Ukraine and Volhynia in early 20th Century Russian Empire

I recently came across a series of articles regarding early 20^th Century Ukraine in the Russian Empire.  Unfortunately, I can’t find the name of the author or editor, or any publication information for these texts.  They appear to be written in the very early 20^th Century – probably the 1910s – by a Ukrainian author.  Below, I’ve summarized and consolidated the articles and picked out information specific to Volhynia.  Some of this information probably isn’t entirely accurate, and since I can’t verify the author or his sources, there may be items below that aren’t altogether true.  What these articles do give, however, is a sense of what Ukraine may have been like around the turn of the 20^th Century.  The author is obviously Ukrainian and with the words he uses, he shows again and again the differences between the Ukrainian and Russian cultures.  From my early 21^st Century American vantage point, it’s difficult to understand that there was indeed a major cultural difference between Ukraine and Russia, and the Russians were definitely seen as an occupying force in Ukraine at this time.  I think most Americans probably view Ukraine as part of Russia (or the Soviet Union), but that’s definitely a mindset that we need to move away from and the author of these articles helps us understand why.  The series of articles can be found here.  Terms in italics are in Ukrainian, not Russian.  I’ve included some information regarding the Taurian Gubernia since the Molotschna Mennonite settlement was located in that province.

Boundaries

The ethnographic border of Ukraine (України) is difficult to definitively delineate since Ukraine has historically been divided among other eastern European countries.  In the early 20^th Century, however, most of Ukraine was under the control of the Russian Empire (Російської імперії), with the major exception of Galicia (Галичина), which was controlled by Austria-Hungary (Австро-Угорщина). 

Ukrainians traditionally occupied the frontier areas along the 19^th Century borders of Austria- Hungary and Bukovina (Буковина) and constituted a majority of the population in Austrian Galicia.  In Russia (Росія), Ukrainians occupied southern areas of Kholm Gubernia (Холмська губернія) and Poland (Warsaw Gubernia at this time, Варшавська губернія).  Bessarabskaya Gubernia’s (Бессарабська губернія) northwestern tip and coastal region were also traditional Ukrainian territory.  Ukrainians also made up a minority of the population in the Grodno Gubernia (Гродненська губернія) and Minsk Gubernia (Мінська губернія).  Volyn Gubernia (Волинська губернія), Kiev Gubernia (Київська губернія), Podolia Gubernia (Подільська губернія), and Kherson Gubernia (Херсонська губернія) made up traditional Right Bank Ukraine (Правобережна Україна).

Left Bank Ukraine (Лівобережна Україна) included a minority of the population in the Kursk Gubernia (Курська губернія) and Voronezh Gubernia (Воронізька губернія), as well as the Don Cossack Oblast (Область Війська Донського) and Kuban Oblast (Кубанська область).  Ukrainians accounted for a majority of the population in the Taurian Gubernia (Таврійська губернія), Katerynoslav Gubernia (Катеринославська губернія) (Taurian, with Katerynoslav, Kherson and Bessarabskaya constituted New Russia), Kharkiv Gubernia (Харківська губернія), Poltava Gubernia (Полтавська губернія), and Chernigov Gubernia (Чернігівська губернія) (Kharkiv, Poltava and Chernigov made up traditional Left Bank Ukraine).  Finally, Ukrainians occupied frontier areas of Stavropol Gubernia (Ставропольська губернія), Terek Oblast (Терська область) and the Black Sea Gubernia (Чорноморська губернія) in the east. 

  

History

Although Ukraine’s history is closely linked with the histories of Poland (Польщі) and Russia, Ukrainian history remains distinct and separate from these two major eastern European powers.  Formed around the City of Kyiv (Київ), Ukraine (Kieven Rus, Київська Русь) was the major power of the eastern Slavic states from the 9^th to the 13^th Centuries.  At this time, due in part to its proximity to Constantinople (Константинополь), Kyiv was a city grander than most of Western Europe.  Galich (Галич) in Volhynia (Волинь) was also a major power center during this time.  In the 10^th Century, Vladimir the Great, Grand Prince of Kiev, accepted Greek Christianity.  By the 13^th Century, Ukraine (Kievan Rus) vied with Muscovy (Grand Duchy of Moscow, Велике князівство Московське) for power among the Slavic states, but was eventually destroyed by the Tatar (Mongol) invasions led by Genghis Khan and his successors.  Incorporated into Poland in 1340, Ukraine was still raided by Tatars while the Polish overlords treated the native Ukrainians as conquered peoples.  In 1569 Ukraine was formally joined to Poland (the First Polish Republic also known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Річ Посполита).  The Ukrainian Cossacks (Козацтво) developed warrior customs to protect the people against the Tatars, but the Poles saw this militarism as a threat.  Cossack uprisings took place in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries.  In 1648, Boghdan Khmelnitski led the Cossacks against the Poles and briefly created an independent Ukrainian State.  But in 1654, pressured by Russia, Ukraine accepted the suzerainty of the Tsar in exchange for nominal autonomy.  Immediately, Russia began to repress the Ukrainians.  By 1667 Russia and Poland divided Ukraine into the Left Bank (east of the Dnieper River, Дніпро) and the Right Bank (west of the Dnieper River).  The Right Bank was given over to Poland, and Russia maintained control of the Left Bank.  After the Partitions of Poland in the late 18^th Century, Right Bank Ukraine was returned to Russia.  At this point, the entirety of Ukraine, save a small portion of Galicia that was under Austrian control, became territory of the Russian Empire.

