO not to violate BC securities legislation. They have also alerted securities commissions in other jurisdictions. Manitoba gave a similar response.

State of Missouri Action

State of Missouri enforcement officials have investigated this company and have held hearings to determine the facts. They have determined that at least 159 persons have been solicited in Missouri and that there have been multiple violations of state law. Enforcement officials have petitioned for a fine of up to $10,000 against each individual principal of CAOBO and for assessment of the costs incurred by the regulators in pursuing this action. A decision is pending on the fines.

Our Current Assessment

We understand that Willms has recently sent out a batch letter which seems to end this scheme, no doubt reflecting actions taken by State and Provincial enforcement officials in response to complaints from our constituency. In the mean- time word has reached us that a Ukraine Internal Security agent has visited the Mennonite Center in Molochansk to inquire about the Center's connection with Caobo.

We conclude therefore that this scheme is dead and that no further action should be anticipated. If anyone has had contact with CAOBO officials in the last several months or after receiving this update, please call us.  jikonrad@telus.net

Fall fundraising banquet report:
Mennonites in the Stalinist era or Impossibly Stubborn Mennonites, by Henry Neufeld

The idea of “separate” Mennonite colonies in the Soviet Union is inaccurate, said Dr. Harvey Dyck; Mennonites participated fully in the world of commerce and education. This era of prosperity ended after World War I.

Dr. Dyck, Professor Emeritus of eastern European history at the University of Toronto, spoke to over 400 at the MHS of BCs annual fundraising banquet at Eben-Ezer Mennonite Church on October 14.
Focussing on Mennonites in the USSR during the Stalinist era, Dyck noted that a third of the Mennonites perished in the USSR in the 1930s and 1940s. Dyck based his comments on unpublished documents found in Russian archives.   “I thought Mennonites, as a small group, would be mentioned in passing [in the archival material]; I found the opposite to be true, in the 1920s in Ukraine there was an obsession with Mennonites – they were impossibly stubborn,” said Dyck.

State officials were concerned about the failure of the Communist party to get Mennonites to join the party; Mennonite loyalty was directed to their own organizations – the church, choirs, and youth groups. The Mennonites were a strong group and a rival to the state and the party. The Communists were proud of their revolutionary success and there was pressure to bear down on these resistant Mennonites. Mennonites and Baptists were considered a great danger to the state.

Deportations and purges affected all sections of the Russian population, but focussed more heavily on Germans, Poles and Mennonites. Half of all adult Mennonite males  were executed; others were exiled as slave workers.  Major purges started in 1933 with the imprisonment of 100 Mennonite leaders.

Dyck described the experiences of one of these men: Jacob Neufeld of Molotschna.   (Neufeld’s memoirs are to be translated and published.)  On November 24, two secret policemen came to Neufeld’s door and asked him to come to the station to “clear up a few questions.”

Over the next four months Neufeld was subjected to numerous midnight interrogations in attempts to extract a confession.  He was isolated from his family, deprived of sleep, suffered from untreated boils.  His interrogators tried various forms of entrapment. He was told accusations had been established against him and if he confessed the state would respond with mercy, otherwise he would face harsh punishment. He was accused of espionage and of possessing subversive materials and implicated in a conspiracy.
Neufeld refuted all these charges and refused to sign a confession.   He was then threatened with torture and death. When told that his children would be expelled from the community, he said he’d do anything to prevent this except confess to false charges. When he learned that his best friend made a false confession implicating him, Neufeld returned to his cell full of sadness, confusion and despair. He begged God for strength and renewed his commitment to God.

The next night Neufeld was told that the other Mennonite men had signed ‘confessions.’  Nine of these ‘confessors’ were subsequently sentenced to death, the others to three to ten years of labour in northern camps. Neufeld was sentenced to five years, which he served in Siberia and in the eastern Arctic. In February 1939, Neufeld started his homeward journey, only to find an overgrown yard; everything was dilapidated and neglected. The Mennonite world he had known had changed forever.

The evening also featured harp music by Evelyn Loewen and a delicious dinner prepared by a group from the Eben-Ezer church. Thanks were expressed to Dr. Dyck who for over 15 years has pioneered the retrieval of Mennonite material from the archives.