The Fernheim Colony is a Plautdietsch-speaking settlement of Mennonites originally from Russia of about 5000 in the Chaco of Paraguay. Mennonites from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

founded it between 1930 and 1932.

Filadelfia Filadelfia () is the capital of Boquerón Department in the Gran Chaco of western Paraguay. It is the centre of the Fernheim Colony. It is about a 5-hour drive from the capital of Asunción. With a population of about 20,000, it is the largest ...

is the administrative center of the colony, seat of

Boquerón department Boquerón may refer to: * Boquerón, Cuba * Boquerón, Las Piedras, Puerto Rico *Boquerón, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico * Boquerón Bay, Puerto Rico * Boquerón, Chiriquí, Panama * Boquerón Department, Paraguay * Boquerón (island), an island in the Ar ...

and is considered the 'Capital of the Chaco'. In the late 1920s, some Mennonite refugees tried to escape persecution of "

Kulak Kulak (; russian: кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈlak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned ove ...

s" in

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

Russia, which meant the total destruction of the Mennonite religious and cultural life. They left their home villages and gathered in Moscow. For humanitarian reasons they were admitted into Germany, because they were believed to have German ethnicity, though most would be more accurately described as

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

. Because there was no place in Germany where they could settle together as a community, they moved to Paraguay a year later. There already was a large settlements of Mennonites with the same Russian Mennonite background in Paraguay:

Menno Colony Menno Colony is a Mennonite settlement located in the central part of the Chaco region, in northwest Paraguay, occupying an area of 7500 km² (2900 mi²). It was founded in 1926 by Plautdietsch-speaking descendants of Russian Mennonites ...

. This first Mennonite settlement in the Chaco was founded by conservative

Chortitza Chortitza Colony was a volost Yekaterinoslav Governorate granted to Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonite for colonization northwest of Khortytsia Island and is now part of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Chortitza was founded in 1789 by Mennonite set ...

, Sommerfeld and Bergthal Mennonites from Canada in the 1920s. The Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union settled nearby, founding Fernheim Colony. The journey to Paraguay was extremely difficult. Their destination, set aside by Paraguayan government decree, was completely undeveloped. Travel was exhausting: a steamboat was taken up the

Paraguay River The Paraguay River (Río Paraguay in Spanish, Rio Paraguai in Portuguese, Ysyry Paraguái in Guarani) is a major river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. It flows about from its headwaters in ...

Puerto Casado Puerto Casado (formerly known as La Victoria) is one of the 4 districts in Alto Paraguay Department, Paraguay. It includes the town of La Victoria, Paraguay, La Victoria or Puerto La Victoria, which has a population of around 7,800. History and ...

, from where a

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

went west into the Chaco bush. From there it was a few more long days of travel by oxcart to their settlement area. It was not until 1956 that the construction of the trans-Chaco highway connecting

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of ...

to Filadelfia was started. The economic base of Fernheim is agriculture and processing of agricultural products. The most important products are cotton, peanuts, beef, milk and dairy products. Fernheim is the second Mennonite colony in Paraguay, after Menno Colony.

References

External links

Filadelfia (Fernheim Colony, Boquerón Department, Paraguay)
at

Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) is an online encyclopedia of topics relating to Mennonites and Anabaptism. The mission of the project is to provide free, reliable, English-language information on Anabaptist-related top ...

{{Authority control Populated places in the Boquerón Department Mennonitism in Paraguay 1930 establishments in Paraguay Russian Mennonite diaspora in South America

Further reading

References

External links