After this point, the Russians closed Ukrainian schools, outlawed Ukrainian literature, and the Ukrainian Orthodox church was removed from the Patriarch of Constantinople’s authority and placed under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow (Москва).  Any followers of the Polish Uniate faith in the formerly Polish-controlled Right Bank were suppressed.  Traditionally, the Ukrainian people have wanted to follow the path of democracy, but Russia (Muscovy) always followed the path of an absolute monarchy.

This history of repeated periods of oppression and occupation severely hindered the growth of Ukrainian culture throughout the centuries.  While it’s true that Ukraine naturally has commonalities with other Slavic States such as Russia and Poland, (for instance, Russia and Ukraine share the Orthodox religion), the Ukrainian people have always had unique and separate cultural identities from these two major Slavic powers.  As a result of the oppression and occupation, Ukrainian cultural growth was always limited and a traditional animosity has developed between the Ukrainians and Poles and between the Ukrainians and Russians.    

  

Geography

The borders of Right Bank Ukraine were the same in the 19^th Century as they had been for centuries, but the Left Bank had changed dramatically.  Much territory had been taken from the Ottoman Empire (Османська імперія) and added by the Russians in the south and east such as the Crimean Penninsula (Кримський півострів) and New Russia (Новоросія). 

Ukraine was always hard to defend as it has few natural borders.  The country is reasonable flat aside from the rise of the Carpathians in the west.  To the east, Ukraine is open to advances of raiders from Asia, and the Black Sea (Чорне море) gave Turks access to the south.  The only natural boundary Ukraine has are the Carpathians Mountains in the west, but the European powers have never had reason to pressure Ukraine militarily (until the 20th Century).  In contrast, Russia has the Ural Mountains as a natural boundary to the east and the arctic as a boundary to the north.  Even so, Ukraine’s culture is reasonably homogenous throughout. 

The entire southwest 3/4 of Ukraine is black-earth country, to be highly prized for agriculture.  Since the ground was so fertile, farmers never needed to develop progressive agricultural methods.  Only in western Ukraine, in Volhynia, Podolia (Поділля) and Galicia, do bogs and hills arise, creating hardship for farmers.  In these territories the earth is not as fertile and the terrain is not as flat.

Culture

Culturally, Ukraine lagged behind both Poland and Russia from early days due to the Mongol oppression in the 13^th Century.  But Ukrainians did develop their own culture, separate and unique from Polish or Russian culture. 

Typical Ukrainian villages and homes are surrounded by orchards and the front windows of Ukrainian homes face south.  Ukrainians also build their houses farther apart than do the Russians, as a precaution against the spread of fire.  Ukrainian houses are whitewashed and clean and have separate compartments for animals and people, in contrast to Russian houses where people and animals inhabit the same space.  Traditionally, Ukrainian houses and buildings were made of clay and wood rather than stone.  Stone buildings would have proved more durable, but clay and wood were always more abundant. 

Ukrainian national costumes are distinctly different from Russian native dress.  Also, relative to the Russians, Ukrainian women are much more powerful in society insofar as their roles in the family and community are measured.  Generally speaking, Ukrainians and Russians did not inter-marry and rarely lived in the same village as one another. 

Ukrainians may seem lazy and indifferent to an outsider, but this was due to the Ukrainians’ individualistic nature and philosophic outlook on life.  On the other hand, perhaps Ukrainians had become apathetic as a result of centuries of repression.  Ukrainians for centuries put up with the Tatar raids, destroying their villages and burning their crops.  A casual attitude developed; why build it up when the Tatars will just knock it down again?  A Ukrainian was fundamentally cheerful, but not prone to gaiety, rather melancholy and quiet.  The Ukrainian was more domestic, frugal, and temperate than his Russian counterpart.  And a Ukrainian could not accept common ownership of land as a Russian could, because the Ukrainian is, by nature, democratic and individualistic. 

Ukrainians are also different physically from Poles and Russians.  Ukrainians are typically taller and have darker features and hair, and are built with broader shoulders and stronger chests.  Poles and Russians, on the other hand, have fairer complexions, and are shorter and less heavy.  Other cultures may have believed Ukrainians to be Russified Poles or Polonized Russians or even Mongolized Slavs.  However, Ukrainians may actually be more closely related to the Adriatic Slavs; the Czechs, Serbs, Slovenes and Croats.

The Ukrainian language remains distinct from Russian and Polish and the Ukrainians have their own folk songs and fairy tales.  Nor is the Ukrainian language a vulgar language not to be used for formal business (as Low German was, in comparison to High German).

Ukraine has always been overlooked by history; Russia has always treated Ukraine as part of Russia, but this is not accurate (Russians have termed Ukraine as “Little Russia”).  The Ukrainians always resisted Russification or Polonization, but the Ukrainian upper class always adopted either Russian or Polish ways, leaving only the peasants to develop Ukrainian culture.

Historically, Ukraine has always been isolated from the centers of European Culture such as Paris or Rome or even Berlin, Vienna, or Prague (save for Constantinople in the very early days).  The Carpathian Mountains have long provided a natural boundary between Ukraine and Europe.  As a result, Ukraine has had even less European influence than has Russia.

