Czechs in Ukraine are ethnic

Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...

or their descendants that reside in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Particularly, Volhynian Czechs () settled mostly in the Volhynia Governorate of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, in the second half of the 19th century.

History

Between 1868 and 1880, almost 16,000 Czechs left

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

for the

. The reasons for their departure were the difficult living conditions in the Czech lands, and the rumors of prosperity in the Russian realm, where there was a large amount of unused agricultural land. After the collapse of the Polish

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

against Russian rule (Volhynia was part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

prior to the

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and Third Partition of Poland, carried out in 1793 and 1795, respectively), harsh reprisals against the

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

followed. The Russian government imposed taxes on Polish landed gentry or even confiscated Polish estates. The local government in the region attracted new immigrants with a number of advantages, such as the right to purchase their own land for low prices, and the establishment of manufacturing businesses. Also, they gave the migrants the right to national education, self-government and religious freedom. Immigrants were exempt for 20 years from tax, and exonerated from military duty. The bulk of the Czechs settled in the region of

Volhynia Volhynia or Volynia ( ; see #Names and etymology, below) is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between southeastern Poland, southwestern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, but in ...

. Some villages were set up in flat meadows, while others were located near existing Ukrainian villages. Local Czech names for the villages they lived in were formed from the original name of the village, which was supplemented with the word "Czech" (e.g. České Noviny, Český Malín, Český Boratín, Český Straklov, etc.) Apart from agriculture, Czech immigrants began to engage in other activities, such as industry, trade and crafts. The income for most ethnic Czechs had its foundations in the engineering, breweries, mills, cement plants, etc. In their communities, schools, churches, and libraries were founded, and because of this, cultural and social life flourished. Czech immigrants have made a major contribution to increasing the economic and cultural level in the built-up areas. Outside Volhynia, in 1905 the Czechs founded the village of Bohemka, nowadays part of the

Mykolaiv Oblast Mykolaiv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Mykolaivshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Mykolaiv. At the most recent estimate, the population ...

. After the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Volhynian Czechs fought as members of the Russian army in the so-called Czech League, which later became the birthplace of the Czech legions in Russia to come.

Interwar period

After the Soviet-Polish War, which ended in 1921 with the defeat of the Red Army, Volhynia was divided. The western half was recovered by

, while the eastern part became part of the newly established

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. While the Czech villages on the Polish side gradually renewed and modernized, the populations of the villages in Ukraine became victims of the violent national policy of the Soviet government. They limited Czech education, culture and religion. Many lost their property, and were violently forced out of their homes by

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to eme ...

s. Representatives mainly touched upon the Czech intelligentsia, but did not escape any component of the population. Many Volhynian Czechs were sentenced to death, or were virtually so in the

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

s – which happened to many minorities at the time. In 1938, a complete ban on teaching in or about the Czech language was issued. Volhynian Czechs were the largest group of the Czechs in interbellum Poland. One of their main centers was Kvasyliv. In the 1930s, as a result of Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts, Czechs also experienced trouble in Poland, where anti-Czech propaganda was distributed by the government. This resulted in the demands of the Polish population to liquidate Czech education, or to withdraw land from Czech peasants.

World War II

When the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland in 1939, the two parts of Volhynia were reunited. However, it was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1941. In July 1942, the first Czechoslovak Independent Field Battalion was formed. In 1943, the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Brigade was established, which numbered 3,517 soldiers. Volhynian men who fought in the ranks of the Red Army, but also those who were in Soviet captivity, reported themselves to these troops. Some of them even left to fight with Czech units in Western Europe, as many escaped Polish troops did as well. The situation of Volhynian Czechs living in villages under the German occupation administration did not change much. The Soviet violence was replaced by violence of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization, but especially that of the SS, who burned several villages and massacred the local population. On July 13, 1943, the Germans burned village of Český Malín to the ground, with people including the elderly, women and children being burned alive in the buildings. In total, there were 374 Czech citizens. In the autumn of the same year, the Nazis were murdered by another Czech village, Sergiyevka-Mikna. In March 1944 the Czechs to the resort Volyňských Rovno relocated to the First Czechoslovak Independent Brigade, which recruited former compatriots. 12,000 Volhynian Czechs entered the troops, including six hundred women. Thanks to this, the First Czechoslovak Army Corps, which had passed the battle route to Prague, became the brigade.

May 1945 and the following years

After the liberation of Czechoslovakia, the Volhynian Czechs who were members of the Czechoslovak brigades remained. After the war, the door of re-emigration for Volhynian Czechs to Czechoslovakia opened on the basis of an interstate agreement between the

Czechoslovak Republic Czechoslovak Republic (Czech and Slovak: ''Československá republika'', ČSR), was the official name of Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1939 and between 1945 and 1960. See: *First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) *Second Czechoslovak Republic ...

and the

. The first transport was welcomed in Žatec at the beginning of 1947, when Czechoslovakia began to come not only to those who lived in the USSR but also to those who returned from forced labor on the former territory of the Third Reich. In total, there were approximately 40,000 people. Most of them were settled in territories from which the

Sudeten Germans German Bohemians ( ; ), later known as Sudeten Germans ( ; ), were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part of Czechoslovakia. Before 1945, over three million German Bohemians constitute ...

had been expelled. Many Volhynian Czechs gave information about life in the Soviet Union, and warned about the setting up of kolkhozes, etc. After Czechoslovakia became a formally communist nation in 1948, Ukrainian Czech truth-sayers were persecuted. Some Volhynian Czechs remained in the Soviet Union even after the end of the Second World War. Of those who did not emigrate, a great majority were in inter-ethnic marriages - which thus did not allow them to leave. Mostly, they were women with ethnic Ukrainian husbands. Some others stayed of their own choice. During the Soviet era, they were one of the most affected groups by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986. At the end of the 1980s, ten thousand Czechs lived in Ukraine. At the beginning of the 90s Czechoslovakia invited these remaining Czechs to return to the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, which in 1993 almost 2,000 people did, and other people came to the Czech Republic in later years. As of today, Volhynian Czechs are still migrating. In 2014, after the Maidan revolution in Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea by Russia, some of the Volhynian Czechs from

Zhytomyr Oblast Zhytomyr Oblast (), also referred to as Zhytomyrshchyna (), is an Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northwestern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Zhytomyr. Its population is approximately H ...

expressed their interest in returning to their ancestral homeland.

References

External links

Sdružení Čechů z Volyně a jejich přátel

Volyňští Češi

Volyňští Češi na Krnovsku

NEŠPOROVÁ, Olga; Proměny religiozity volyňských Čechů; časopis Lidé města, 2005
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