Andreas Ratzlaff family emigration; leaving Russia

The Andreas Ratzlaff family probably left Leeleva already in possession of their tickets to board the ship in Bremen, Germany.  Andreas would probably have purchased them from an agent, possibly in Ostrog.  Many emigrants purchased tickets from agents near their homes, well before they ever reached their port of departure.  With tickets in hand, it was much easier for these emigrants to pass border inspections and continue to move forward with their journey.  If they didn’t have tickets in hand, they stood a greater chance of being blocked at a border crossing.  This map shows Europe in the very early 1900s.  The Ratzlaffs’ starting point, Ostrog, is marked to the right with a green X.  They were bound for Bremen, Germany, which is underlined to the left.

Although Andreas probably already had the ship tickets, the family still needed to reach the German border before they would be safe.  Andreas planned to sneak illegally across the Russian border so doubtless the initial phases of the journey were highly stressful.  The Ratzlaff family travelled with Susanna’s parents and several of her sisters, as well as the Benjamin Unruh family.  The total party consisted of either 24 or 26 people.

Most likely the first place the party would have made for would have been Lemberg (L’viv), Austria-Hungary.  At the time, this was the largest, closest city outside the Russian Empire.  Since Andreas needed to sneak across the border, it would have been imperative to get out of the Russian Empire as soon as possible .  Lemberg was a very large city at the time and would have been an obvious destination; it was central eastern Europe's transportation hub connecting the central Slavic countries to the German Empire via rail.  Before they could reach Lemberg, though, they would need to cross the Russian/Austro-Hungarian border.  Radziwilow, Volhynia, was the nearest and most convenient border crossing to the Ostrog area.  On the other side of the border from Radziwilow, lay Brody, Austria-Hungary.  At Brody, the party could board a train for nearby Lemberg.  This map shows the route from Ostrog to Lemberg via Radziwilow and Brody.

After selling their belongings and packing what they would carry with them, Marie (Ratzlaff) Penner tells us the families left early one April morning while it was still dark, bound for the nearest train station.  The nearest station would have been either Kryvyn (Krevin, Krzywin) or Ozhenyn (Ozenin).  Ostrog itself didn’t have a train station; the tracks passed north and east of the town.  Ostrog was served by the stations at Ozhenyn to the north and Kryvyn to the east.  Kryvyn is 20 miles from Leeleva via Ostrog; Ozhenyn about 19 miles.  Today, Ozhenyn is the “official” Ostrog station.  It’s also possible that they would have gone to Mohylyany sation (20 miles away) or Badivka (Blodowka) station (17 miles away) via Vil’vivne (Welburne, Wielbowne), but I feel that’s less likely.  Based upon the fact that the Kryvyn station was marked so prominently by the author of the hand drawn Leeleva map (spelled “Krevin” on the map), I feel it’s entirely possible that Kryvyn was the station they used.  The Mennonites may have avoided Ozhenyn since many Muslims lived along the road from Ostrog to Ozhenyn.  This map from the very early 1900s shows the area pretty well.  Note that Leeleva, toward the bottom left, is marked Nikitska.

At the station, the family would have probably been able to board with a minimum of difficulty.  Andreas’ internal passport allowed the bearer travel inside the country.  From the boarding station to their destination near Radziwilow, the Ratzlaff party would have passed through Zdolbunow first, then Dubno, and then on to Radziwilow (Radziwillow), a distance of about 95 miles.  They probably would have detrained prior to Radziwilow where they would have prepared for the smuggle across the Russian/Austro-Hungarian border to Brody, Austro-Hungary.  Marie (Ratzlaff) Penner suggests they snuck into Czechoslovakia but that can’t be accurate as Czechoslovakia didn’t exist at the time.  This map shows the train route from Ostrog to Radziwilow.  The map is from a date later than 1907, by which time some borders had changed.  The map accurately shows the train route though: