Ethnic Minority Groups in 19th Century Ostrog and Zaslaw Counties

The native inhabitants of Volhynia included Poles, Ukrainians (Volhynians, Podolians and Galicians), as well as some White Russians (Byelorussians) and even some proper (Red) Russians (Ukr: росіяни).  In 1795 with the Third Partition of Poland, local Volhynian noblemen began to offer land to German (Ukr: німці) settlers in the hopes that the German farmers could convert the swampy forest-land into productive farmland.  Among the German settlers who accepted such proposals were Mennonites from German Prussia and Brandenburg, including my Ratzlaff ancestors belonging to the Przechowka and Neumark congregations.  And by the very early 1800s, my Great Great Great Grandfather, Heinrich Ratzlaff, was living in the village of Karolswalde, which lay about three miles south-southwest of Ostrog.

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/volhynia_ukraine/?searchterm=volhynia

By the late 18^th Century, Prussian Mennonites began to seek new homes.  Their Prussian homelands, where they had previously enjoyed a measure of autonomy and freedom from the armed forces, were becoming increasingly a military state with the rise of Ducal Prussia.  Furthermore, the Mennonites’ ability to purchase new tracts of land had been severely limited by laws put in place by the Prussian government.  The agrarian Mennonites, theologically committed to non-violence, were not allowed to purchase additional land without serving in the military or paying exorbitant taxes in lieu of such service.  Additional farmland was a necessity for such an agricultural based culture.  Therefore, the Mennonites in West Prussia, including those belonging to the Przechowka Congregation, as well as those in the Neumark area of Brandenburg, had no choice but to seek new homes outside the boundaries of the various German states.  Many of the members of Przechowka accepted invitations from the Russian Government to accept military and tax exemptions and settle far away in South Russia; an area Russia had recently seized from the Ottoman Empire.  Many members of the Neumark congregations, though, accepted offers from Volhynian noblemen which conversely did not include such advantageous taxation or military benefits, but which lie much closer to their homelands in German Prussia and Brandenburg and where the countryside more closely resembled that of which they were accustomed.  Indeed, Volhynia had been part of “civilized” Europe for centuries whereas the steppe of southeastern Ukraine must have been the Wild, Wild West.  Only very recently had the area been seized from Ottoman Turkey and wild tribes of nomadic Tatars still roamed and hunted the vast, untamed plains.

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/contents/W4752.html

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B74209.html/?searchterm=neumark

A second wave of foreigners came into Ukraine after 1861 after the emancipation of the Russian serfs.  Previously, serfs in Russia and Ukraine were tied to the land as in a medieval feudal system.  The Russian or Ukrainian landowners could do as they would with their serfs in return for keeping the serfs housed, clothed, etc.  After 1861, serfs were freed by the Russian government and were no longer tied to the land.  Serfs were given the option of buying land from the state.  As a result, many serfs moved off the estates owned by the landholding elite, leaving a shortage of labor.  The Russian and Ukrainian landowners at this time invited German and other European farmers onto their estates to work their land.

Mennonites weren’t the only Germans moving into the area; German Lutherans entered Ukraine in the early 19^th century as well.  Lutheranism had been well-established in Russia since the days of Peter the Great and Lutheranism was one of only two religions officially accepted by the Russian Government (Russian Orthodoxy being the other).  German (Prussian) Lutherans moved into Russia in the early 1800s as they too were offered attractive invitations by the Tsar and saw economic opportunities in Russian Ukraine.  By the mid 19^th Century, the majority of German settlers in Volhynia were Lutherans.  Indeed, in 1862 there were no fewer than 45 Lutheran German villages in Volhynia.  There were also German Baptists in the Volhynia area. The Lutherans and Baptists were primarily in areas directly north of Zhytomyr and Novograd-Volyn, as well as in Kovel County.   By the mid-1800s, German Baptists were moving into the area, drawn by religious persecution in Germany and the availability of land in Ukraine.  By the late 1800s, some Lutherans had begun converting to become Baptists.

