The native inhabitants of Volhynia included Poles,
Ukrainians (Volhynians, Podolians and Galicians), as well as some White
Russians (Byelorussians) and even some proper (Red) Russians (Ukr: росіяни). In 1795 with the Third Partition of Poland,
local Volhynian noblemen began to offer land to German (Ukr: німці) settlers in the hopes that the
German farmers could convert the swampy forest-land into productive
farmland. Among the German settlers who
accepted such proposals were Mennonites from German Prussia and Brandenburg,
including my Ratzlaff ancestors belonging to the Przechowka and Neumark
congregations. And by the very early
1800s, my Great Great Great Grandfather, Heinrich Ratzlaff, was living in the
village of Karolswalde, which lay about three miles south-southwest of Ostrog.
By the late 18th Century, Prussian Mennonites
began to seek new homes. Their Prussian
homelands, where they had previously enjoyed a measure of autonomy and freedom
from the armed forces, were becoming increasingly a military state with the
rise of Ducal Prussia. Furthermore, the
Mennonites’ ability to purchase new tracts of land had been severely limited by
laws put in place by the Prussian government.
The agrarian Mennonites, theologically committed to non-violence, were
not allowed to purchase additional land without serving in the military or
paying exorbitant taxes in lieu of such service. Additional farmland was a necessity for such
an agricultural based culture.
Therefore, the Mennonites in West Prussia, including those belonging to
the Przechowka Congregation, as well as those in the Neumark area of
Brandenburg, had no choice but to seek new homes outside the boundaries of the
various German states. Many of the
members of Przechowka accepted invitations from the Russian Government to
accept military and tax exemptions and settle far away in South Russia; an area
Russia had recently seized from the Ottoman Empire. Many members of the Neumark congregations,
though, accepted offers from Volhynian noblemen which conversely did not
include such advantageous taxation or military benefits, but which lie much
closer to their homelands in German Prussia and Brandenburg and where the
countryside more closely resembled that of which they were accustomed. Indeed, Volhynia had been part of “civilized”
Europe for centuries whereas the steppe of southeastern Ukraine must have been
the Wild, Wild West. Only very recently
had the area been seized from Ottoman Turkey and wild tribes of nomadic Tatars still
roamed and hunted the vast, untamed plains.
A second wave of foreigners came into Ukraine after 1861
after the emancipation of the Russian serfs.
Previously, serfs in Russia and Ukraine were tied to the land as in a
medieval feudal system. The Russian or
Ukrainian landowners could do as they would with their serfs in return for
keeping the serfs housed, clothed, etc.
After 1861, serfs were freed by the Russian government and were no
longer tied to the land. Serfs were
given the option of buying land from the state.
As a result, many serfs moved off the estates owned by the landholding
elite, leaving a shortage of labor. The
Russian and Ukrainian landowners at this time invited German and other European
farmers onto their estates to work their land.
Mennonites weren’t the only Germans moving into the area;
German Lutherans entered Ukraine in the early 19th century as
well. Lutheranism had been
well-established in Russia since the days of Peter the Great and Lutheranism
was one of only two religions officially accepted by the Russian Government
(Russian Orthodoxy being the other).
German (Prussian) Lutherans moved into Russia in the early 1800s as they
too were offered attractive invitations by the Tsar and saw economic
opportunities in Russian Ukraine. By the
mid 19th Century, the majority of German settlers in Volhynia were
Lutherans. Indeed, in 1862 there were no
fewer than 45 Lutheran German villages in Volhynia. There were also German Baptists in the
Volhynia area. The Lutherans and Baptists were primarily in areas directly
north of Zhytomyr and Novograd-Volyn, as well as in Kovel County. By the
mid-1800s, German Baptists were moving into the area, drawn by religious
persecution in Germany and the availability of land in Ukraine. By the late 1800s, some Lutherans had begun
converting to become Baptists.
Zaslaw and Ostrog counties were populated largely by 6
cultural groups: Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Germans and Czechs. Muslims and Gypsies also constituted a very
small percentage of the populace. This information comes from the 1897 census of the Russian Empire. If you're feeling confident in reading Russian, you can find many more details regarding this census here.
