Social Divisions in Imperial Russia

Russian society was strictly divided into social classes or estates (sosloviia, cословия), separating one social group from another.  Like other European societies, this soslovie (сословие) system had existed from medieval times.  As in other European countries in the 19^th Century, four basic sosloviia existed: 1) nobility, 2) clergy, 3) urban commoners, and 4) rural peasants.  The hierarchical system began at the top with the tsar and continued down to the lowest peasant.  The system had religious foundations; the tsar was given his position by god and the hierarchy was seen as established by god as well.  People felt secure knowing they had a place within society.  Raznochinet  (разночинца) was the term given to those who fell between the nobility/clergy and the peasantry (the growing middle class).  Nobility consisted of hereditary and personal nobility.  Divisions existed in the clerical class depending upon the clergyman’s specific role in his church.  Commoners were divided into many groups including honorable citizens, urban commoners, merchants, philistines, and burghers.  A special soslovie was the military.  Cossacks and other military men held their own sosloviia.

The peasant class was the largest class of all and included numerous different ranks.  Peasants were different from other classes in that they were subject to both a poll tax (Подушный оклад) and military conscription whereas members of other classes may not have been.  Single homesteaders, farmers, monastic farmers, free agriculturalists, state peasants, landowners’ peasants, appanage peasants, and ascribed peasants were all different classes among the peasantry (Крестьяне).  Some German settlers were categorized as free agriculturalists (Вольные хлебопашцы), while others identified themselves as Крестьянин, a variation on the Russian for peasant.

Each soslovie had different rights and obligations; some were subject to certain kinds of taxation, some were subject to military conscription, some were required to belong to guilds, each was required to hold different types of passports, etc.  Some classifications were allowed to travel freely while others were restricted.  Some groups were able to engage in commerce, although limitations may exist upon the characteristics of such.  Some groups were entitled to a certain degree of mobility and might change classification depending upon employment tenure, net wealth or marriage status.  Members of a soslovie might petition the tsar to modify their rights or privileges.  Thus, two sosloviia that may have been otherwise almost identical may have been subject to dissimiliar entitlements or restrictions.

Most European countries similarly classified their populations and this system provided their populace with social identity and clearly defined the peoples’ role within society.  One’s social status not only determined how he paid taxes or became employed, but it also affected his day to day life with very tangible measures.  A member of a peasant class would need to address higher class folks with a certain title and they may need to give way in traffic or don their cap when approached.  Certain classes would not have been able to legally possess arms of any sort, or achieve master status within their vocation, or would need to quit their education after achieving a certain level.  From the American standpoint, this system seems very restrictive and even inhumane, but these systems existed in European societies for centuries.

In his Russian passport (pasportnaya kniga), Andreas Ratzlaff identified Крестьянин as the soslovie to which he belonged.

-http://www.gla.ac.uk/0t4/crcees/files/summerschool/readings/Cadiot_2005_SearchingForNationality.pdf

-http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C%D1%8F%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE#.D0.9A.D0.B0.D1.82.D0.B5.D0.B3.D0.BE.D1.80.D0.B8.D0.B8_.D1.80.D1.83.D1.81.D1.81.D0.BA.D0.B8.D1.85_.D0.BA.D1.80.D0.B5.D1.81.D1.82.D1.8C.D1.8F.D0.BD

-Across the Revolutionary Divide: Russia and the USSR 1861-1945, Theodore R Weeks, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.  Chapter 2

-http://new.hist.asu.ru/biblio/gon1/83-97.html

-http://www.bluebirdresearch.com/2010/10/russian-serfs-peasants-and-military-service/

Metrical Books and Passports in 19th Century Russia

In 19^th Century Russia, citizens were recorded for a variety of purposes.  Certifying identity provided the government with citizenship records providing data to tabulate taxes, to provide lists for military conscription, to record social estate status, to record land ownership, or to preserve hereditary information.  Citizenship records were kept in two ways: 1) metrical books recorded by the clergy, and 2) internal passports purchased by the citizen from the local police.

Metrical Books (Metrika) first appeared under Peter the Great as a tool for cataloging the population of the Russian Empire.  Beginning in the early 1700s, the government required that clergy keep the metrical books, starting with the Russian Orthodox Christians.  Gradually, the requirement spread to other religions in the Empire including Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic, Islam and Judaism.  However, Buddhists in the east and the recognized pagans in European Russia, escaped registration in metrical books entirely.  The books created the fundamental register of identity in the Empire and served as the basis for civil status.  Regardless of social station or religion, citizens were required to report to clergy to have recorded births, marriages and deaths.  The records created the official documentation needed to identify birthdates, social and civil rights of an individual, and provided lists from which were drawn tax registers and military draft notices.

The government issued instructions to clergy that metrical books were serious records and their maintenance was of utmost importance.  Yearly, parish clergy submitted their metrical records to local government authorities.  This inclusion of the clergy into such vital record-keeping shows that the Empire’s government was indeed moored to religious foundations.  However, suspicions arose from time to time that certain clergy were not fastidious enough in their record keeping which the government may have evaluated as sabotage or treason.  Catholics, Jews and Muslims were from time to time put down as being poor record keepers.  Obviously there were many problems with this system; Lutherans wanted to keep their records in German, and Tatar Muslims in their native languages, etc.  What was to be done if a citizen converted to a different religion or confessed to no religion at all?  What if a new religion was formed?  Metrical books lasted until the Tsarist government was put down by the Bolsheviks and the process was never taken over by civic authorities.

-“Between Particularism and Universalism: Metrical Books and Civil Status in the Russian Empire, 1800-1914”, Paul W. Werth, UNLV.

http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/seminars_conferences/WERTH.pdf

Passports (pasportnaya kniga): internal passports had been in place in Russia since the early 18^th Century as Peter the Great instituted their use as a way to certify a person’s legal place of residence.  Internal passports, identifying the bearer by occupation, residence, and estate, helped regulate travel and prevented evasion of taxes and military conscription.  Passports held by those belonging to lower social orders were registered by the local administrative institutions or rural societies and bound the holder to his residence and form of employment; the passport illustrated that a person belonged in a particular place and to a particular vocation.  By the late 19^th Century, members of lower social orders received passports that were valid for five years, after which time the bearer was required to renew the document.  Each social estate had its own local administrative body.  All members of lower social estates were held responsible for the collective burden of taxes levied on their social estate.  The administrative body certified that an individual had paid his taxes and was eligible for a passport.  Yearly fees were also paid on the passport as a sort of tax on free movement.  Local administrative bodies could also place limitations on a person’s free travel rights.  Literate passport holders, usually members of higher estates, signed their document while the lower orders made their mark or recorded their physical description.  Members of higher estates received passports which were less restrictive.

-Documenting Individual Identity, Jane Caplan and John Torpey ed, Princeton 2001.  Chapter 4, pp 67-80.

http://books.google.com/books?id=gYt6Kf7DtwgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false

Andreas Ratzlaff’s passport is an example of a pasportnaya kniga.

19th Century Volhynian administration

After being totally absorbed by the Russian Empire as a result of the 3 Partitions of Poland during the late 18^th Century, Volhynia (Volyn Guberniya - Волинська Губернія) was divided into counties (powiati - повітів or okruga - округов) by the Tsar’s government.  Each powiat (повіт) had an administrative center or county town (Губернскаго городовъ or Повітовий центр) which was the namesake for the powiat.  Immediately after the establishment of the province within the Russian government, the Volhynian capital was Zaslaw (Iziaslav).  It was soon moved to Novograd Volyn, and soon moved again to Zhytomyr, where it remained for the duration of the 19^th Century.

This map (from Wikipedia) shows the 12 Volhynian Powiati during the 19^th Century, listed alphabetically according to the Russian alphabet.  Ostrog Powiat is number 10:

This accompanying chart shows some statistical data for the 12 Volhynian Powiati, c.1897:

Each powiat was divided into parishes or townships (volosti - волостей).  Powiati had between 16 and 25 volosti.  Each volost (волость) had its administrative center located in an important village and each parish took its name from this village.  The Mennonite villages of Karlswalde, Antonovka, Leeleva and the rest, fell administratively into Ostrog Powiat (Powiat Ostrozhsky – Острозький Повіт).  Antonovka was in Kunivska Volost (Волость Кунівська) with its center at Kuniv, and Leeleva was in Pluzhanska Volost (Волость Плужанська) with its center at Pluzhno.

This chart shows some further information regarding Powiat Ostrozhsky, c.1897:

For an excellent map of 19th Century Volhynia, look here.

Information is taken from the 1897 Russian census:

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

and the 1890 edition of the Brokgauz and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary

http://www.vehi.net/brokgauz/index.html

Volhynian Railway Service

Railways began to be established in Russia in the 19^th Century and the rail line was built through Volhynia in the 1870s.  By the early 1890s, the Ukrainian Kiev-Brest line formed the main line through Volhynia, running roughly northwest-southeast, serving Volhynian towns in between Kovel to Berdichev (Berdichev was part of Volhynia until 1855, after which point it was moved into the Kiev Province for administrative purposes).  A spur ran from Zdolbunov (just south of Rovno) to Radziwill (Radziwilow).  The Russians established the railway lines with little regard for local municipalities; lines primarily led to Russian cities or destinations and bypassed many important Ukrainian locations.  For instance, of the 12 Volhynian cities that were administrative centers for the 12 Volhynian counties, only one (Kovel) was directly served by the railway.  Furthermore, no direct railway link led between Kiev and Odessa, the two most important Ukrainian cities (no direct highway link existed either!).  From Ostrog, a person would have needed to travel to Krivin, Wilbowno, Ozenin or Zdolbunov to catch a train.  

This map shows the route in 1882.  East from Kiev, a person could continue travelling to Kursk, where connections could lead either to Kharkov or Moscow.  West from Kovel led to Lublin (Poland) or Brest, in the province of Grodno.  A connection at Brest could also take a person to Moscow.  Brest, along with Lemberg (L’vov) in Austrian Galicia, were the two most important rail hubs near the western Ukrainian frontier.

From an 1891 Volhynian calendar/almanac published by a company in Zhytomyr, we find the local railway table.  Prices are given in rubles/kopecks and distances are given in versts (1 verst was about the equivalent of 2/3rds of a mile).

With the current information, I don't know the railway schedule for this line.  A similar publication (Volhynian calendar/almanac) published in 1906 indicates that there were 6 trains per day passing between Zhytomyr and Berdichev in that year.  Zhytomyr and Berdichev were easily the largest cities in the area in the early years of the 20th Century, so it makes sense that train traffic would be busy between those locations.  Out in the countryside trains probably didn't pass with as much frequency, but rail travel was the fastest, most efficient way to travel over land in those days.

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

http://where.org.ua/ukraine.php?r=The-Districts-and-Settlements-of-Ukraine

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

Andreas and Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff photo

This is a photo of Andreas and Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff, taken in Lehigh, KS, in 1922 when Andreas was 53 and Susanna was 49.  I'm unsure of the history of the photo, but it may have been taken by my grandfather, Albert Ratzlaff.

This is the only photo I have of Andreas and Susanna.  If anyone out there has any other photos, please let me know.

Ostrog City and County Statistical Data, 1895

I recently came across some very interesting statistical information for the City and County of Ostrog, Volhynia Province, Russia, from the year 1895.  The information is from the Brokgauza and Efrona Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary, St. Petersburg/Leipzig, which was published several times between 1890 and the 1930s, in multiple volumes.  This data is from the 1907 edition of the Encyclopedia, listing data from the year 1895 and can be found in its original form here.  Keep in mind that this data separates Ostrog City from Ostrog County.  City data is not included in County data.

19th Century Ratzlaff clans of Volhynia

There appear to have been a few different clans of Ratzlaffs living in the Ostrog, Volhynia, area around the mid-19^th Century.  Based on the Tobias Unruh baptism record, shiplists from ships which carried mainly Volhynian Mennonites to America, data from GRANDMA, and other bits and pieces from here and there, it looks like there were no more than 4 Ratzlaff clans in the area at this time.  1) the Heinrich Ratzlaff family which included my great great grandfather Jacob, and great grandfather Andreas; 2) the Andreas Ratzlaff family which included the brothers Peter and Andreas Ratzlaff; 3) a second Andreas Ratzlaff family made up of Adam, Benjamin, Tobias and Bernard; and 4) the Heinrich Hans Ratzlaff family made up of Heinrich Hans’ 5 sons Johann, Benjamin, Abraham, Tobias and Andreas.

First of all, a word about names.  The name Andreas looks to have been a very popular name with the Mennonites of Volhynia.  All 4 of these clans have men named Andreas Ratzlaff, and all 4 will be discussed.  We have Andreas son of Andreas, born in 1822; Andreas son of Andreas, born around 1830; Andreas son of Heinrich Hans, born in 1833; and Andreas son of Jacob, born 1869. 

