STEINBACH, MB

Local man Arnold F. Thiessen, 81, like many Mennonites in western Canada, spent his entire life under the false impression that he was a ‘Russian’.

“All these years I’ve been eating borscht, cheering for the Russian hockey team, and closet-drinking vodka,” said Thiessen. “But it was all a lie. I feel so violated.”

Thiessen is referring to his recent subscription to a Mennonite genealogy website which revealed to him that his ancestors had lived in Russia for only about a century (and even then it was actually Ukraine). Before that they had lived in Prussia for a while, but almost everyone on Thiessen’s family tree originated in The Netherlands or Dutch-speaking areas of what is now Belgium.

“A man lives his whole life thinking he’s a Russian,” said Thiessen. “Of course, m

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