By the early 20^th Century, after more than 100 years of Russian rule, educated Ukrainians had become Russified.  The Russian Empire required all official business to be conducted with the Russian language.  The Russians also required that the Russian language be used in schools during 19^th Century.  Based on their disdain for the Russian language, many Ukrainians therefore avoided school, further stunting any cultural growth.  This language barrier created tremendous hardship on the Ukrainian peasants who had adapted more easily to the Polish language and the result was that the general populace was fairly illiterate (literacy in Volyn in the early 19^th Century stood somewhere around 17% while in the western provinces such as Taurian, Kherson and Katerynoslav it was somewhat higher).

In the 19^th Century, both educated and uneducated Ukrainians clearly resented Russian authority and looked upon their Russian oppressors with contempt.  Russification gradually took hold among the populace, but generally the Ukrainians disliked the Russians even more than they had disliked the earlier Polish overlords.

As a result of this cultural backwardness, most Ukrainians lived in rural villages and did not migrate into cities which only exacerbated their backwardness.  By the very early 20^th Century, cities in Volyn were populated by foreigners and Jews while the native Volhynians (Ukrainians) lived on the land.  City dwellers, engaging in trade and industry, tended to need a higher level of education than did those who farmed the land.  Ukrainian natives living in rural areas added to their cultural backwardness by remaining without education and not engaging in industry.

Agriculture

By the 20^th Century, the typical Ukrainian farmer lagged behind his European counterpart who had developed innovative technology and advanced methods to aid production.  For centuries, the Ukrainian black earth farmer was spoiled by the high level of fertility of his land and did not develop his farming methods.  For instance, the Ukrainian farmer did not rotate his crops, did not use new implements or technology, and because of his illiteracy did not have the ability to find out about new agricultural methods.  Ukrainian agriculture tended to be more advanced near the Polish border and in the areas of German colonization.  Wooden plows were still used, although iron plows and other implements were making inroads by the early 20^th Century.  German colonists in the Ukraine used more iron implements and the natives in those regions tried to imitate them.  However, the Russian government hindered the spread of agricultural associations and co-ops that might also have helped increase the general level of agricultural efficiency. 

Only the northwest areas of Ukraine were totally settled by the early 20^th Century.  Volyn, in fact, was fairly densely populated, but was also fairly heavily forested.  13% of Ukraine was forested around the year 1900, but the percentage in Volyn was more on the order of 30%.  The west had very little forest; for instance Katerynoslav was only abouty 2.5% forested, Kherson about 1.5% and Taurian slightly less than 6%.  Deforestation in the west, however, was occurring at an alarming rate.  In Russian Ukraine in by the late 19^th Century, more than 86% of the population was engaged in agriculture. 

The Ukrainian peasants owned only a small percentage of the land at this time.  In Volyn, peasants owned about 40% of the land by the turn of the 20^th Century.  The ever increasing peasant population required more and more land, but a full 60% of the countryside was owned by the nobility.  As a result, the peasants had to split up their land and try to rent new parcels from the nobles.  Russian forms of community ownership of land had also begun to take hold in eastern Ukraine by the end of the 1800s. 

By the early 1900s, 53% of Ukraine was under cultivation (only 37% in Volyn as opposed to 64% in Taurian).  Wheat covered about 50% of Taurian, Katerynoslav and Kherson, but only about 11% of Volyn.  Wheat was one of Ukraine’s chief chief exports at the time.  Rye was heavily cultivated in Volyn and covered about 38% of that province (rye covered only 18% in Taurian).  Barley covered almost 0% of land in Volyn, but 26% in Taurian.  Volhynians also raised a small percentage of oats and buckwheat.  Volhynians were beginning to raise a lot of sugar beets by the late 1800s and Taurian had begun heavy tobacco production.  Czechs colonists living in Volyn also raised a lot of hops. 

Ukrainians from early times had also developed a fruit culture; the country was dotted with many fruit orchards and each household probably had a fruit tree or two.  In Volyn, many apples, pears and cherries were grown.  Large peach, apricot, plum, apple, pear, and cherry orchards were cultivated in Taurian while many grape vineyards were kept in the south near Melitopol (Мелітополь). 

Bee-keeping was also popular in the west and Volyn had approximately 206,000 hives kept.  The silkworm culture had begun to take hold in the southern provinces; the German Mennonites of Taurian Province became experts at sericulture, the practice of breeding silkworms for silk production.

 

Many Ukrainian farmers also occupied themselves with animal husbandry.  In Volyn in the early 20^th Century, for every 100 people, there were 19 horses, 32 steers, 18 sheep, and 17 hogs.  Likewise in Taurian for every 100 people, there were 30 horses, 28 steers, 61 sheep, and 11 hogs.  In Volyn, cattle-raising, horse-raising and dairying were fairly light.  Sheep and goat-raising were also light, but hog-raising was abundant.  Indeed, across the whole of Ukraine, the hog was perhaps the most important source of husbandry-based income for agriculturalists.  Asses and mules were seen only in the southeast while in Taurian an occasional camel could even be seen.  Poultry-raising was also very important in Volyn, but most poultry was exported out of the country.  In Volyn, almost all farmers kept some animals, but less than 1% of farmers relied on husbandry alone without raising any crops.