In no particular order, the first clan included my Ratzlaff ancestors, the Heinrich Ratzlaff clan.  This clan cannot be traced decisively back to its origins in Przechowka, but may very well be related to Johann Ratzlaff (b 1726) of Driesen, Neumark.  Heinrich Ratzlaff himself lived and died probably in Karolswalde.  He had 4 children, all of whom have been discussed in detail earlier.  His eldest son, Henry, may have never left Russia.  His other children and their families lived in Volhynia; Jacob with his family until their emigrations in 1893, 1907 and 1909; Benjamin with his family until they left for the Holy Land in 1877; and Susanna (Boese) and her family until they emigrated in 1875.  (Benjamin’s family would also later emigrate to America).  This family lived in the villages of Antonovka, Lileva and Mezelski. 

The second Ratzlaff clan was made of the 2 sons of Andreas Ratzlaff; Peter (b1826) and Andreas (b c 1830).  I am also related to this clan in that this Peter Ratzlaff married Anna (Koehn, Foth), the widow of Heinrich Foth, by the late 1840s.  This Anna (Koehn, Foth) was the mother-in-law to my ancestor, Jacob Ratzlaff (b 1842).  Peter became step-father to Jacob’s future wife Anna Foth.  The ancestry of Peter Andreas Ratzlaff and Andreas Andreas Ratzlaff is not known beyond their father, and I don’t know at this time whether the father (Andreas) lived in Volhynia or not.  In all likelihood he did; he would probably have been born around 1800 and that’s right about the time when the German Mennonites began coming into Volhynia.  However, in my notes, I found an indication that Peter was born in Ostrower Kaempe, West Prussia (Ehrental in German, today known as Ostrów Świecki, Poland), but I don’t know if that’s accurate or not.  I also don’t know in which Volhynian villages specifically these Ratzlaffs lived.  Koehn family documents indicate they lived in the Ostrog area but don’t name any villages.  This Peter Ratzlaff left for America aboard the SS Vaderland in December, 1874.  Peter may have been buried in Carson Township, Minnesota (Mountain Lake area).  Some members of the family late moved to the Canton, KS, area.  Andreas and his family stayed until summer of 1881, when they too left for America aboard the SS Waesland.  At this point I don’t know where they lived in America or when Andreas passed away.

An interesting sidenote here involves the Buller family.  This Andreas Ratzlaff (b c 1830) was married to a Katharina Buller.  Katharina’s father was David Buller (born 1785 in Jeziorken, died after 1828 in Antonovka).  My great-great-great grandmother, Maria Buller (b c 1820, grandmother to Susanna Wedel) was the daughter of a David Buller, born 1785.  It’s entirely possible that this Katharina and Maria were sisters, thereby forming another link between these two Ratzlaff clans.  This David Buller was also descended of Ratzlaffs, through his grandmother, Buscke Ratzlaff (b c 1716), a sister to the previously mentioned Johann Ratzlaff (b 1726).

The third Ratzlaff clan was also made up of an Andreas Ratzlaff and his sons; Andreas Ratzlaff (b 1812 or 1822 in Antonovka) and his sons Adam (b c 1836), Benjamin (b 1839), Tobias (b 1843) and Bernard (b 1844).  This man and all 4 sons appear to have lived in Antonovka during the 19^th Century.  Andreas was born in Ostrower Kaempe, West Prussia, in 1812 or 1822 but must have moved into Volhynia by the mid-1830s.

His first son, Adam, lived in Antonovka until his premature death between 1867 and 1874.  After Adam’s death, his widow, Eva Wedel, re-married to a Benjamin Peter Jantz, and the whole family emigrated to America aboard the SS Vaderland in December of 1874.  The family lived near Canton, KS, and then moved to Oklahoma. 

The next son, Benjamin, married an Eva Nachtigal.  The couple along with several children emigrated to America in 1880, after which time they lived in Durham, KS.  They later moved to Montezuma, KS.  

The third son, Tobias, was on his second wife by the time he and his family emigrated to Marion County, KS, aboard the Vaderland in December of 1874.  While living in Antonovka, he first married Susanna Koehn, but she died around 1871.  Next he married a woman named Anna, but she died soon after arrival in America.  Finally, Benjamin married Helena Schmidt and the couple are both buried in Montezuma, KS.

The fourth son, Bernard, was born in Antonovka and married Helena Unruh.  They with 4 of their children also emigrated to America aboard the Vaderland in December, 1874.  They are also buried in Montezuma, KS.

These four sons were children of Andreas Ratzlaff and his wife Helena Koehn.  Helena died at some point around 1850 and Andreas re-married to Wilhelmina Foth.  After Wilhelmina Foth’s death, Andreas married Maria Foth.  At some point after his first wife’s death, Andreas moved from Volhynia back into the Masovia, Poland, and lived in the upper Vistula Mennonite villages of Deutsche Wymyschle, Wola Wodzinska and perhaps Wonsosz bei Gombin.  Andreas also emigrated to America at some point by 1915 when he was buried in Hitchcock, Oklahoma.

