They all agreed on fundamental Mennonite beliefs such as believer's baptism, nonresistance and avoidance of oaths (the Russian Mennonites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Mennonite).Pastors of Flemish congregations read sermons from a book while seated at a table. Frisian pastors stood while delivering the sermon (the Russian Mennonites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Mennonite)."

Pastors of each church were simply members that the congregation agreed to have lead them in their faith and were not paid for their services, which meant they were usually wealthy landowners that did not have to work for a living. They had a significant amount of influence over members of their community, much in the same way today's pastors and rabbis have influence over their devoted church members.

Church discipline was exercised in the form of excommunication against those committing gross sins. The most conservative congregations practiced avoidance which entailed cutting all business and social ties with an unrepentant member (the Russian Mennonites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Mennonite)."

One of the problems with this practice was once a member was sent away from or shunned by the Mennonite community that person also lost all of the benefits the Russian government gave to Mennonite members.

By 1880 the perks were gone as the Russian government could not see any justification in continuing the special privileges for the Mennonite population that the rest of the nation could not receive.

Many of the Mennonites discussed the situation and decided to leave Russia and search out new lands to settle in. With the possibility of losing...

Once the tax and military exemptions were removed however, many Mennonites made the decision to search out new land and headed for America. There are still Mennonite populations still reside in Russia however, they are much smaller than they have been in the past.
References

Menno Lite: (accessed 3-28-07)

http://www.thirdway.com/menno/lite/?C=59

Baptists and Mennonites in Russia (accessed 3-28-07)

http://www.gameo.org/index.asp?content=http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B37104.html

Russian Mennonites (accessed 3-28-07)

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/mennonites.html

Forestry Service among Mennonites in Tsarist Russia

Dr. Lawrence Klippenstein (accessed 3-28-07)

http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/russia/Forestry_Service_Report_1908.htm

The Russian Mennonites (accessed 3-28-07)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Mennonite