Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn (Ukrainian: Волинь, Russian: Волы́нь, Polish: Wołyń, Lithuanian: Voluinė or Volynė, German: Wolhynien or Wolynien, Yiddish: װאָהלין, Vohlin) is a historic region in Western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come from the Proto-Slavic root *vol/vel- 'wet.'[1] The area has some of the oldest Slavic settlements in Europe. Part 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). 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.[2]
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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 and covered an area of 71,852.7 square kilometers. In the year of 1897 its population amounted to 2,989,482 souls (41.7 per square kilometer) and consisted of 73.7 percent Russians (predominantly Ukrainians), 13.2 percent Jews, 6.2 percent Poles, and 5.7 percent Germans.[3] 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.
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 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 war the Ukrainians exterminated a large part of the local Polish population (see Massacre of Poles in Volhynia). Ethnic Germans in these areas were expelled from these areas starting 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 (see Recovered Territories). Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Volhynia has been an integral part of Ukraine.
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