Industry and commerce

In Ukraine, specifically in Volyn, most people in the early 20^th Century engaged in agriculture or cottage industry of some sort.  Home industries in Volyn in the early 20^th Century were in decline as factory industries were gradually taking hold, but the rise of industry was only in its infancy in this time period as Ukrainian peasants continued to provide for most of their own needs regarding manufactured goods through home industry.  Those who did not have land enough to sustain agriculture relied on household industry for income.  Others produced goods to supplement their agricultural income.

Weaving was the most important home industry in Ukraine and still by the early 20^th Century almost every home had a loom.  Furthermore, every Ukrainian peasant knew the wood-working trade, Volhynians included, and the home pottery industry was also still very important.

Wood-carving, textile and pottery production however, were gradually being taken over by manufactories in larger towns.  The factory industry in Ukraine was largely run by foreigners (Russians, Germans, French) and Jews.  Textiles, wool, mineral products, and food industries all were moving toward professional manufactories by the early 1900s.  Only a very small number, perhaps less than 5%, of Ukrainians were involved in industrial pursuits or were employed by manufactories during this time. 

Commerce in Ukraine was in the hands of foreigners (Russians, Jews, Greeks, Germans, etc), because of the low level of education among Ukrainians and generally poor communication and travel systems in Eastern Europe.  Austrian Galicia was much more advanced since the Austrians were more progressive than the Russians (Austria had taken over a small portion of Ukraine, known as Galicia, after the Partitions of Poland). 

Commercially, the fair system (a holdover from medieval times, in contrast to the mercantile system that had largely been adopted by this time in Western Europe) was still prevalent in the 1800s in Ukraine.  Fairs gave wholesalers opportunity to sell to retailers.  Wholesalers traveled throughout the country trading with peasants.  They would then take their goods to a fair to sell their goods to retailers.  Many, many fairs were held in Ukraine in the larger cities and villages.  In Volyn, the town of Dubno (Дубно) was well-known for its large annual fair.  In the larger Ukraine, Kyiv, Berdichev (Бердичів) and Kharkiv (Харків) all held major fairs.  Even international traders sometimes attended the larger fairs.  Specific wool and grain fairs were held in areas where these items were exported (namely New Russia). 

The commerce of the wider world was only beginning to touch Ukraine in early 1900s by which time the area had begun to export wool, cattle, poultry, grains, and raw minerals.  On the other hand, Ukraine imports included mainly manufactured goods. 

In Volyn, some iron ore was produced as well as a fair amount of lumber.  The lumber industry (saw-mills) remained important along the Pripyat (Прип'ять) River in Volyn although overall this industry was under-utilized at the time.  Only small portions of the total population were engaged in the lumber industry.  Volhynia had large deposits of peat due to the boggy, swampy areas and was also rich in kaolin clay (used to make porcelain), sandstone, chalk and graphite.

The cities and towns of Volyn were largely inhabited by Jews and seemed dirty and neglected.  Brody (Броди), on the border of Austrian Galicia, did considerable agricultural business and remained a center for smuggling due to its frontier location.  Luck (Луцьк), Dubno and Rivne (Рівне) formed the Volhynian triangle of forts against old Austria and were important trading towns.  Rivne traded grain, alcohol and livestock.  Radivilov (Радивилів), across the Austrian border from Brody, was a den of smugglers.  Ostrog (Острог) lay at the point where the Gorin (Горинь) River became navigable and nearby Netishin (Нетішин‎) was an important local port for goods from farther south.  Ostrog had long been regarded as an important spiritual center of Volhynia.  Ostrog and nearby Zaslav (Заслав) engaged in a small amount of grain trading and Korec (Корець), to the northeast, was famous for its clay and manufacture of porcelain.

In southern province of Taurian, Melitopol (Мелітополь) traded large amounts of grain, lumber, wool, cattle, and egg,s and had large mills and factories producing agricultural equipment.  Likewise, Berdyansk (Бердянськ) exported grain and had machine factories, mills, breweries, fruit gardens and vineyards, but limited accessibility due to its poor harbor.  Higher tariffs were placed on goods going to Black Sea ports such as Odessa (Одеса) however, therefore it was easier to ship goods via rail to the Baltic or Moscow than to Odessa, Melitopol, or other Black Sea ports. 

Ukraine’s exports went first to Russia and then were exported internationally.  Likewise, imports came into Russian cities from abroad, but very few found their way into isolated Ukraine.  Ukraine itself had a severely negative trade balance and saw little profit from any exports.  As a result of poor transportation, communication and trade practices forced upon them by the Russians, Ukrainian economy was stagnant and the culture remained undeveloped; virtually untouched by the outside world.

Transportation and Communication

The condition of roads throughout Ukraine was very poor.  Most roads were unpaved and may have simply been strips of deep mud in all seasons but summer.  In a lot of the country, secondary roads were simply bridle-paths, passable by foot or by bridle horse but not by wagon or vehicle of any kind.  From early days, stone had not been used as a material for road building, thus contributing to the poor nature of Ukrainian roads.

Some important southern and eastern cities such as Katerynoslav and Kherson had no paved roads leading into them at all.  By the early 1900s, paved roads in Ukraine were rare.  In Volyn there were only one or two paved roads in the entire province; these being the highways crossing the country east to west. 

