The Volhynian context 2

The previous post surveyed Volhynia as a geographical space, noting, among other things, that the region encompasses both a plateau in the south conducive for raising grains and a more marshy and wooded area in the north that is better suited for raising livestock. We also observed that Volhynia is in the northwest part of today’s Ukraine but has been surrounded by other countries, most notably, as we will read below, Poland and Russia.

With this brief geographical context in place, we are ready to explore Volhynia within a particular time frame, that of the latter part of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, when our ancestors were likely to have lived there.

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at its greatest extent. Lutsk (Łuck)
and Rovno (Równe) can be seen in the lower center.

We begin the historical account several hundred years earlier, during the sixteenth century, when Polish nobles and tradesmen moved eastward into Volhynia, much to the detriment of the native Volhynian peasantry. In time, Volhynia became a Polish crown voivodeship (roughly equivalent to a modern province or county) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. This absorption of Volhynia into the Polish kingdom “accelerated the [process of the] Polonization of the administration and the upper estates of Volhynia” (Hrytsak, Kubijovyč, Pasternak, and Stebelsky 1993).

So it was that Polish nobles came to control much of the land in the Volhynian region, possessing it in the form of large estates that were passed on from one generation to the next. The nobles retained ownership even when Poland ceased to control the Volhynian region and after the Polish kingdom became no more.

If you recall, an earlier post commented on a seismic shift in regional power toward the end of the eighteenth century: the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795 (see here). We noted then that our Buller ancestors living near Schwetz were transferred from Polish to Prussian rule when Austria, Prussia, and Russia decided to begin carving up the Polish kingdom.

Volhynia was left untouched by that first partition, but as a result of the second and third partitions Volhynia become a part of the realm of Tsar Paul I, son of Catherine the Great. In 1799 the region became a gubernia (or province) in the Russian Empire. It was also at that time that Volhynia was organized into the ten districts represented on our working map below.

Why do we take the time to recount this history? When Mennonites began immigrating to the Volhynia gubernia shortly after the turn of the century (1801), they were entering a region that was largely populated by native Volhynians but mostly owned by Polish nobles and completely controlled by the Russian government. Our forebears no doubt had to navigate a highly complex social and political landscape, probably more than we ever will have to face.

Taking a moment to set the historical context also makes us better readers of the 1848 Waldheim community report. If you recall, the Gemeindebericht said that some Waldheim residents came “from the district Novograd Volhynsk [in Volhynia] from the estate of Prince Ljubomirskij” (Woltner 1941, 159). Knowing what we now know, it is not surprising to see the name of a Polish noble as the landlord of the Mennonite farmers within the Russian Empire, although it is still remarkable to realize these humble farmers were dealing with one of the leading royal families in Poland, the House of Lubomirski (see further here).

Now that we have set the Volhynian context in space and time, we are ready to explore several waves of Mennonites who moved into that region. We may very well spend substantial time in Volhynia, as we expand our understanding of our family’s history.

Sources

Hrytsak,  Petro, Volodymyr Kubijovyč, Yaroslav Pasternak, and Ihor Stebelsky. 1993. Volhynia. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Available online here.

Woltner, Margarete. 1941. Die Gemeindeberichte von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer. Sammlung Georg Leibbrandt 4. Leipzig: Hirzel.