The Mennonite Heritage Cruise is created by Marina and Walter Unger of Toronto, who accompany each cruise. Marina is an experienced travel agent, specializing in Central & Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Walter joined her in the travel industry in 1994, after a diverse career of 37 years with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. They have organized group tours to Israel, Turkey, Scotland & specialized music tours to Germany and Austria. Their primary focus is the Mennonite Heritage Cruise. In 2001 they added a Poland-Holland study tour.
A Definition of "Russian Mennonites"
On Easter Sunday, 1788, fifty persons with wagons and possessions departed from the village of Bohnsack (near Danzig) in what is now northern Poland. They were the vanguard of the Mennonite migration to New Russia. After five weeks of trudging along muddy roads they reached Riga. From Riga they followed the Duna River to Dubrovna where they wintered. Others soon followed, and by the spring of 1789 there were 220 families ready to follow the Dnieper River southward to their new homeland in what today is the country of Ukraine. Paul Toews , Fresno Pacific University
The term "Russian Mennonites" is used to differentiate between the people and their descendants mentioned above and the "Swiss Mennonites", including the Amish, who had a much different history of immigration. The "Russian Mennonites" settled on lands granted by the Imperial Russian Tsars, notably Catherine II. Later they acquired more lands in various parts of the Russian Empire, including Siberia. The mother colonies and some daughter colonies were located in present day Ukraine. The Mennonite Heritage Cruise takes place only in Ukraine.
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