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

Mon Apr 21 20:21:09 PDT 2008

Jack, this is excellent! Thank you very much.

Joyce Welke Guasch

-----Original Message-----
From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of Jack
Milner
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 8:50 AM
To: Ger-Poland-Volhynia List
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Why Did They Leave?

  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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------

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

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