Volhynian Czechs
Volhynienschechen is the name of a minority of ethnic Czechs in Volhynia . They settled in western Ukraine since the beginning of industrialization from 1868 and brought the hops into the country. In 1945 they were largely repatriated to Czechoslovakia .
history
Between 1868 and 1880, around 16,000 Czechs were settled in Volhynia (in today's Ukraine ), in the border area between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire . While economic conditions in Bohemia were difficult, the Russian government was interested in attracting new workers; Based on an agreement that was signed on the occasion of the Slavs Congress in Moscow in 1867 , the tsarist government supported the settlements with various tax and financial incentives. The name Volhynientschechen became common for these Czechs .
According to the census in 1897 there were volhynian governorate 27,670, in Kiev Governorate 3,294 and the Russian Empire total of 50,385 Czech-speaking people. However, a more recent estimate assumes 90,000 Czechs at the beginning of the First World War . The Czechs in Volhynia settled in a total of 638 communities. Volhynian Czech places were, for example, České Noviny , Český Malín , Český Boratín and Český Straklov , some also lived in the capital Zhitomir (written in Czech Žitomír ). After the October Revolution of 1917, developments also affected the Volhyni Czechs: forced collectivization with all its negative consequences, cultural lack of freedom, political persecution (there were several trials against Czech teachers, etc., some with death sentences).
During the Second World War, many Volhyni Czechs (around 10,500) volunteered to join the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade (later: 1st Czechoslovak Corps) within the Red Army and actively participated in the liberation of Czechoslovakia with high losses. During the German occupation of Ukraine , this minority was hit by massacres by German units and Ukrainian nationalists. Because their experiences with the Soviet regime were not positive either, most Czechs took the opportunity to return to what was then still democratic Czechoslovakia on the basis of an agreement between Beneš and Stalin of July 10, 1946. They were mainly settled in the regions of Bohemia and Moravia that were abandoned by the Sudeten Germans .
Although the Volhynian Czechs had fought for the liberation of Czechoslovakia, they became the target of new repression after the communist takeover in 1948 . Because they had already experienced the excesses of Stalinist oppression and the disadvantages of collectivization in the Soviet Union , they publicly warned against the establishment of agricultural cooperatives, for example. In March 1957 their association including the magazines was liquidated.
literature
- Češi na Volyni. Základní informace [Czechs in Volhynia. Basic information]. Online version
See also
Web links
- Homepage of the Association of the Volhynian Czechs in the Czech Republic (Czech) ( Memento from October 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Luděk Toman - rodopisné stránky [Luděk Toman - Genealogical Pages], online: www.toman.estranky.cz /stehovani na volyn ... (Czech), accessed on October 7, 2009
- ↑ www.scvp.cz/onas ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Czech), Retrieved Oct 7, 2009
- ↑ Results for Volhynia , results for Kiev , results for the empire as a whole
- ↑ Luděk Toman - rodopisné stránky [Luděk Toman - Genealogical Pages], online: www.toman.estranky.cz / sssr-kolektivizace ... (Czech), accessed on October 7, 2009
- ↑ Z naší krajanské historie [From our country team history] ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
