Andreas Ratzlaff family emigration; crossing the border

This map clearly shows the border area between Radziwilow, Volhynia, Russia, and Brody, Austria-Hungary as it appeared when the Ratzlaffs left Russia in 1907.  The railroad tracks are the black line passing from top right to bottom left on this map.  The distance between Radziwilow and Brody by direct route on the road is a little less than 7 miles.

Marie (Ratzlaff) Penner in her memoirs indicates that the family paid 300 rubles for a Jewish guide to smuggle them safely across the border.  Marie says they hid in barns during the day and walked at night.  The children were warned to be quiet and make no noise walking through the dense woods.  Border guards had been bribed so the Jewish guides could take the baggage over the border on the road with a horse and wagon.  They must have walked a long time as Marie remembered being extremely fatigued by the time they made it across the border.  My Grandfather, Albert Ratzlaff, who was not born at this time yet, told that in the end the guides wound up stealing most of the family’s baggage.

The main border immigrant station was at Radziwilow, just outside the train station.  The plan the Ratzlaffs were obviously following was to escape across the border on foot.  For reasons I’ll discuss later, they didn’t want to go through the proper procedure of inspection and administration and pass through the Radziwilow border station legally. 

They would have wanted to detrain before they arrived in Radziwilow, so they would have got off at a previous station and walk from there.  In 1907, the first station to the east of Radzivilow was near Iwanie Puste, shown on this map toward the top right.  By 1920, another station had been built near Michailowka, but in 1907 Iwanie Puste would have been the closest the Ratzlaffs could have got to Radziwilow without actually entering that town by train.  The distance from Iwanie Puste to Radziwilow is about 14 miles, with an additional 7 miles to go to reach Brody.  That may be the route they took as Marie implies the walking journey over the border took a few nights to complete.  On a modern map, Radziwilow will be marked Radyvyliv and Iwanie Puste, Pustoivanne.  Here’s a picture of the border crossing in Radziwilow that the Ratzlaff’s avoided as it looked in 1905.

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:

Andreas Ratzlaff Russian passport

On February 20, 1907, Andreas Ratzlaff was issued his internal Russian passport.  Although it was just an internal passport, Andreas carried it to America with him and it was kept by my Grandfather, Albert Ratzlaff.

Andreas would have applied for this passport at the police station in either Ostrog or Kuniv.  It’s interesting that he applied for this passport in February, 1907, when he knew that the family would be leaving the country in the upcoming months.  This internal passport would not have done him much good for the international journey.  He was probably just updating the document so that 1) he would be within the rules of the county at that period of time, and 2) so he and the family could travel legally to the Russian border. 

Within the pages of the passport, we read that Andreas’ Forestry Service duty was to resume in 1909.  In Andreas’ Forestry Service paperwork we saw that he was a member of the reserve brigade from 1895 and was given leave from service from March to August of 1905.  Did Andreas leave home periodically to serve in the forestry service?  I don’t know what his service status was in 1907 – his service duty must have been in order for him to have received the internal passport – but it’s clear from the document that he was due for return to the service in a few years, in 1909.

The first page of the passport simply states that the document indeed is a passport and that it was issued in Kynistsky Parish in the Ostrog District in Volyn Province on 20 February, 1907, to the peasant Andreas Yakovlev Ratslaf (Андреасъ Яковлевъ Рацлафъ).  The document cost 15 kopecks (apparently discounted from 25) and expires in 5 years.  Andreas’ patronymic name, Yakovlev, is used throughout this document.  In Russian culture a patronymic name is frequently used.  It’s simply the person’s father’s name followed by “olev” or “ovich”.  Thus Andreas’ patronymic name was his father’s with the proper suffix; Jacob-olev or Yakovlev.  The purple stamp at the bottom apparently indicates that Andreas was a reserve member of his lower rank (see item #7 perhaps?):

The next pages of the passport are data identifying Andreas:
1)   Name, Patronymic, Surname: Andreas Yakovlev Ratslaf

2)      Social Classification: Peasant

3)      Date of Birth or Age: 37 years

4)      Faith: Mennonite

5)      Occupation: Weaver

6)      Marital status: Married

7)      Military Service: Served as Mennonite worker in Forest Brigade.  Duty resumes as of 1 January 1909 (date may have been added later as the handwriting is different)

8)      Passport Issued on the Basis of the Following Documents: Census List #852

9)      Signature of Bearer:

Andreas Ratslaf

If the bearer of this document is illiterate let him make his mark here.

(Signature of government official or notary)

Page 4 lists Andreas’ family members:

10)  Dependants of the Bearer of this Document:

Wife Susanna aged 33

Son Jugen born 1 February 1903

Daughters Maria b 1897

Carolina b 1899

Ekaterina b 1902

Florentina b 1904

Susanna born 1906

Signed and stamped by parish official

Page 5 allows for changes in family status of the bearer or any of the above listed dependents.  No notations have been made here:

Pages 6 and 7 give explanations for the rules of residence and any travelling.  On page 7 is a small space for passport stamps.  Stamped in red across the page is the word "canceled".  I'm not sure what that means in this context; were items 67 and 70 canceled, or could that apply to the whole booklet?:

Page 8 to the end are spaces that would be stamped when the citizen paid his taxes.  The spaces in Andreas’ passport are blank indicating that between the time of issuance until the time the Ratzlaffs left the country, no taxes were paid: