The Mennonism is considered as a religion close to Baptism. It is named after the founder Menno Simon (1496-1561). The development of the Mennonism was not easy; Menno and his followers were persecuted and sometimes condemned to death. It is known that Menno traveled a lot and reached Kurland and Livland. Here he also organized groups of followers and parishes, like he did in other places. It seems, however, that his success was not very great here. To my knowledge later these groups disappeared because of persecutions or maybe in a natural way.

Mennonites were tolerated in the Russia Empire. Even more, Catherine II invited them to emigrate to Russia and promised religious freedom to them. They really immigrate into Russia (1789-1820), settled on free lands in the Southern regions (now Ukraine) and near Volga river. Initially they were promised not to be drafted in the Army, but about 1870 their recruiting began. As their religion do not allow them to hold weapons, they began to emigrate, mainly to the USA. Russian government did not wish to lose these citizens and changed the laws. The law on the mandatory military service 1874 declared that the Mennonites could be conscripted, though they were engaged in auxiliary services only without duties of having weapons. The emigration decreased, though still continued.

After the revolution of 1917 Mennonites like other believers were oppressed, but it was allowed them to emigrate. The newspaper "Jaunākās Ziņas" informs on Monday, 30 June 1924 that "50 railway carriages with Mennonites arrived from Russia to the border last Sunday at night. The Mennonites are traveling via Riga and Liepaja to America. They were moved to the Rēzekne quarantine." I think that the carriages were packed up with people, so about 2000 Mennonites traveled at that time. A web page about Transatlantic line (in Latvian) informs that the emigration of Mennonites was organized by Canada state and totally about 40,000 persons emigrated. Most of these persons were Germans by ethnicity. I do not know, whether all Mennonites from this and other trains really went to Canada. Maybe somebody stayed here?

I always thought that Mennonism never was followed in the region of Latvia during the reference period. My opinion changed significantly, after I bought a postcard in an old book shop. This is the postcard:

It seems that the postcard was printed to commemorate 25 years of a parish of Mennonites in Latvia. The beginning was in 1902. The founders of the parish in Kurzeme [Kurland] was Janis Willbergs (now spelled Vilbergs) and the founder of a parish in Caucasus was Janis Lange. Quite possibly the both could be Latvians by ethnicity. It is also clear that in 1927 the Mennonites existed in Latvia Republic.

Quite recently I acquired a book with the Census 1897 results for Vidzeme [Livland] province. It informs that in this province totally 15 Mennonites lived in 1897; 6 of them were males and 9 - females. 6 of them showed Latvian as the mother tongue, 4 - Estonian, 4 - German and 1 (female) - Swedish languages. 9 Mennonites lived in the countryside and 6 in the towns of the province.

The fact that the Mennonites were counted up in the Census 1897 shows that this religion still was officially recognised. As the Mennonites had their clergy, it is possible to assume that in the Russia Empire they kept the civil registers in their parishes. After 1918 all civil registers were kept in the state offices.

There are in Latvia quite a lot various religious sects today, but no Mennonites parish is registered.