Volhynia

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"Wołyń" redirects here. For the Polish village, see Wołyń, Łódź Voivodeship.
"Volinia" redirects here. For the township of Cass County in the U.S. state of Michigan, see Volinia Township, Michigan.
Volhynia (Волинь)
Historical Region
Lutsk castle tower.jpg
Lubart's Castle (Lutsk) was the seat of the medieval princes of Volhynia.
Symbol
Countries Ukraine, Poland, Belarus
Regions West Ukraine, East Poland
Parts Volyn Oblast, Rivne Oblast, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ternopil Oblast, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Lublin Voivodeship, Brest Region
Landmark Pochayiv Lavra
Rivers Horyn River, Styr River, Prypiat River, Western Bug River
Highest point Povcha Upland
 - elevation 361 m (1,184 ft)
Lowest point Polesia
 - elevation 130 m (427 ft)
Volhynia (yellow) in modern Ukraine

Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn (Ukrainian: Волинь, Russian: Волы́нь, Volyn'; Polish: Wołyń, Lithuanian: Voluinė or Volynė; Czech: Volyň, German: Wolhynien or Wolynien, Yiddish: Volin װאָלין) is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe straddling Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The alternate name for the region is Lodomeria after the city of Volodymyr-Volynsky (Vo-Lodymer) that once was a political capital of the medieval Volhynian Principality.

Location and origin[edit]

Red cities (Chervien Grody)
Mezhyrich Abbey in Ostroh was endowed by the Ostrogski princes in the 15th century.
Olyka Castle

Geographically it is located in the Volhynian-Podolian Upland section of the vast East European Plain, between the rivers Prypyat and Western Bug. Relative to other historical regions, it is northeast of Galicia and to the northwest of Podolia, while to the west of Volhynia lies Lesser Poland. The borders of the region are not clearly defined and it often overlaps number of other regions among which are Polesia, Podlasie, and others.

Territories of historical Volhynia now form the Volyn, Rivne, and parts of Zhytomyr, Ternopil and Khmelnytskyi Oblasts of Ukraine, as well as parts of Poland (see Chełm). Major cities include Lutsk, Rivne, Kovel, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Kremenets (Ternopil Oblast), and Starokostiantyniv (Khmelnytskyi Oblast). Before the World War II, many Jewish shtetls (villages) like Trochenbrod and Lozisht were once an integral part of the region,[1] and were at one time, as all of Volhynia itself once was, part of the Pale of Settlement on Imperial Russia's southwesternmost border.[2]

According to some historians, the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River,[3] whose name may come from the Proto-Slavic root *vol/vel- 'wet.' In other version the city was located over 20 km (12 mi) to the west of Volodymyr-Volynskyi near the mouth of Huczwa River (pl:Huczwa) that falls into the Western Bug. The land was mentioned in works of the Arabian scholar Al-Masudi who denoted local tribe as "people of Valin". The first records could also be traced to the Ruthenian chronicles such as the Primary Chronicle which mentions a tribe of Dulebes, Buzhans, and Volhynians.

History[edit]

The ancient city of Halych first appears in history in 981 when taken over by Vladimir the Great of the Kievan Rus. Volhynia's early history coincides with that of the duchies or principalities of Halych and Volhynia. These two successor states of the Kievan Rus formed Halych-Volhynia between the 12th and the 14th centuries.

Pochayiv Lavra, the spiritual heart of the Orthodox in Volhynia.
Zymne Monastery
Kuznetsovsk and Rivne Nuclear Power Plant
Great Synagogue, Lutsk
Tarakaniv Fort near Dubno

After the disintegration of the Grand Duchy of Halych-Volhynia (also called Galich-Vladimir Rus) circa 1340, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania divided up the region between them, Poland taking Western Volhynia and Lithuania Eastern Volhynia (1352–1366). After 1569 Volhynia formed a province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period Poles and Jews settled in the area. The Roman and Greek Catholic churches became established in the province, and many Orthodox churches joined the later, so as to benefit from a more attractive legal status. Records of the first agricultural colonies of Mennonites date from 1783.

After the Third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 Volhynia became the Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire and covered an area of 71,852.7 square kilometers. This annexation changed greatly the religious make-up of the area, as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was forcibly liquidated by the Russian government, the ownership of all of its building being transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Many Roman Catholic church buildings were also given to the Russian Church, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutsk was suppressed on orders of Empress Catherine II.

In 1897, its population amounted to 2,989,482 people (41.7 per square kilometer) and consisted of 73.7 percent East Slavs (predominantly Ukrainians), 13.2 percent Jews, 6.2 percent Poles, and 5.7 percent Germans.[4] Most of the German settlers had immigrated from Congress Poland. A small number of Czech settlers also had arrived. Although economically the area was developing rather quickly, upon the eve of the First World War, it was still the most rural province in Western Russia.

An attempt was made to form the Ukrainian National Autonomy at the end of the First World War. The territory of Volhynia was split in half by a frontline just west of the city of Lutsk. Due to an invasion of Bolsheviks, the government of Ukraine was forced to retreat to Volhynia after the sack of Kiev. Military aid from the Central Powers set peace in the region and brought some degree of stability. Until the end of the war, the area saw a revival of Ukrainian culture after years of Russian oppression and the denial of Ukrainian culture existence. With the withdrawal of German troops the whole region was engulfed by a new wave of military actions from Poles and Russians. Ukraine was forced to fight on three fronts - Bolsheviks, Poles, and a Volunteer Army of Imperial Russia. There was fierce fighting.

In 1921, after the end of the Polish-Soviet war, the treaty known as the Peace of Riga divided the Volhynian Governorate between Poland and the Soviet Union. Poland took the larger part and established a Volhynian Voivodeship. Most of eastern Volhynian Governorate became part of the Ukrainian SSR, eventually splitting further into smaller districts. During that period a number of various national districts were formed within the Soviet Ukraine as part of cultural liberalization. The policies of Polonization in Poland led to formations of various resistance movements in West Ukraine and West Belarus including Volhynia.

From 1935 to 1938 as part of the dekulakization, the government of Soviet Union had deported number of nationals from Volhynia among which were the Poles of Eastern Volhynia (see Population transfer in the Soviet Union).

Following the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 and the subsequent invasion and division of Polish territories between the Reich and the USSR, the Polish part of Volhynia was occupied by the Soviet Union. In the course of the Nazi-Soviet population transfers which followed this German-Soviet reconciliation, most of the German minority population of Volhynia were transferred to Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. During the German invasion, tens of thousands of Polish people in Volhynia were massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Ethnic Germans in Volhynia were expelled from these areas in 1945.

Volhynia was annexed to Soviet Ukraine after the end of World War II. Most of the remaining ethnic Polish population were expelled to Poland in 1945. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Volhynia has been an integral part of Ukraine.

Important relics[edit]

Notable residents[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Michael Jones (2000). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge University Press. p. 770. ISBN 0-521-36290-3. 
  2. ^ Oreck, Alden. "Jewish Virtual Library-The Pale of Settlement". Jewish Virtual Library. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved July 10, 2013. 
  3. ^ E.M. Pospelov, Geograficheskie nazvaniya mira (Moscow, 1998), p. 104.
  4. ^ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. 6th edition, Vol. 20, Leipzig and Vienna 1909, pp. 744-745.

Literature[edit]

External links[edit]

Look up Volyn in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Volhynia.

Coordinates: 50°44′42.0″N 25°21′13.7″E / 50.745000°N 25.353806°E / 50.745000; 25.353806

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