The largest ethnic group was the native Ukrainian population
which formed around 80% of the population and largely adhered to the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church. My German Mennonite
ancestors probably generally confused these folks for Russians, but there were actually very few Russian in the area. The Russians who were in the area were generally despised as foreign overlords perhaps not unlike how the English are viewed in Northern Ireland today.
The next largest ethnic group was the Jewish population. Jewish peoples had lived in this area since
ancient times, but became a larger percentage of the population after the
formation of the Pale of Settlement. The
Jews settled especially in urban areas like Zaslaw, Ostrog or Slavuta, but also
in Cuniv, Belotin, and Pluznoe. Jews
largely engaged in commerce and trade and had considerable economic and
political influence. Although they
suffered as second-class citizens according to Russian laws, they became the
most affluent cultural group in the towns as they owned businesses and
controlled trade. Jews owned print shops
in Zaslaw and Ostrog, as well as warehouses, bakeries, mills and shops across
the area. In time, Jews also became
leaders in the region regarding trade unions, health care facilities and credit
unions. At the time of the Bolshevik
Revolution, Jews largely sided with the communists. As a result, Jews were held in contempt by
most of the other cultural groups and were not to be trusted. The native Ukrainians attempted to gain
independence after the revolution and the Jews who sided with the Bolsheviks
were despised as a result.
The next largest ethnic group was the Poles. Of course, the region in question was under
Polish control for long periods of time, so these Poles were well
established. Dorohosch, Borisov,
Kamenka, Stanislavka, Storonich, Balyary, old and new Husk, small Radohosch and
Siever all had Polish majorities.
Several other towns such as Dertka, Cuniv and Martynie also had large
Polish populations. These Poles tended
to be Catholics or Uniates. Many of them
engaged in agriculture, growing millet or barley, but the soil of the area did
not provide viable farmland. Some also
engaged in horticulture, tending cherry, plum, apple or pear trees. Fresh and dried fruits were taken to be sold
at the markets in Slavuta or Zaslaw.
Since the land was not ideal for farming, however, the majority of Poles
tended to work at various crafts, many of which were based on raw materials
provided by the forest. The Poles made
barrels, wheels, and sledges and produced charcoal from oak wood from the
forest. The village of Kaminka was
inhabited by Poles who produced stonework from the native sandstone. Many others, such as those in Dorohosch,
became expert blacksmiths.
German colonies began to appear in the late 18th
century and the Germans added new skills to the region. Most of the Germans in the Ostrog and Zaslaw
Counties were Mennonite, but elsewhere they were Lutherans or Baptists. The Germans settled in the villages of
Karolswalde, Antonivka, Lesna (Leeleva) and Michailivka, but also lived in the
minority in Pluznoe and Zaslaw. The
Germans had a better understanding of agriculture and did have more success
than other groups at tilling the soil.
The Germans produced crops like potatoes and corn with at least some
level of success. The Germans also
produced dairy products; especially milk which was often-times transported to
Slavuta to be made into butter. Finally,
the Germans also engaged in handicrafts, and excelled in smithing and the
manufacture of agricultural implements.
Germans, unlike the other cultural groups, made the schooling of their
children mandatory from an early date, regardless of gender or land-holding
status.
Czech colonists became established by the second half of the
19th century, and largely populated the villages of Antonivka and
Jadwanin. Czechs also lived in the
minority in Lesna, Michailivka and Stanislavka, Karlswald, Martynie, Dorohosch
and Bilotyn. Czechs found the
availability of inexpensive land in Volhynia appealing, especially after
worsening relations with their ethnic German overlords in Austria-Hungary. The Czechs and other Slavic groups in Austria
were a limited minority group. The
limitations placed upon them by the Austrian (German) rulers helped spark WWI
by the second decade of the 20th Century. Czechs largely engaged in agriculture, animal
husbandry and forest industries. Other
Czechs excelled at weaving. Finally,
Czechs were known to erect the best water and steam mills.
