Orenburg Governorate
The "Russian Mennonites" (German: "Russlandmennoniten") today are descended from Dutch Anabaptists, who came from the Netherlands and started around 1530 to settle around Danzig and in West Prussia, where they lived for about 250 years. During that time they mixed with German Mennonites from different regions. Starting in 1791 they established colonies in the south-west of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) and beginning in 1854 also in Volga region and Orenburg Governorate (present-day Russia). Their ethno-language is Plautdietsch, a Germanic dialect of the East Low German group, with some Dutch admixture. Today, many traditional Russian Mennonites use Standard German in church and for reading and writing.