The railroads were built by the Russians in the 19^th Century to allow southern access to Moscow or to the Baltic ports, but not to connect cities for basic transportation.  For instance, in the 19^th Century there was no direct connection between Ukraine’s two chief cities, Kyiv and Odessa 275 miles apart, but both were directly connected to Moscow, almost 500 miles to the north from Kyiv.  Lemberg (L’viv, Львів), ethnographically a Ukrainian city, was the biggest rail hub in the Ukrainian world, but it lay in Austrian Galicia, not in Russian Ukraine.  Lemberg in the early 20^th Century was the closest thing to a rail hub in the European sense anywhere near Ukraine. 

The railroads had been mapped out by the Russians and bypassed many important Ukrainian cities and no real rail hubs existed.  Some junctions ended up in the middle of nowhere because all rail lines ultimately led to Russian destinations such as Moscow or St. Petersburg (Санкт-Петербург).  Cities that did not have a rail line declined in importance.  For instance, the City of Machnowka (Mahnivka, Махнівка, known as Komsomolskoye, Комсомольське, since 1935), on the border of the Volyn and Kiev Gubernias, had been an important town and was marked prominently on early 19^th Century maps.  However, the Russian-built railway passed through nearby Berdichev and the importance of Machnowka declined rapidly throughout the 1800s.

Communication was also inhibited by the similar carelessness with which the borders of Ukraine had been drawn; both within Russian Ukraine, as well as the international border with Austria.  These borders had been drawn with no regard for natural or ethnographic conditions.  For instance, Lemberg, the most important communication center for western Ukraine, lay in Austrian controlled Galicia since the Partitions of Poland, and could not easily be accessed by Russian Ukrainians.  These shortcomings regarding communication and transportation severely impaired the growth of the economy and culture in Russian Ukraine in the 19^th Century. 

Finally, the City of Odessa, in Kherson Gubernia, was the biggest Black Sea port and the City of Kherson was the most important Dneiper River port.  Odessa was surpassed only by St. Petersburg (on the Baltic Sea in the north) in importance as a port city throughout the Russian Empire.  Melitopol, Mariupol and Taganrog (Таганрог) were other important Black Sea ports and Sevastopol, on the Crimean peninsula, was the home of the Russian Naval Black Sea Fleet.  Overall however, Ukrainian water bound trade was far under-utilized by the early 20^th Century.  

The Russian Pale of Settlement

Much of western Ukraine, including Volhynia as well as eastern Poland and western Russia, lay within the area of the Russian Empire known as the Pale of Settlement.  Russia established this area in 1791 to provide areas of inhabitation for the Empire’s Jewish population who were not desired in the major urban centers of Moscow, St. Petersburg, or Russia proper, since the Jewish peoples were more highly educated and culturally sophisticated than the native Russians.  Jewish citizens during this time period did not possess rights to unrestrictedly live anywhere they chose as did some other ethnic groups.  Jewish people in Ukraine were permitted to leave the Pale only under certain circumstances but could not live in Sevastopol or in certain areas within the Pale where Cossacks resided (Sevastopol and the Cossacks were both important militarily to the Russian Empire and the Russians didn’t want the Jews to compromise the integrity of the military).  Jewish peoples were required to live in urban areas and were even periodically expelled from small towns and villages (these expulsions were called pogroms).  Exceptions were made for well-established merchants and artisans as well as those individuals possessed of higher education or who were retired from the military.  Russian Jewish population increased from 1.6 million in 1820 to 5.6 million in 1910.  At times, Jews in Russia paid higher taxes and were prohibited from leasing land, running taverns, or receiving higher education.  After 1882, Jeww were restricted to urban areas only, resulting in overcrowding and limited economic opportunities.  As the cities in Volhynia lay within the Pale of Settlement, and Jews were largely prohibited from living on the land, the Jewish population in all Volhynian cities was very high.

For an interesting fictional account of Jewish life in the early 20^th Century Pale of Settlement, see Fiddler on the Roof or other tales by Sholem Aleichem.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11862-pale-of-settlement

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/pale.html

Two waves of severe pogroms were perpetrated in the Pale; one in the 1880s and one in the early 1900s.  This is not to say, however, that pogroms didn’t occur in other places and at other times, but these were the two most severe waves.  In the spring of 1881, after fear and confusion swept the country on the heels of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, severe pogroms broke out in south and eastern Ukraine.  Jews were seen as scapegoats for some forms of revolutionary unruest and severe violence took place in Kiev and Odessa.  Later, Warsaw also saw violence.  The Russian government officially opposed the violence which saw several hundred Jews killed, but the local governor-generals seemed to do little to stop the movements.  The violence subsided, but 1881 became a turning point for Russian Jews.  Afterwards, Jews were further limited in their social and political options, and many Jews became sympathizers of other radical revolutionaries who were disillusioned with the Tsar’s government.

The second wave of pogroms came as a result of revolutionary agitation associated with the Russian Revolution of 1905.  Looking for a way to divert the general population’s attention away from the Tsar, the government gave various bodies free reign to persecute Jews.  Riots broke out as early as 1903 and continued through 1906.  Again, several hundred Jews were killed in areas throughout Ukraine and Russia.  Affected towns in Ukraine and Volhynia included Melitopol, Odessa, Ekaterinoslav, Kiev, Zhytomyr and Rovno.  As a result, some Jews took to organizing their own self-defence units while other sought refuge abroad and emigrated out of Russia.

 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0016_0_15895.html

The Pale of Settlement in Russia:

Jews in Volhynia during the 19^th Century were prevalent in the larger towns and cities.  In Ostrog and Zaslaw Counties, the cities of Ostrog, Zaslaw, and Slavuta, as well as the local volost seats, Cunev and Pluzhnoe, had large Jewish populations.  Jews may have also occupied certain small villages too, such as Pivneva Gora.  These Jews spoke Yiddish and were largely involved in commerce.  They lended money, owned and operated factories and stores in the cities, and traded manufactured goods for raw materials with the peasants of the countryside.  The Russian government, as well as other European governments at the time, officially disliked Jews and generally treated them poorly. Therefore the prevailing attitude toward them throughout the countryside was one of disdain.  The Jews were tolerated, but not accepted.  Add to this the fact that they were involved in commerce and were commonly seen as swindlers and cheats and the resulting public perception was a very poor one.  Unfortunately, my German ancestors also had a poor opinion of their Jewish neighbors.  In memoirs and remembrances, unkind statements have been made regarding Jews.  Several ancestors including my great grandfather Andreas Ratzlaff, had at least a working knowledge of the Yiddish language so that they could deal with Jewish shop-owners or traders. 

Emigration from Russia

By the 2/3 point of the 19^th century, many emigrants began to seek homes outside Russia and Russian emigration to the United States began in earnest in the 1880s.  Some Russians had made the move to America as early as the 1820s and those numbers had slowly increased through the decades.  In the 1870s more than 35,000 Russians immigrated to the States, but in the succeeding decades, that number increased dramatically.  This chart shows the numbers through the 1930s:

Decade	Number of Emigrants
1820-1829	86
1830-1839	280
1840-1849	520
1850-1859	423
1860-1869	1670
1870-1879	35177
1880-1889	182698
1890-1899	450101
1900-1909	1501301
1910-1919	1106998
1920-1929	61604
1930-1939	2463

These numbers represent the number of immigrants coming into the United States in the given years who indicated that their last country of residence was Russia.  This does not necessarily mean that the immigrants were ethnic Russians.

http://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigration-statistics-2009-3

Of the emigrants leaving Russia between 1881 and 1914, over 50% were Jewish while only around 2% were native Russian.  Most of the emigrants at this time were seeking improved economic status, while a sizeable number (including the Jewish Russians) were seeking improved religious freedoms.  Many of these emigrants who were not ethnic Russians originated from the southwest areas of the Russian Empire including the provinces of Poland, Volhynia and Podolia and other provinces of the Ukraine.  Those Russian citizens leaving the country after 1920 were largely fleeing the Bolshevik regime and the establishment of the USSR. 

http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Russian-Americans.html#b

Many of the German Mennonites living in Ostrog and Zaslaw Counties migrated to the United States in the 1870s.  Along with the Mennonites from the Molotschna Colony and other locations in Russia, more than 10,000 Mennonites emigrated in the 1870s – that’s almost a third of all Russians who immigrated to America in that decade.  In some of the Volhynian villages after 1874, Mennonite homes were sold to German Lutherans, and Mennonite churches were converted to Lutheran churches.  After 1874, the majority of the remaining Mennonites in Volhynian Karolswalde area moved to the village of Lisna (Leeleva).  In the succeeding years though, almost all the Mennonites left and Lisna probably became a German Lutheran village.

  

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/U568.html/?searchterm=immigration%20to%20united%20states

http://home.arcor.de/pulin/karlswalde/history/brief_h.htm

The Helpless Poles, Abe J Unruh, 1973 Montezuma, KS.

Most of the Mennonites who left Volhynia for America in 1874 travelled aboard the following ships:

• SS Colina, bound for New York via Antwerp, 02 September 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Heinrichsdorf.

• SS London, bound for New York via Liverpool, 18 November 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde.

• SS Montreal, bound for New York via Liverpool, 27 November 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde.

• SS Nederland, bound for Philadelphia via Antwerp, 28 November 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Michalin.

• SS Vaderland, bound for Philadelphia via Antwerp, 26 December 1874; carrying Mennonites primarily from Antonovka.

• SS Kenilworth, bound for Philadelphia via Liverpool, 09 January 1875; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde and Antonovka.

• SS Illinois, bound for Philadelphia via Liverpool, 28 January 1875; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde and Antonovka.

• SS Suevia, bound for New York via Hamburg and Le Havre, 12 November 1875; carrying Mennonites primarily from Karolswalde.

Abe J Unruh

http://www.odessa3.org/collections/ships/link/mindiv.txt

Ostrog County, Volhynia, Geography

The area occupied by my forefathers in western Ukraine lies at the crossroads of the eastern European regions of Volhynia (Ukr: Volyn, Воли́нь; Russian: Volyn, Волы́нь; Polish: Wołyń; German: Wohynien), Podolia, and Galicia.  Volhynia (to the northeast), Podolia (to the south) and Galicia (to the southwest) meet near Teofipol, about 30 miles due south from Antonivka.  The area is bordered by Poland to the west and north, Belorus (White Russia) and Ukraine (Ruthenia) to the north and east, Moldava and Bessarabia to the south and Hungary to the west.  In the 19^th century, not only was the area inhabited by native Volhynians, Podolians, and Galicians (these 3 nationalities being Ukrainians), but also by Russians, Poles, Bessarabians and Moldavans (Romanians).  Germans, Czechs and Swiss later formed colonies in the area as well.  Muslim Tatars inhabited some areas, leftover from the days of conquest of the Mongols and Turks.  Furthermore, the area sat right in the middle of the Pale of Settlement providing areas of inhabitation to the Jewish peoples of Russia.  Finally, occasional Rom (Gypsy) camps also occupied the countryside and the occasional Finn, Latvian, Lithuanian or Frenchman could also be found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volhynia

