19th Century Ostrozhsky Volosti

During the 19^th Century, Volhynia (Volyn Guberniya - Волинська Губернія) was divided administratively into 12 counties or Powiati.   The county or Powiat in which my Ratzlaff ancestors lived and probably did most of their dealings was Ostrog County or Ostrozhsky (Острозький).  Ostrozhsky was located in central Volyn and its administrative center was the town of Ostrog.  The county covered an area of about 2,694 square miles (or about 4,064 square versts, the unit of measurement used in Volyn at the time).  Ostrozhsky was bordered by Rіvnensky (Rivne) on the north, Іzyaslavsky (Zaslavsky) (Izyaslav; Zaslav) on the east, Starokostyantinіvsky (Starokostyantin) on the south, Kremenetsky (Kremenets) to the southwest, and Dubensky (Dubno) to the northwest.  Ostrozhsky also shared a border with Novograd-Volinskiy (Novograd-Volyn) for just a verst or two to the northeast.  (Interestingly, the combined area of McPherson, Harvey and Marion Counties in Kansas is 2,592 square miles, or just about 100 square miles less than Ostrozhsky). 

At this point I’m unclear as to the travel restrictions that may have been placed on the German colonists in Ostrozhsky by the Russian government.  Most peasant sosloviia had restricted travel priveleges and my German ancestors may have been similarly restricted.  It’s possible that they did not have the right to travel outside the county.  More research needs to be completed regarding this point.

The borders of Ostrozhsky were very irregular, following streams, roads, or topography.  The county was very roughly triangular shaped; wide at the north and culminating in one single village in the south.  From its northwestern-most point at Pyatigorov (P'yatyhory) to its northeasternmost point at Kilikiev (Kylykyiv) is a distance of about 40 miles (just over 59 versts).  From Pyatigorov to the southernmost point at the village of Turovka (Turivka) is a distance of about 47 miles.  And from Turovka back to Kilikiev in the northeast is about 52 miles.

Ostrog, located near the center of this rough triangle, was the administrative center of the Powiat, which was divided into 14 townships or parishes called Volosti in Russian.  Each volost had an administrative center; a chief village which was the namesake for its volost.  These are the 14 Volosti of Ostrozhsky in 1906:

An interesting note here is that these volosti may have changed from time to time.  Unofficially, these are the 14 volosti that existed in 1906.  At other times during the 19^th Century, the villages of Moschanitsa, Borisov (Borysiv), Novomalyn and Tudorow (Fedorivka) may also have been volost centers.  After 1921’s Polish-Soviet War, Ostrog County was cut in half with Ostrog lying just on the Polish side of the border.  The administrative center of Polish Ostrog County was then moved northwest to Zdolbunovo (Zdolbuniv).  The half of Ostrog County on the Soviet side of the border was transferred to Zaslav County in the USSR. 

Most of the German Mennonite colonies lay inside the borders of Kunevskoy and Pluzhanskoy  with the exception of Moschanitsa which was in Siyantsy parish.  When my Great Grandfather Andreas Ratzlaff returned home after his forestry service, he reported to the Ostrog Police office and his discharge paperwork indicates his residence as Kunev parish.  The Ratzlaff family also lived in Leeleva, which was in Pluzhnoe parish.  However, Andreas’ 1906 passport was issued in Kunev even though the family lived in Leeleva.

In 1906, the Volyn Gubernia Statistics Committee in Zhytomyr published a list of all the settlements in Ostrozhsky.  This unofficial list indicates that there were a total of 379 settlements in the county, with a total population of 164,700 people.  This statistical compilation listed every settlement, down to those with only one household.  Most of the villages in Ostrozhsky in 1906 were very small; only two of them (not counting Ostrog itself which was populated by around 13,000 – 15,000 perople) had a population greater than 5,000 people: Zdolbunovo and Lyahovtsy (known today as Bilohiria).  The central post and telegraph station was located in Ostrog, with satellite offices in Goshcha, Kunev and Annopol.  Other nearby stations were in Zaslav, Slavuta, and Shepetovka in Zaslav County, Koretz in Novograd Volyn County, Rivne in Rivne County and Yampil in Kremenets County.  These are the populations of the volost towns in 1906:

Although most of the Mennonites living in Ostrozhsky had emigrated prior to 1906, many Germans still lived in county.  This chart shows the populations of the German villages in 1906.  Many of these may have been Lutheran Germans.

The statisticians compiling this data listed these villages by their Ukrainian names, not their German ones, therefore Karolswalde is listed as Sloboda Galendry.  Interestingly, two listed villages may be the Leeleva (Feurstendorf) where my family lived.  Listed among the villages of Pluzhanskoy, we find both Lesnaya and Leleva, but I’m not sure which of these was actually the German Mennonite settlement of Fuerstendorf.  One of these may actually be the village of Khoten II (Khoten Druhyi also known as or Balyary).  This village lies less than a mile east of Leeleva but is not listed elsewhere in the 1906 report.  On the other hand, I suspect Leeleva became a Lutheran German village after the emigration of the Mennonites.  Could it be possible that Leeleva in 1906 was divided - one half being Lutheran and the other being Mennonite - thus Lesnaya and Leleva?

Missing entirely from the 1906 compilation, however, was the Mennonite village of Karolsberge.  Karolsberge appears on many maps from the 19th Century, and is also included in Mennonite lists of Volhynian villages.  On a Polish map from the 1920s, Karolsberge appears to have been merged with Karolswalde.  Did this consolidation occur as early as 1906?

The complete 1906 report can be found here.