Finally, the fourth clan include several sons of Heinrich Hans Ratzlaff.  Heinrich Hans was born, probably near Neu-Dessau, Neumark, in 1784, a son to the previously mentioned Johann Ratzlaff (b 1726).  He married his first wife, a Richert daughter, in Neu-Dessau, but she died shortly afterwards.  He married his second wife, Maria Sawatzky, in Volhynia around 1820.  Maria had been born near Elbing, in Prussia.  5 sons and 1 daughter were all born in Volhynia between 1821 and 1833, but the family moved to the Molotschna Colony in 1837.  Heinrich Hans died in 1848 after which point Maria and 2 of her sons, Abraham and Tobias, moved back into Volhynia and were among the founders of the Heinrichsdorf, Volhynia, Mennonite community.  Heinrichsdorf was founded in that same year about 12 miles northwest of Berdychev; about 84 miles southeast of Karlswalde (today there are no traces of the village left, but it would have lain directly northeast of the Ukrainian village of Vakulenchuk.

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

Abraham (b 1828) and Tobias (b 1831) both are listed in the Heinrichsdorf churchbook.  Abraham married Anna Teske in 1853 and Tobias married Helena Nachtigal in 1858.  The Heinrichsdorf community probably had little to do with the Karlswalde villages, however, other than the fact that Tobias Unruh served as elder for both communities.  Children of Abraham and Tobias are both listed in the Tobias Unruh baptism record.  Abraham and Tobias, along with their families and their mother Maria, emigrated aboard the SS Colina in September of 1874, and settled in Turner County, South Dakota.  Maria died in 1891, Abraham in 1893, and Tobias in 1903, all in South Dakota.

Heinrich Hans’ other children were Johann (b 1821), Maria (b 1826) and Andreas (b 1833).  These children were also born in Volhynia but grew up in the Molotschna Colony. 

Johann, with his wife Ann Buller and their children, emigrated to Minnesota aboard the SS Vaderland in the summer of 1876. 

Maria married a Johann Beier, but died in the Molotschna in 1867.  Johann also died in 1867, leaving their 7 children orphans, the youngest of whom was only 3 years old at the time of the parents’ death.  The family must have spent some time among the Mennonite villages in Crimea before Maria and Johann’s deaths.  The children were named Johann, Helena, Anna, Abraham, Suzanna, Cornelius and Katherine.  Johann, Abraham and Cornelius all emigrated to the U.S. in 1874.  Members of Helena’s family made their way into Kazakhstan after 1920.  Some remained there during the Soviet period (death dates recorded as recently as 1985) and may very well remain in Russia to this day.  Others were able to make their way into Germany.  Anna’s family moved into the Millerovo, Russia, Mennonite village.  It appears as if most of this family eventually made their way to Canada or Germany.  Nothing more is known of Suzanna’s or Katherine’s family at this time.

Heinrich Hans’ youngest child, Andreas, married Maria Janzen and emigrated to the United States in 1893 aboard the SS Polaria along with the Jacob Ratzlaff (b 1842) family.  Andreas died shortly after arrival in America.  Andreas and Maria left behind 8 children in South Russia.  The fate of the elder 6 children is unknown, while the 7^th and 8^th children, Johann and Heinrich, moved deeper into Russia.  Johann died in the Mennonite settlement of Orenburg in the 1920s.  Heinrich and his family trekked all the way to the Barnaul Mennonite settlement in Siberia where he died in 1915.  Several of Heinrich’s children were among those Mennonites to escape over the border into China during the early Soviet period.  From Harbin, China they were able to make their way to the Mennonite Colonies in Fernheim, Paraguay (http://wikimapia.org/#lat=-22.3891664&lon=-60.0085259&z=12&l=0&m=b), and near Curitiba, Brazil (http://wikimapia.org/#lat=-25.4219198&lon=-49.8211098&z=13&l=0&m=b).  Some of their descendants still live in South America today.

In addition to all these, a couple other Ratzlaffs appear in the Tobias Unruh baptism records.  Elisabeth Ratzlaff was baptized in 1864 and Tobias Unruh lists her father as Heinrich.  There’s also another Elisebeth (Elske) listed as the daughter of an Andreas Ratzlaff, baptized in 1861.