The Mennonite villages of Stanislavka, Leeleva, Fuerstenthal,
Mikailovka and Jadwinin were all included in (Pluzhanskoy) in 1906. Of
these, Jadwinin was the closest to the primary Mennonite village,
Karolswalde. Passing south out of
Karolswalde, the road to Jadwinin went downhill just a touch and then uphill through
the forest for about 1.5 miles and entered Jadwinin from the west. Jadwinin was situated on an east-west
orientation at an elevation of around 200 meters. A large hill rising almost 20 meters sits
directly behind the village, and more hills rise to the east. Houses in Jadwinin were built on the north side of the road and the long, thin plots stretched out to the north, the Ritschke River (which was really just a small stream) providing water to each plot (this was the same stream which flowed by Karolswalde).
In Russian, the village was known as Yadvonino (Ядвоніно) or
Yadvigin (Ядвигинъ); Yadvonine (Ядвоніне) or
Yadvigin (Ядвігін') in Ukrainian; Jadwinina or
Jadwinin in German and the spellings Yadvonine and Jadweninne can be
found elsewhere. According to
Russian/Ukrainian sources, Jadwinin was established by 1868 by Czech
settlers. However, according to the
Tobias Unruh baptism record, German Mennonites were living in the village and being
baptized there by 1854, so obviously some discrepancy exists regarding the
origin of the village. Nevertheless, the
Russian government did invite Czechs into Volhynia, enticing them with cheap
land, just as they did for German Mennonites and Lutherans. The Slavic Czech people were discriminated
against in their native Austria-Hungary by the ruling Germans, so many were
very willing to move into Volhynia, which had always been controlled by either Slavic
Poles or Russians. The Russian
government gave many Czechs military exemption for 5 years, but prohibited them
from being Roman Catholic, which most of them were in their native
Austria-Hungary. Thus, most Czechs in
Volhynia became Russian Orthodox. A
wooden Russian Orthodox Church was built in 1913 near the crossroads of
Jadwanin, Karolswalde, Kamenka and Mikailovka (possibly located at
50°14’47.6”N, 26°29’49.7”E or 50°14’51.5”N, 26°28’27.6”E). The cemetery in Jadwinin was divided and had
sections for Czechs, Ukrainians, Poles, and Germans. Cemetaries in this area of Volhynia typically
had separate sections for the various ethnic or religious groups. The Czechs also built a primary school in
Jadwinin in the early 1900s. In late 19th
Century there were 42 houses in the village with some 270 inhabitants. By 1906 there were 44 households with 233
inhabitants. The village was in the
third Ostrog County Police precinct.
Most houses in the village were combination type houses, connected
to barns, and had thatched roofs, probably after the tradition of specific
ethnicity of the home. The Czech
settlers generally did not raise crops, but kept animals instead, although some
Czechs did keep an occasional rye field.
Czechs were generally more skilled at agriculture than were the
Ukrainians, but not as skillful as the Germans.
Both Czechs and Germans kept horses and cows. Milk from the cows was separated and taken to
market in Ostrog until 1921. After the
Polish-Soviet War of 1921, diary goods were taken to the butter factory in
Slavuta. Other residents of Jawinin
worked in forestry-related industries.
By the late 19-teens, a temporary narrow-gauge railway was built
and ran from Jadwinin to Krivin (via Bolotin), some 10-12 miles away, but this was dismantled
by the mid-1920s. Before
collectivization, villagers had occupied themselves with agriculture in
addition to weaving, shoe-making, carpentry and blacksmithing, but Stalin’s collectivization
effort arrived in Jadwinin in 1933, consolidating the area’s agriculture as well
as many other vocations. The famine of
1932-33 which hit much of Ukraine hard, did not affect village directly.
By 1935-36 most of the Germans and Poles had been evicted by
the Soviets. In 1938-39 work began on a
nearby concrete wall as a line of defense against the Nazis (called the Line of
Stalin). The concrete was taken from the
concrete factory in nearby Dertka. Until
the mid-1930s, the Czechs who remained in the area were able to retain some facets
of their own culture, but the Soviets pressed hard to homogenize the
culture. In 1942, most of the remaining
Germans in the area were relocated to a village near Yuvkivtsi, about 11 miles
to the south. The resulting empty houses
were given over to Ukrainians.
In 1944 there were 107 families living in the village and the
collective which included Jadwinin kept a couple pigs, several lambs, and a cow
or two. The residents grew millet and
barley and potatoes as well as apples, plums and cherries. During the1940s the Soviet government charged
exorbitant taxes on all products, making it difficult for the residents to
retain any revenue. Most remaining
Czechs were evicted by 1947 and it was at this time that the village was renamed
Novoselka (Russian: Новосёлка;
Ukrainian: Novosilky, Новосі́лка). The church was closed and dismantled soon
afterward. The school was also closed
and children had to go to nearby Balyary, Kunev or Mikailovka for education. In the early 1960s, the collective combined Jadwinin
with Dertka and Mikailovka. By mid the 1980s,
only 12 houses remained and by in 2001 the population of the village had
decreased to only 12 people. Novosilky
today is administratively part of the Ukrainian Khmelnytsky Province, Izyaslav
District, Dertkivska Village Council.
Ukrainian Khmelnytsky Oblast
or Province (Хмельницька область), Izyaslav Raion
or District (Ізяславському районі), Dertkivska Village Rada or Council (Дертківська сільська рада)
Tobias Unruh Baptism Record
