Born in Southern Russia

My First Forty

By Harry Klassen (written about 1994)

Lightly edited by Bob Klassen (2023)

Born in Southern Russia (now Ukraine)

Well, my parents were wealthy landowners in Russia before the Russian Revolution in 1917. My sister, Margaret, and my brother Dietrich were born on the estate, Reimerhof. Erica was born in a townhouse that my parents also owned. During the Revolutionary period, bands of armed bandits terrorized the inhabitants by raping and looting.

To make matters worse, my parents belonged to a very religious sect (Mennonites) and spoke German and were considered to be German sympathizers. The Germans were the enemy in WW1 and had ravaged that part of Russia and the Mennonites had collaborated with them. 

Both Agnes and myself were born in a village (Blumstein) where my parents lived after the estate had been confiscated by the revolutionary forces. My father earned a living as a veterinarian, a craft that was self-taught.