From about 1891 until the end of 1894, my Great-Grandfather,
Andreas Ratzlaff, was obliged by the Russian government to complete forestry
service in lieu of directly serving in the Russian military. According to Andreas' forestry service
discharge paperwork, he served at a camp named Ratsynskaya.
I'm not altogether sure where Ratzynskaya was. Mennonite sources do not indicate a camp by
this name. From the Mennonite Historical
Atlas, we find that there was a camp named Racyn. The name Racyn is close, but not quite what
the paperwork indicates.
From a map of the area north of Mikolaiv (Nikolayev) from the
early 1920s, we find a forest area labeled Rasinskaja Lessnaja-Deutsch; literally translated, that means Rasinskaya Forest-German. A forest area by the name of Rasinskaya that was associated with the Germans in some way.
Sources indicate that this forest was established in the 1870s; many different sorts of trees were planted at the location in an attempt to establish a wooded environment surrounding a natural ravine, just east of the Southern Bug River.
Today, this area is a small forest in the middle of south
Ukraine called Рацинская (Ratsinskaya). It sits about 10 miles east of the town of Voznesens'k and serves as a nature reserve. The area is home to many types of wildlife and
plant-life. Could this be the Ratsinskaya
Forestry Camp where my Great-Grandfather Andreas Ratzlaff served in the 1890s?
