The Quest for Christian Community: Exploring the Hutter Brotherhood in the Russian Empire (1770 — the Second Half of the 1870s)

Abstract

We conducted an analysis of the socio-religious and economic lifestyle of the Hutters, a Christian community that emigrated from Eastern Europe to the southern frontier of the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century. The Hutters were known for their desire to live communally, based on the principles of equality and Christian love, pacifism, and community of property. While the Russian authorities initially allowed the Hutters to maintain their community, they preferred individual farms over communes. Unlike the Mennonites, another religious group in the area, the Hutters struggled with low birth rates and internal conflicts and were not successful in their resettlement. As capitalism rapidly developed in Novorossiya and military reforms took place in Russia, the Hutters decided to move to the Midwest of North America where they could realize their ideal of a Christian community. This article provides insight into the resettlement policy of the Russian authorities in the 18th and 19th centuries towards persecuted European religious groups and how the Russian conditions affected them.