Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Village of Leeleva


The village of Leeleva was located on the main road that ran from Kamenka to Pluzhnoe.  Travelling generally south-southeast, one would have passed out of Kamenka, through the forest, over a couple large hills and then downhill into Dertka.  From there, the road went again straight south, over a large hill, and down into Siver.  This stretch of road passed between two small lakes which were drained probably in the 1940s.  Leeleva lay just south of Siver, at an elevation of about 210 meters.  The main road through the village went generally uphill and continued on to Miakoty, less than a mile to the south, which is at an elevation of about 220 meters.  This road continued on to Pluzhnoe, another 3 miles farther east. Two hills rise just to the south of the houses of Leeleva, the taller of which rises over 240 meters.  The distance by road from Kamenka to Leeleva was almost 4 miles and in the 19th Century would have been almost entirely through forest.  The main road through Leeleva ran northwest to southeast.  Another east-west road ran through the village; west to Mala (small) Radogosch and east to Balyary.  Some researchers seem to have combined Leeleva with Siver; this appears to be incorrect.  Based on current satellite views as well as old Polish, Russian and Austrian maps, Siver (today known as Syvir; Ukr: Сйвір) is a separate village immediately adjacent to Leeleva to the northwest.  

German: Fuerstendorf or Fürstendorf (Russian: Фюрштендорф; Ukrainian: Фюрштендорф),

Russian: Lesna: (Ru: Лесна or Лѣснa; Ukr: Lisna, Лісна; Polish: Lisna),

Also known as Lesnaja (Ru: Лѣсная or Лесная; Ukr: Лiсня), or Liesnaja or Lesnaya,

Leeleva (Ru: Лелева; Ukr: Лелевой) or Lileva or Lilewa,

Also known as Lebwa, Nikitskaya or Nikitska. 

There may be confusion about the name of this village as lesna/lisna is a term for “forest” in Russian and Ukrainian.  Further, the forest south of Ostrog may have been named Nikitskaya Forest at some point in time.  German-speaking cartographers of the late 19th Century may have confused the village and the forest and mistakenly labeled the village Nikitskaya instead of the forest (Jewish sources name a forest near Ostrog Nikitsky or Nikitin).

Established as early as 1765 by Ukrainians or Poles, the earliest appearance of the village in Mennonite sources (under its German name: Fuerstendorf) is 1874.   My Ratzlaff Family tradition suggests that Ratzlaffs lived in this village, which they called Leeleva, by 1869. 

This village was the last home of the Mennonite colonists in the Ostrog area.  As the majority of Mennonites left the other nearby villages in the last quarter of the 18th Century, those who stayed behind consolidated in Leeleva.  German Lutheran colonists began moving into the village as the Mennonites left for America.  The Lutheran Church fell under the authority of the Rivne Lutheran Parish.  Early 20th century Mennonite sources state the Mennonite Church in Leeleva was affiliated with the (Neu) Alexanderwohl Mennonite congregation, which suggests a connection between this village and Polish (Royal Prussian) Przechowka.  A 1930s map of Lutheran Leeleva indicates that the area to the east of the village was used as communal meadow.  A road to the west of the village, Teppergasse, seems to indicate the presence of a tavern or a brewery/distillery of some sort while the road to the east, Entenquak, suggests a duckfarm or something similar.  The Lutheran map goes on to indicate the cemetery on the west side of the road, mid-way through the village, with the church directly across the street to the east.  My own Ratzlaff Family tradition indicates the houses in the village were offset one from another in order to prevent fires spreading from one yard to another.

A 1906 census of the region included a village by the name of Lesnaya (Лѣсня) as well as one by the name of Leleva (Лелева).  The population of Lesnaya was listed as 267 in 52 households and Leleva as 244 in 26 households.  Both were listed as falling under the jurisdiction of the 3rd police precinct of Ostrog County.  At this point I have no idea why 2 villages were listed in this census.

The German inhabitants of the village were known as skilled farmers and blacksmiths.  From at least 1889, as indicated by an Austrian map of that date, these farmers may have taken their grain to be milled at a watermill located at nearby Siver.  If, that is, the landlords of the tenant farmers allowed it.  After the Russian Revolution, the council of the village continued to use the German language until the 1930s, but most Germans were evicted by the year 1936 (30 German and Polish families were evicted at this time, perhaps to Kazakhstan).  Leeleva was placed by the Soviets in the collective which included Dertka, Siver, Jadvanin, and Mikhaylovka. 

In 2001, the population of the village was 97 people.  The village today is in the Ukrainian Khmelnytsky Oblast or Province (Хмельницька область), Izyaslav Raion or District (Ізяславському районі), Dertkivska Village Rada or Council (Дертківська сільська рада).












Green Ratzlaff Book

Abe Unruh, The Helpless Poles

Lutheran Lesnaya map

Mennonite Leeleva map

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