thumb|325px|Volhyniathumb|325px|Lubart's Castle was the seat of the medieval princes of Volhynia.
Volhynia,
Volynia, or
Volyn (, , or
Wolynien, ; ) is a historic region in western
Ukraine located between the rivers
Prypiat and
Western Bug, to the north of
Galicia and
Podolia. The area has some of the oldest
Slavic settlements in Europe. Part of historical Volhynia now form the
Volyn,
Rivne, and parts of
Zhytomyr and
Ternopil Oblasts of
Ukraine, as well as parts of
Poland (see
Chełm). Other major cities include
Lutsk,
Kovel,
Kremenets,
Volodymyr-Volynskyi, and
Starokostiantyniv (
Khmelnytskyi Oblast). Many Jewish
shtetls (villages) like
Trochenbrod and
Lozisht were once an integral part of the region.
History
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
Volodymyr-Volynsky. These two successor states of the Kievan Rus formed
Halych-Volhynia between the 12th and the 14th centuries.
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 were forcibly annexed by the latter. Records of the first agricultural colonies of
Mennonites date from 1783.
After the
Third Partition of Poland in 1795 Volhynia became the
Volhynian Governorate of the
Russian Empire. By the end of the 19th century Volhynia had over 200,000
German settlers, most of whom immigrated from
Congress Poland. A small number of
Czech settlers also 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.
Mezhyrich Abbey in
Ostroh was endowed by the
Ostrogski princes in the 15th century.
In 1921, after the end of the
Polish-Soviet war, the treaty known as the
Peace of Riga divided Volhynia between Poland and the
Soviet Union. Poland took the larger part and established a
Volhynian Voivodeship. Most of eastern Volhynia became part of the
Zhytomyr Oblast.
From 1935-38
Joseph Stalin had the Poles of Eastern Volhynia deported — the first ethnic deportation in the history of the Soviet Union (see
Polish minority in 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, Volhynia was annexed 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 transfered to
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. The Nazi authorities later
evacuated them.
In March 1943, the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army launched an ethnic cleansing operation against the ethnic Polish population that lasted until the end of 1944. Estimates of the number of Polish casualties in Volhynia during this period range from 50,000 to 60,000 people.
Volhynia remained a part of the Soviet Ukraine after the end of World War II. Most of the remaining ethnic Polish population were expatriated to Poland in 1945 (see
Recovered Territories). Since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Volhynia has been an integral part of Ukraine.
See also