A special note should be made of the Muslim Tatars who lived
in the area in Yuvkitski as well as on the northern outskirts of Ostrog. These Muslims were descended from the Mongol
hordes which invaded the area in the 1240s and were overlords of medieval
Russia, Chernigov and Kiev. Muslims
prevailed in southern areas and continued to raid into European Russia and
Ukraine into the 16th century from their capitals in Sarai on the
Volga and the Crimea. Mennonites in the
Molotschna Colony in South Russia also lived side by side with Mongol
descendants; the feared Nogai tribesmen who occasionally raided Mennonite herds
on the south Ukrainian steppes. The
Volhynian Tatars were probably more tame, however, as the topography of the
land required the Tatars to give up their nomadic ways, unlike their south
Ukrainian brethren.
The final significant ethnic group in the area was the
Russians. The Russians gained control of
Volhynia/Ukraine via the partitions of Poland and began to increase in number
throughout the 19th century.
Russians established the seat of Russian Orthodoxy for the area in
Zaslaw. Zaslaw also housed offices for
government officials and barracks for a military garrison, both of which were
populated chiefly by Russians. Early in
the 20th Century, a military garrison was also built in Cunev. Members of the government administration, as
well as of the police force, were largely Russians in the 19th
Century. From the turn of the 20th
Century, all official documentation in Ukraine was done in the Russian
language. Russians lived chiefly in the
towns where administration was housed, Zaslaw, Ostrog and Slavuta, although
smaller offices in towns like Pluznoe or Cuniv meant these smaller towns also
held a small Russian populace. Russian
presence in smaller villages was non-existent.
There were, however, a very small number of Russian “Old Believers”
living in the Ostrog and Kuniv forests.
Towns and villages each had their own houses of
worship. Those towns with multiple ethnic
groups might have had Orthodox as well as Catholic churches. Towns with larger Jewish populations would,
of course, have a synagogue. Oftentimes,
cemetaries were segregated by religion or the different religions would
maintain separate cemetaries altogether.
In the 19th Century, all these different groups
of nationalities contributed to Russia’s stunted economic, social and
industrial growth. In the 18th
Century, as Germans or Czechs were invited to move into the Russian Empire,
they were allowed to keep their own languages, conduct their own schools, and
even administer their own villages. Some
were exempt from military service and all seemed to become more affluent than
the native Ukrainians and the Russian overlords. As unrest grew in Russia during the 19th
Century, the Russian government became obligated to remove some of the rights
enjoyed by these national groups in an attempt to unify the populace. For instance, having Germans living across
the countryside, administering their own schools and villages, speaking their
own language and owing little to the State except taxes, did nothing to
contribute to a unified society and only stirred unrest. As the Russian government saw what damage was
being done, it began to remove these special privileges and rights from these
minority groups. For instance, Germans
were no longer allowed to administer their own villages and Russian teachers
were installed to teach the children, and to carry out the education in the
Russian language. This process was
called Russification and was an important part of Russia’s domestic policy by
the second half of the 19th Century.
Russification turned out to be too little too late,
however. In addition to other
shortcomings, Russification only served to further disillusion the populace and
revolutionary ferver by the turn of the century was ripe. The Russian Revolution unseated the Tsar and
by the 1920s, the minority groups were suffering heavily under the new
Bolshevik regime. In Ukraine, a large
percentage of the so-called Kulaks, the wealthy middle class, were Germans,
Poles and Czechs. Many of these peoples
fled over the borders into Poland when they had their chances after the war
with Poland in 1921.
In the 19th Century, there were a couple dozen
villages in the area, in addition to the larger towns of Ostrog and
Zaslaw. Many of these villages were
inhabited strictly by one cultural group or another, each group establishing
its own church and cemeteries and clinging to its own native language and
customs. Since this was a border area,
researching these villages today can be confusing as many different spellings
for the towns and villages exist. For
instance, the village that in today’s Ukraine is spelled Pluznoe (Плу́жне), was
spelled Pluzhnoe (Плужное) under Russia/Soviet rule, Płużne under Polish rule
and was known as Plushnoje by the nearby Germans. Further, it would have had an altogether
different name in the Jewish language of Yiddish. Many difficulties arise in keeping all the
transliterations straight.