http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd_eng.php?reg=229

Geographically, the northern areas of this region are part of the Polesia (Ukr: Polissya, Полі́сся) lowlands, an area of northern Ukraine/southern Belorus including the Pripyat (При́п'ять) River marshes which is characterized by large expanses of swamps, with many marshes and streams.  This swampy area generally extends from a line north of Lusk-Rovno-Zhytomyr-Kiev.  South of this line the Volhynian Uplands rise and the landscape gains many hills and becomes generally much dryer.  South of the Volhynian Uplands are the Podolian Uplands.  With the Podolian Uplands, the area becomes almost mountainous as far south as Kremenets, as the ground gives rise to the Outer Eastern Carpathian foothills.  Grassy flatlands, steppe or prairie-lands are not to be found in this region that is covered with large expanses of forest.  The majority of the trees are pine and oak, with spruce, beech, birch and locust also forming a percentage of the forest.  Animals found in the area are similar to those found in any wooded region of Europe; deer, boar, marten, beaver, muskrat, hare, fox, and even an occasional wolf, as well as pheasant, quail, ducks and cranes, make their homes here.  The forest at the end of the 20^th century still covers a wide expanse of land; creating an almost unbroken chain of woods 75 miles long and 10 to 15 miles wide through the heart of Volhynia. 

The main river (річка) in the area is the Gorin (Ukr: Гори́нь; Rus: Горы́нь, Horyn; Pol: Horyń; German: Horyn; Yiddish: Horin, האָרין), itself a tributary of the Pripyat, whose headwaters lie in the hills south of the city of Kremenets and which flows in a northerly direction through Iziaslaw (Zaslaw) and Slavuta, westwards towards Ostrog and then sharply to the north and on past Rovno.  The Gorin joins the Pripyat in southern Belorus.  The Pripyat-Gorin system forms one of the most westerly of the river systems comprising the Dneipr River basin (Басейн Дніпра) which covers most of Ukraine and Belorus. 

Tributaries of the Gorin which flow through the area include the Vilia (Ukr: Ві́лія, Russ: Вилия;), which flows in a northeasterly direction from its source near Pidlisne (Ukr: Підлі́сне) and joins the Gorin just to the west of the town of Ostrog and the Zbytynka (Ukr: Збитинка) which flows easterly from its origin east of Dubno, and joins the Gorin at Mezhyrich.  A little farther south, the Huscisko (Riska) flows in a northerly direction from its headwaters south of Husk until it joins the Vilia at Kamenka.  The Zluzie is formed near Pluznoe and flows in a northerly direction to join the Huscisko near Martynie.  In the 19^th Century, before the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant cooling reservoir was built, the Gnili Rig (Rotten Horn), (Ukr: Гнили́й Ріг, Czarna; Pol: Gnily Row) flowed in a northerly direction through the forest to join the Gorin to the northeast of Ostrog, from it’s headwaters near Markzec (Mokrets), but it no longer exists today.  Many marshy, swampy areas surround these tributaries, just as they do the Gorin and the Pripyat.

http://ypef.eu/files/booklet/ang/ukraine.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horyn

Soviet Collectivization and the Eviction of the Kulaks

After the Bolshevik Revolution, the communists began to single out specific societal groups known as the kulaks (кулакс).  Kulaks, although ill-defined, were considered enemies of the Bolshevik Revolution and of the Soviet State.  Generally speaking, the kulaks were the landowing class of the Russian countryside.  The Bolsheviks painted the picture that the kulaks stood in the way of the socialist utopia they would create.  Generally, collectivization took away land and possessions from the kulaks.

The kulak (кулак) “class” consisted of land-owners who were of foreign nationality or who became landed after the Stolypin agrarian reforms of 1906.  The Stolypin reforms dissolved peasant communes, bought land from nobles, and divided the land among peasants, creating “land-owning” peasant class – the muzhiks (мужчин).  These muzhiks received small parcels of land from the government, on a mortgage type system – it was intended that they would have to pay for the land.  Muzhiks were those who were serfs before 1861 and became free peasants after the emancipation.  These kulaks generally supported the Whites in the Russian Civil War.  The kulaks understood that the Bolsheviks would probably take away their land if they won the civil war.  In the 1920s the civil war (the war, creating the first wave of inefficient collectivization) created famine in Russia and Lenin began to confiscate grain from peasants.  Anyone accused of being a kulak had his grain taken, as well as his seed-grain.  Kulaks were doomed.  After the civil war, the Bolsheviks considered only the poorer classes of landless peasants as allies.  During the period after the civial was, the Soviets official defined the kulak class as: 1) those who hired others for labor, 2) owners of mills, creamerys, or other processing equipment with a mechanical motor, 3) those who rented out agricultural machinery or facilities, 4) those who were involved in trade, money-lending or commercial brokerage (i.e., anyone who sold a surplus for money).  Bolshevik revolutionary thinker, Grigory Zinoviev, once said that a kulak was any peasant who had enough to eat.

