This atlas is produced to commemorate the bicentenary of the founding of the Molotschna Colony in South Russia in 1804. Roughly 60 settlements were established along the Molochnaya River and its tributaries, the Juschanlee, the Kuruschan, and the Tomak. This volume is a multidimensional presentation of a development that is a remarkable feat of colonization whether viewed in its Russian context, or in any other country in the world. It honours those whose blood, sweat, and tears initially established the Molotschna, rising up from the arid windswept steppes to become the keystone of the "Mennonite Commonwealth," all the way to those who suffered untold hardship and brutality under the communist regime, as this achievement was methodically dismantled.
~from the Foreword and the Introduction