[11] Therefore, Moravia, where Hubmaier had also found refuge,[12] was the land where the persecuted Anabaptist forerunners of the Hutterites fled to, originating mostly from different locations in what is today Southern Germany, Austria and South Tyrol.

In the time until 1622 some 100 settlements, called Bruderhof, developed in Moravia and Kingdom of Hungary, and the number of Hutterites reached twenty to thirty thousand.

It soon developed into a war about religion when in 1620 the mostly Protestant Bohemia and Moravia were invaded by the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II, a Catholic, who annihilated and plundered several Hutterite settlements.

In fact he forced a group of 186 Hutterites to come to Alvinc (today Vințu de Jos, Romania) in 1622, because he needed craftsmen and agricultural workers to develop his land.

These Carinthian Protestants read the "account of the belief of the Hutterian Brethren" written by Peter Riedemann, which was given to them by the Brothers, and then decided to join the Hutterites.

The Hutterites then sought the advice of Russian army commander "Sämetin" (Генерал-майор Александр Гаврилович Замятин, General-Mayor Aleksandr Gavrilovitch Zamyatin) in Bucharest, who proposed that they emigrate to Russia where Count Pyotr Rumyantsev would provide them with land all they need for a new beginning.

On August 1, 1770, after more than three months of traveling, the group of about 60 persons reached their new home, the lands of Count Rumyantsev at Vishenka in Ukraine, which at this time was part of the Russian Empire.

The Hutterites appealed to Tsar Paul I, who allowed them to settle on crown land in Radichev, some 12 km (7 miles) from Vishenka, where they would have the same privileged status as the German Mennonite colonists from Prussia.

It took until 1877, after the Hutterites had already relocated to South Dakota, before a few families from Johannisruh, led by preacher Jacob Wipf, established a third group with communal living, the Lehrerleut.

[33] After sending scouts to North America in 1873 along with a Mennonite delegation, almost all Hutterites, totaling 1,265 individuals, migrated to the United States between 1874 and 1879 in response to the new Russian military service law.

Named for the leader of each group (the Schmiedeleut, Dariusleut and Lehrerleut, leut being based on the German word for people), they settled initially in the Dakota Territory.

Over the next decades, the Hutterites who settled on individual farms, the so-called Prärieleut, slowly assimilated first into Mennonite groups and later into the general American population.

Ultimately, two of the four men, the brothers Joseph and Michael Hofer, died at Leavenworth Military Prison after the Armistice had been signed, bringing an end to the war.

[37][38] The Hutterites responded to this mistreatment of their conscientious objectors by leaving the United States and moving to the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

In 1942, alarmed at the influx of Dakota Hutterites buying copious tracts of land, the Province of Alberta passed the Communal Properties Act, severely restricting the expansion of the Dariusleut and Lehrerleut colonies.

[41] One news report defined the business operations of colonies as "industrial grade farms that produce grains, eggs, meat and vegetables, which are sold to large distributors and at local farmer's markets".

Contrary to other traditional Anabaptist groups, like the Amish, the Old Order Mennonites and the Old Colony Mennonites, who have almost no written books about Anabaptist theology, the Hutterites possess an account of their beliefs, Account of Our Religion, Doctrine and Faith, of the brethren who are called Hutterites (original German title Rechenschafft unserer Religion, Leer und Glaubens), written by Peter Riedemann in 1540–1541.

[2][3] In accordance with this confession of faith, Hutterite theology emphasizes credobaptism, a belief in the Church invisible, Christian pacifism, and the rejection of oaths.

Hutterites practice a near-total community of goods: all property is owned by the colony, and provisions for individual members and their families come from the common resources.

Hutterite colonies often own large tracts of land and, since they function as a collective unit, they can make or afford higher-quality equipment than if they were working alone.

Many attempt to remove themselves from the outside world (television sets – and in some cases the internet – are banned), and up until recently, many of the Lehrerleut and Dariusleut (Alberta) colonies still had only one central telephone.

In many colonies, telephones are tied into the sort of commercial private branch exchange (PBX) systems more commonly used by businesses, with which toll restriction features could easily be programmed.

In a few rare cases, allowing a child to continue attending school past this limit can result in punishment of the parents, including shunning and removal from the church.

Group One colonies generally have relatively more liberal positions on issues including higher education, ecumenical and missions work, musical instruments, media, and technology.

[58] Besides the Alberta Hutterite groups (Darius and Lehrerleut), a handful of colonies in Manitoba (Schmiedeleut) do not wish their members to be photographed for licenses or other identity documents.

[61] A 2018 report published by the Huffington Post contained a series of photographs made by Jill Brody over several years[62] at three colonies in Montana.

[citation needed] As part of their Anabaptist teachings of nonresistance, Hutterites historically have avoided getting involved in litigation within the secular justice system.

In response Jacob Kleinsasser of Crystal Spring Colony, elder of the Schmiedleut group of Hutterites, tried to use the state to enforce the expulsion order.

In the 1994 Leonard Nimoy film Holy Matrimony, Havana (Patricia Arquette) is on the run from the law and hides in a Hutterite community in Alberta, Canada, led by Wilhelm (Armin Mueller-Stahl).

[93] Jeff Collins stated that he believes King Colony members were coerced to write retractions, under threat of excommunication from Hutterite leaders.