[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Why Did They Leave?

[Jack Milner]

  Why Did They Leave?

Compiled by Jack Milner

    * Some military reason (war, displacement because of war, draft)?
    * Climate or possible physical danger?
    * Political oppression?
    * Religious persecution or oppression?
    * A friend or relative emigrated and encouraged them to follow?
    * A promise of improved economic situations

When our ancestors initially migrated to Russia, they entered a realm 
where they would be swept up in powerful historical and social forces 
over which they had no control.  Polish/Russian/Volhynian history can 
only be described as unsettled and these conditions certainly encouraged 
our German Russian ancestors to emigrate from Volhynia and elsewhere in 
Russia.

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Volhynia and the Partitioning of Poland

Volhynia had been a feudal province with a Polish aristocracy and 
Ukrainian serfs, ruled by Poland until the late 18th century, when 
Poland was partitioned by the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian empires. 
Prussia, Russia, and Austria had already annexed parts of Poland in 1772 
and 1793. During the third partition in 1795, Poland's last remaining 
territory was occupied by the three partitioning powers, which resulted 
in the disappearance of Poland from the European map. It was then that 
the Russification and Germanization processes of the occupied territory 
began. After the partitions of Poland, Volhynia was a gubernia, or 
province, of the Russian Empire until 1919, when the western part of 
Volhynia once again became part of Poland. In 1945 the entire area of 
the Volhynia Gubernia was absorbed into the Soviet Union, but the 
gubernia system was no longer used and the Volhynia name was used to 
identify a smaller region, called an oblast, in the western part of the 
old gubernia. Most of what was the Volhynia Gubernia is now in Ukraine, 
with a small part of northern Volhynia in Belarus. Major cities and 
towns in and around Volhynia include Zhitomir (the former capital), 
Rovno, Lutsk, Kovel, Berdichev, and Novograd-Volinsk.

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Volhynia and Russification

Large numbers of German cloth makers arrived in Volhynia in the 1830's. 
By 1860, there were only about 5,000 Germans in 35 small villages. Then, 
with the abolition of serfdom by Tsar Alexander II in 1861 and the 
failed Polish Insurrection of 1863, Germans began to flood into this 
area because more land became available to them. It was the shortage of 
land in their old homes that drove most of the Germans into this region. 
Since the landlords in Volhynia no longer had serfs bound to the land, 
they were looking for qualified farmers to develop and farm their 
properties. By selling and leasing land to the German farmers, they 
profited and many new German villages were developed. The only 
privileges extended to these new colonists were those which could be 
provided by the local nobility. By 1871, there were over 28,000 Germans 
living in Volhynia and by the turn of the century, over 200,000. Most of 
them had come from Poland with a minority from Wuerttemberg, Pomerania, 
East Prussia, Silesia, and Galicia.

 

Dates in Russian History

    * 1874 Introduction of universal military service.
    * 1874 Colonists subject to army service.
    * 1893 German colonies receive Russian names.

After the privileges which the original settlers enjoyed were revoked, 
and the German colonies were placed under Russian administration, the 
German names of the villages were also translated into Russian. Thus, 
every village now had two names; an official Russian one, and the old 
German one, which the people continued to use.

In the 1890's and the first decade of the 1900's, Russia was a country 
seething with discontent and impatience for meaningful land reforms. 
During this period the Russian government had continually changed land 
laws, especially in the province of Volhynia. These laws, in various 
ways, attempted to limit the purchase of property by German-Russians. 
The anarchistic Bolshevik movement was gaining momentum and creating 
further unrest. A corrupt bureaucracy also led to serious agrarian 
revolts, food protests and political assassinations. Through the years 
1911-1914, a new wave of worker unrest ended with the outbreak of the 
First World War.

Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914 and the Russians became 
more openly hostile to the German colonists within Russia. The first 
confiscation measures started on February 2, 1915.  Of  200,000 
Volhynian Germans, 100,000 lost their land and were banished to Siberia. 
When the Czarist government collapsed in 1917, the Bolsheviks became the 
strongest political force in Russia, but felt they could not gain 
control of the whole country at the same time that Russia was battling 
with Germany. Germany was ceded large tracts of Russian land, including 
the Ukraine, under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed in 
March 1918.

