Communication and transportation services increased in
Volhynian Russia, as they did across the globe during the 19th
Century. By the late 18th Century,
few Ukrainian roads were paved and most were impassable during spring and
autumn. No fencing or drainage existed
either. Serfs and fee-farmers were given
the duty of maintaining these roads.
Roads tended to run from town to town rather than in a straight line,
making travel a very roundabout proposition.
Government officials or magnates might have coaches regularly travelling
between localities and free-men could purchase a fare on these coaches for an
extremely high cost. Many roads were marked
by verst-posts; 10 foot high posts which roughly marked the route through the
countryside. But otherwise no structures
contributed to the roadways which were basically just tracks roughly following
the verst-posts. Even important routes,
such as the Moscow-Odessa highway, was little more than vague impression upon
the land by the 1850s. Military
personnel travelling along roads in the Empire had the authority to appropriate
horses or carriages leaving the original owner on foot. Perhaps the most common type of passenger
carriage in the Ukrianian and Russian countryside at this time was the
tarantasse.
During the reign of Katherine II Вели́ка (the Great) (1762-1796), dedicated postmen (called a yamstchik
[ямщик]) began to deliver mail along the roads of the Empire. Dressed in red with a white belt, blowing a
horn to signal his advance, the yamstchik drove carts pulled by 6 horses in the summer and sledges pulled
by 4 horses in the winter, horses were generally hitched abreast to one another. The Tsar issued legislation in the late 18th
century decreeing that any municipality where it was proper should erect
facilities to house horses for postal use and a special mail house for use as a
post office. Early post centers in Volhynia
were Novograd Volyn and Zhytomyr.
Postmen had the right to bear arms in the support and protection of mail
and cargo. By the 1830s, rates had been
put into place for the handling of personal mail and mailboxes for outgoing
mail started to appear in provincial towns along busy streets or in big
stores. In 1858 Russia introduced the
postage stamp along with corresponding postmarks. Different classifications of stamps were
available as were postcards. Postcards
with landscape or photography prints became popular by the 1870s and several
postcard photographers began to specialize in this craft. Advertising via postcards became popular as
well.
Postal stations were built beginning in 1846 and stations
were built in one of seven classes, depending on the location of the
station. Zhytomyr and Novograd Volhyn
both had class 2 stations. In the mid 19th
century, postal stations were to be equipped with desks, benches and chairs,
ink, paper and pens, kerosene lanterns, as well as living quarters for the postal
supervisor and a supply of wood for the station’s heating, but many were
nothing more than rude log huts. By the
mid-19th century, mail delivery may have been somewhat erratic, but
probably arrived in provincial cities 3 or 4 times per week. Stations housed up to 20 horses. Postal wagons were forbidden to carry
passengers, but oftentimes did anyway.
Freight delivery, particularly crop freight, was delivered
primarily via water – on the rivers of the area – until the early 20th
century. Waterways supplied revenue to
cities by way of government-owned ferries.
This revenue was significantly reduced after bridges were built. Neteshin, part of the Krivin Estate in the 19th
Century, was the area’s major port on the Goryn River.
During the first 50 years of the 19th century,
the Brest-Litovsk highway was being built.
From 1856-1865, telegraph lines were put in place along the highway with
stations at Kyiv, Novograd-Volyn, Ostrog, Dubno and Brody. A secondary highway ran through the forest
from Ostrog to Zaslaw via Bilotin. This
highway had been established before the 19th century.
Stagecoaches began to run on the highway providing public
transportation by the late 19th Century. Coach travel was very expensive, but coaches
were built that could hold up to 40 passengers.
The price of fare between Zhytomyr and Novograd Volyn was 5 or 6 rubles
– equal to the value of a young heifer.
Poor passengers could ride on the roof but then suffered from bad
weather. Speed of the coaches was in the
neighborhood of 8 – 10 miles per hour.
More speed would have not been desirable as the typical carriage had no
springs and the roadway could be expected to be in deplorable condition.
A German-Polish
Baptist minister, travelling in the vicinity of Sorotschin in the early 1860s,
found that traversing the Volhynian countryside could be quite
challenging. Passage by horse and wagon
was severly impeded by the poor condition of the roads, thick forests and deep
swamps. Sorotschin was located in the
heavily German populated triangular area between Zhytomyr, Novograd-Volyn and
Korosten, which included land in Zhytomyr, Novograd-Volyn and Ovruchs Counties.
In April of 1912, bus service opened between Zhytomyr and
Novograd Volyn. The price was less than
2 rubles and the 45 mile trip lasted about 6 hours. By 1911, rules of the road had been
established for motor vehicle traffic including speed limits. A bus-route between Novograd Volyn and Rivne
was established soon afterwards.
Railways began to
expand by the second half of the 19th Century. Lines began by connecting St. Petersburg to
Moscow and to Warsaw and then gradually expanded from there. Rail transport in Volhynia grew as the
rail line was established in the 1870s. Train travel was encumbered, however, by the
amount of paperwork involved to acquire a ticket and by the long wait times at
stations. 2nd class carriages
carried about 50 people, and had seats on either side of the car with an aisle
down the middle through which the conductor or passengers might pass. 1st class carriages were rarely
used. The Russian guage, it
should be noted, did not match that of other European countries during this
period of time.
Telegraph lines began to appear in the 1850s and telegrams
could be sent in French, German or Russian.
International convention caused these lines to be placed across borders
with Prussia and Austria. Locals
developed the habit of placing their ears to these lines, endevouring to
overhear conversations. Who else could
be speaking on these lines but kings?
Telephone service began in the early 1910s, but telephone and telegraph
service development were severely impaired by WWI.
According to an all-Volhynian calendar/almanac published in
Zhytomyr in 1892, Postal stations in Ostrog County were located in Ostrog, Gochsha
(Гоща), Korets (Корецъ), and Jampol (Ямполь).
Postal stations in Zaslaw County were located in Zaslaw, Shepetovka (Шепетовка),
and Polonnoe (Полонное). These locations
also housed telegraph offices in 1892.