Zaslaw and Ostrog counties were populated largely by 6 cultural groups: Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Germans and Czechs.  Muslims and Gypsies also constituted a very small percentage of the populace.  This information comes from the 1897 census of the Russian Empire.  If you're feeling confident in reading Russian, you can find many more details regarding this census here.

The largest ethnic group was the native Ukrainian population which formed around 80% of the population and largely adhered to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.  My German Mennonite ancestors probably generally confused these folks for Russians, but there were actually very few Russian in the area.  The Russians who were in the area were generally despised as foreign overlords perhaps not unlike how the English are viewed in Northern Ireland today.

The next largest ethnic group was the Jewish population.  Jewish peoples had lived in this area since ancient times, but became a larger percentage of the population after the formation of the Pale of Settlement.  The Jews settled especially in urban areas like Zaslaw, Ostrog or Slavuta, but also in Cuniv, Belotin, and Pluznoe.  Jews largely engaged in commerce and trade and had considerable economic and political influence.  Although they suffered as second-class citizens according to Russian laws, they became the most affluent cultural group in the towns as they owned businesses and controlled trade.  Jews owned print shops in Zaslaw and Ostrog, as well as warehouses, bakeries, mills and shops across the area.  In time, Jews also became leaders in the region regarding trade unions, health care facilities and credit unions.  At the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, Jews largely sided with the communists.  As a result, Jews were held in contempt by most of the other cultural groups and were not to be trusted.  The native Ukrainians attempted to gain independence after the revolution and the Jews who sided with the Bolsheviks were despised as a result.

The next largest ethnic group was the Poles.  Of course, the region in question was under Polish control for long periods of time, so these Poles were well established.  Dorohosch, Borisov, Kamenka, Stanislavka, Storonich, Balyary, old and new Husk, small Radohosch and Siever all had Polish majorities.  Several other towns such as Dertka, Cuniv and Martynie also had large Polish populations.  These Poles tended to be Catholics or Uniates.  Many of them engaged in agriculture, growing millet or barley, but the soil of the area did not provide viable farmland.  Some also engaged in horticulture, tending cherry, plum, apple or pear trees.  Fresh and dried fruits were taken to be sold at the markets in Slavuta or Zaslaw.  Since the land was not ideal for farming, however, the majority of Poles tended to work at various crafts, many of which were based on raw materials provided by the forest.  The Poles made barrels, wheels, and sledges and produced charcoal from oak wood from the forest.  The village of Kaminka was inhabited by Poles who produced stonework from the native sandstone.  Many others, such as those in Dorohosch, became expert blacksmiths.

German colonies began to appear in the late 18^th century and the Germans added new skills to the region.  Most of the Germans in the Ostrog and Zaslaw Counties were Mennonite, but elsewhere they were Lutherans or Baptists.  The Germans settled in the villages of Karolswalde, Antonivka, Lesna (Leeleva) and Michailivka, but also lived in the minority in Pluznoe and Zaslaw.  The Germans had a better understanding of agriculture and did have more success than other groups at tilling the soil.  The Germans produced crops like potatoes and corn with at least some level of success.  The Germans also produced dairy products; especially milk which was often-times transported to Slavuta to be made into butter.  Finally, the Germans also engaged in handicrafts, and excelled in smithing and the manufacture of agricultural implements.  Germans, unlike the other cultural groups, made the schooling of their children mandatory from an early date, regardless of gender or land-holding status.

Czech colonists became established by the second half of the 19^th century, and largely populated the villages of Antonivka and Jadwanin.  Czechs also lived in the minority in Lesna, Michailivka and Stanislavka, Karlswald, Martynie, Dorohosch and Bilotyn.  Czechs found the availability of inexpensive land in Volhynia appealing, especially after worsening relations with their ethnic German overlords in Austria-Hungary.  The Czechs and other Slavic groups in Austria were a limited minority group.  The limitations placed upon them by the Austrian (German) rulers helped spark WWI by the second decade of the 20^th Century.  Czechs largely engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry and forest industries.  Other Czechs excelled at weaving.  Finally, Czechs were known to erect the best water and steam mills. 