Stalin continued collectivization and used the kulaks as scapegoats for ineffective practices.  Offical policy of 1930 approved extermination of kulaks.  Kulaks began to be transported to Siberia or Kazakhstan.  Many were simply dropped off in the middle of nowhere without supplies, food or shelter.  Others were forced to work their farms, but not allowed to keep any of its production.  4 to 8 million kulaks died.  Many kulaks didn’t even know what crimes against the state they may have committed.  Even ex-kulaks weren’t safe.  But the Soviet machine saw them as obstacles to the collectivization process; the real heart and soul of communism in the countryside.

Collectivation, however, was such a failure that shortages of food continued to occur into the 1980s.  The Russian Army was forced to help farmers till the land at periods between the 1930s and the 1980s.  By the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration ramped up military spending in the US that the USSR had to try to match.  Money that should have gone to propping up the Soviet economy had to be put towards the military. The US’ victory in the Cold War was in part due to economic shortages in the USSR caused by collectivization and the liquidation of the kulaks.  Economic shortages that could have been averted had the kulak class been allowed to keep their land and help produce food to feed the countryside.  Kulaks became the missing link in the economic chain that brought the USSR to its ruin.

http://www.indepthinfo.com/russia/kulaks.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak

The Soviet Bolsheviks continued to press their authority over the countryside, however, and Joseph Stalin’s NKVD (The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs; the Soviet administrative body used to fight crime and maintain public order)  roamed the country rounding up kulaks and setting the groundwork for collectivization.  Exorbitant taxes were levied.  Kulaks by the hundreds and thousands were seized and exiled deep into Soviet controlled Siberia.  Many Germans and Poles were taken from Volhynia too, and the Counties of Ostrog and Zaslaw suffered as well.  Churches were closed and schools were consolidated.  Villagers were forced to give up their traditional languages and customs.  The numbers of Polish and German kulaks exiled from the villages in the neighborhood of the Volhynian Mennonite villages in the 1930s was thus:

• Borisov: 12 families
• Choten II: 150 families
• Kunev:10 families
• Dorohosch: 35 families
• Old Husk: 30 families
• New Husk: 20 families
• Kamenka: 48 families
• Kustarna: 21 families
• Lisna (Leeleva): 30 families
• Martynie: 9 families
• Michailivka: 25 families
• Little Radohosch: 30 families
• Siever: 16 families
• Stanislavka: 11 families
• Storonich: 27 families

http://www.myslenedrevo.com.ua/uk/Sci/Local/Zaslav/Empires/AdminDivision.html

A firsthand account of a Polish kulak family exiled from the nearby village of Belotin can be found here:

http://sybir.blogspot.com/2005_09_28_archive.html

Stalin’s collectivization policies fundamentally changed the countryside.  The villages in Ostrog and Zaslaw counties, as well as the other Volhynian Counties and Russian provinces, were formed into collectives.

Directly affecting the Karolswalde villages, the Russian Civil War was followed by the Polish-Soviet War, after which the victorious Poles took control of the northwestern half of Volhynia; cutting Ostrog County right in half.  Ostrog then fell under Polish control and the Soviet-Polish border lay along the Vilia River, passing directly through the village of Karolswalde, which was then named Prikordonnoe (Russian: Прикордонное; Ukrainian: Prykordonne, Прикордо́нне), after the Ukrainian adjective for ‘border’ (прикордонний).  During this time, the administrative center of the Polish half of Ostrog County was moved to Zdolbunow.  The southern half of Ostrog County, under Soviet control, was consolidated into Zaslaw County. 

Transportation and Communication in 19th Century Volhynia

Communication and transportation services increased in Volhynian Russia, as they did across the globe during the 19^th Century.  By the late 18^th 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 18^th 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 19^th 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-19^th 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 20^th 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 19^th Century, was the area’s major port on the Goryn River.

During the first 50 years of the 19^th 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 19^th century.

Stagecoaches began to run on the highway providing public transportation by the late 19^th 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 19^th 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.  2^nd 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.  1^st 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. 

http://zwiahel.ucoz.ru/novograd/history/transport_cv.html

http://www.volhynia.org/articles/germanbaptistmovement.pdf

http://russian-empire.gatchina3000.ru/illustrated-description-of-russia/23_means-of-travel.htm

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.

http://zwiahel.ucoz.ru/novograd/history/kalendari_27_04_12.html

Ethnic Minority Groups in 19th Century Ostrog and Zaslaw Counties

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.

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/volhynia_ukraine/?searchterm=volhynia

By the late 18^th 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.

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/contents/W4752.html

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B74209.html/?searchterm=neumark

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 19^th 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 19^th 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 18^th 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 19^th 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 20^th 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 16^th 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.

http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/N63.html

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 19^th 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 20^th 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 19^th Century.  From the turn of the 20^th 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 19^th Century, all these different groups of nationalities contributed to Russia’s stunted economic, social and industrial growth.  In the 18^th 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 19^th 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 19^th 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.

http://www.myslenedrevo.com.ua/uk/Sci/Local/Zaslav/Empires/AdminDivision.html

In the 19^th 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.