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The Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

On the 3rd December 1917 a conference between a Russian delegation, 
headed by Leon Trotsky and German and Austrian representatives began at 
Brest-Litovsk. Trotsky had the difficult task of trying to end Russian 
participation in the First World War without having to grant territory 
to the Central Powers. By employing delaying tactics Trotsky hoped that 
socialist revolutions would spread from Russia to Germany and 
Austria-Hungary before he had to sign the treaty.

After nine weeks of discussions without agreement, the German Army was 
ordered to resume its advance into Russia. On 3rd March 1918, with 
German troops moving towards Petrograd, Lenin ordered Trotsky to accept 
the German terms. The Brest-Litovsk Treaty resulted in the Russians 
surrendering the Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic provinces, the Caucasus 
and Poland. Occupation by German troops was short lived however, and in 
November 1918, the armistice Treaty of Versailles forced German troop 
withdrawal.

Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920.

The frontiers between Poland and Soviet Russia had not been clearly 
defined after WW I and the Poles held control of most of the disputed 
territories in 1919. The war had been precipitated largely by the demand 
of Poland that its eastern border of 1772 be restored. Border skirmishes 
then escalated into open hostilities between Poland and Soviet Russia 
following a Polish attempt to take advantage of Russia's weakness with a 
major incursion into Ukraine in early 1920. The Bolsheviks mounted an 
April counter-offensive which was very successful. By mid-August, the 
Polish forces had retreated westward to the Polish capital of Warsaw. 
The Polish forces then achieved an unexpected and decisive victory 
during the Battle of Warsaw and began their advance eastward. The war 
ended with ceasefire in October 1920 and a formal peace treaty, the 
Peace Treaty of Riga, was signed on March 18, 1921. The treaty terms, 
which fixed the Russo-Polish border, did not satisfy the claims of the 
victorious Poles, but they awarded to Poland large parts of Belorussia 
and of Ukraine.

It was just one of a series of conflagrations raging almost 
simultaneously. Since the borders in the area were tenuous, and in some 
cases non-existent, several countries came into territorial conflict. 
There were six concurrent wars on the borders of Poland from 1918 to 
1922, between Poland and: Ukraine; Germany (over Poznan); Germany (over 
Silesia); Lithuania; Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. Add to this 
the end of the First World War, the Russian Civil War, Allied 
Intervention in that war, and the Paris Peace Conference. With these 
events to consider, the reader can see just how confusing and unstable 
the European political situation was.

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The Aftermath of War and Revolution in Russia

Anarchy

It was during the summer of 1917 that law and order collapsed. Out of 
every nook and cranny, crept the criminals, the fanatics, the 
degenerates and the mystics. Anyone who showed signs of leadership could 
attract numerous followers to his banner as long as there was 
opportunity to loot, rape, kill and avenge real or imagined insults. 
Most of the estates of landowners in Russia were pillaged and eventually 
destroyed.

Famine

By the early 1920's, groups of bandits and various armies had 
commandeered or stolen most of the livestock. Buildings and businesses 
had been destroyed and land confiscated. In late 1920, peasant soviets 
were set up and proceeded to set impossible quotas and levy excessive 
taxes. Often the remaining machinery or seed grain had to be sold to 
meet the taxes. Food was scarce and a drought in 1920 guaranteed there 
would be famine.

Dictatorship

In 1930 the Russian government stopped allowing people to emigrate.

World War II

<>Final banishment of Germans from Volhynia and eradication of their 
settlements came in World War II. In 1939 Russia and Germany divided 
Poland roughly along the Warthe river as part of the the 
Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. This pact lasted less than two years. However, 
during the period 1939 - 1945, the Einwanderungszentralstelle 
(Immigration Central Office) continued processing the personal 
information of more than 2.1 million qualified ethnic Germans living 
outside of Germany for Reich citizenship, naturalization and resettlement.

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This is not a comprehensive review, but I thought I would like to share 
my attempt at Volhynian history with people on the list.

Yours truly,

Jack Milner