A special note should be made of the Muslim Tatars who lived in the area in Yuvkitski as well as on the northern outskirts of Ostrog.  These Muslims were descended from the Mongol hordes which invaded the area in the 1240s and were overlords of medieval Russia, Chernigov and Kiev.  Muslims prevailed in southern areas and continued to raid into European Russia and Ukraine into the 16^th century from their capitals in Sarai on the Volga and the Crimea.  Mennonites in the Molotschna Colony in South Russia also lived side by side with Mongol descendants; the feared Nogai tribesmen who occasionally raided Mennonite herds on the south Ukrainian steppes.  The Volhynian Tatars were probably more tame, however, as the topography of the land required the Tatars to give up their nomadic ways, unlike their south Ukrainian brethren.

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/N63.html

The final significant ethnic group in the area was the Russians.  The Russians gained control of Volhynia/Ukraine via the partitions of Poland and began to increase in number throughout the 19^th century.  Russians established the seat of Russian Orthodoxy for the area in Zaslaw.  Zaslaw also housed offices for government officials and barracks for a military garrison, both of which were populated chiefly by Russians.  Early in the 20^th Century, a military garrison was also built in Cunev.  Members of the government administration, as well as of the police force, were largely Russians in the 19^th Century.  From the turn of the 20^th Century, all official documentation in Ukraine was done in the Russian language.  Russians lived chiefly in the towns where administration was housed, Zaslaw, Ostrog and Slavuta, although smaller offices in towns like Pluznoe or Cuniv meant these smaller towns also held a small Russian populace.  Russian presence in smaller villages was non-existent.  There were, however, a very small number of Russian “Old Believers” living in the Ostrog and Kuniv forests.

Towns and villages each had their own houses of worship.  Those towns with multiple ethnic groups might have had Orthodox as well as Catholic churches.  Towns with larger Jewish populations would, of course, have a synagogue.  Oftentimes, cemetaries were segregated by religion or the different religions would maintain separate cemetaries altogether.

In the 19^th Century, all these different groups of nationalities contributed to Russia’s stunted economic, social and industrial growth.  In the 18^th Century, as Germans or Czechs were invited to move into the Russian Empire, they were allowed to keep their own languages, conduct their own schools, and even administer their own villages.  Some were exempt from military service and all seemed to become more affluent than the native Ukrainians and the Russian overlords.  As unrest grew in Russia during the 19^th Century, the Russian government became obligated to remove some of the rights enjoyed by these national groups in an attempt to unify the populace.  For instance, having Germans living across the countryside, administering their own schools and villages, speaking their own language and owing little to the State except taxes, did nothing to contribute to a unified society and only stirred unrest.  As the Russian government saw what damage was being done, it began to remove these special privileges and rights from these minority groups.  For instance, Germans were no longer allowed to administer their own villages and Russian teachers were installed to teach the children, and to carry out the education in the Russian language.  This process was called Russification and was an important part of Russia’s domestic policy by the second half of the 19^th Century.

Russification turned out to be too little too late, however.  In addition to other shortcomings, Russification only served to further disillusion the populace and revolutionary ferver by the turn of the century was ripe.  The Russian Revolution unseated the Tsar and by the 1920s, the minority groups were suffering heavily under the new Bolshevik regime.  In Ukraine, a large percentage of the so-called Kulaks, the wealthy middle class, were Germans, Poles and Czechs.  Many of these peoples fled over the borders into Poland when they had their chances after the war with Poland in 1921.

http://www.myslenedrevo.com.ua/uk/Sci/Local/Zaslav/Empires/AdminDivision.html

In the 19^th Century, there were a couple dozen villages in the area, in addition to the larger towns of Ostrog and Zaslaw.  Many of these villages were inhabited strictly by one cultural group or another, each group establishing its own church and cemeteries and clinging to its own native language and customs.  Since this was a border area, researching these villages today can be confusing as many different spellings for the towns and villages exist.  For instance, the village that in today’s Ukraine is spelled Pluznoe (Плу́жне), was spelled Pluzhnoe (Плужное) under Russia/Soviet rule, Płużne under Polish rule and was known as Plushnoje by the nearby Germans.  Further, it would have had an altogether different name in the Jewish language of Yiddish.  Many difficulties arise in keeping all the transliterations straight.