# Czechs in Ukraine > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Czechs_in_Ukraine > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Czechs_in_Ukraine.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechs_in_Ukraine > Source revision: 1339815254 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Czechs in Ukraine" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Ethnic group Czechs in Ukraine Czech chapel in Bohemka, built in 1996 Total population 5,917 (2001)[1]-11,000 Regions with significant populations Zhytomyr, Lutsk Languages Czech, Ukrainian, Russian Religion Irreligion (majority) · Roman Catholic (minority) Related ethnic groups Slovaks in Ukraine **Czechs in Ukraine** are ethnic [Czechs](/source/Czechs) or their descendants that reside in [Ukraine](/source/Ukraine). Particularly, Volhynian Czechs ([Czech](/source/Czech_language): *Volyňští Češi*) settled mostly in the [Volhynia Governorate](/source/Volhynia_Governorate) of the [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire), in the second half of the 19th century. ## History Between 1868 and 1880, almost 16,000 Czechs left [Austria-Hungary](/source/Austria-Hungary) for the [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire). 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](/source/January_Uprising) against Russian rule (Volhynia was part of [Poland](/source/Crown_of_the_Kingdom_of_Poland) prior to the [Second](/source/Second_Partition_of_Poland) and [Third Partition of Poland](/source/Third_Partition_of_Poland), carried out in 1793 and 1795, respectively), harsh reprisals against the [Poles](/source/Polish_people) followed. The Russian government imposed taxes on [Polish landed gentry](/source/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](/source/Volhynia). 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. Memorial for the dead of the [Czechoslovak Legion](/source/Czechoslovak_Legion) in the [battle of Zborov](/source/Battle_of_Zborov_(1917)) (1917) in [Kalynivka](/source/Kalynivka%2C_Ternopil_Oblast) Outside Volhynia, in 1905 the Czechs founded the village of [Bohemka](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bohemka&action=edit&redlink=1), nowadays part of the [Mykolaiv Oblast](/source/Mykolaiv_Oblast). After the outbreak of [World War I](/source/World_War_I), Volhynian Czechs fought as members of the Russian army in the so-called [Czech League](/source/Czechoslovak_Legion), which later became the birthplace of the Czech legions in Russia to come.[2] ### Interwar period   [Volhynia](/source/Volhynia) in 1939 After the [Soviet-Polish War](/source/Soviet-Polish_War), which ended in 1921 with the defeat of the Red Army, Volhynia was divided. The western half was recovered by [Poland](/source/Second_Polish_Republic), while the eastern part became part of the newly established [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union). 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 [kolkhozs](/source/Kolkhoz). 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 [gulags](/source/Gulag) – 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](/source/Czechs_in_Poland). One of their main centers was [Kvasyliv](/source/Kvasyliv). In the 1930s, as a result of [Polish–Czechoslovak border conflicts](/source/Polish%E2%80%93Czechoslovak_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](/source/Nazi_Germany) 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](/source/1st_Czechoslovak_Army_Corps_in_the_USSR), which had passed the battle route to Prague, became the brigade. ### May 1945 and the following years [Jan Hus](/source/Jan_Hus) memorial stone in the village of Bohemka (2015) 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](/source/Third_Czechoslovak_Republic) and the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union). The first transport was welcomed in [Žatec](/source/%C5%BDatec) 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](/source/Sudeten_Germans) had been [expelled](/source/Expulsion_of_Germans_from_Czechoslovakia). 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](/source/Ukrainians) 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](/source/Czech_Republic), 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](/source/Revolution_of_Dignity) in Ukraine and the [occupation of Crimea](/source/Russian_occupation_of_Crimea) by Russia, some of the Volhynian Czechs from [Zhytomyr Oblast](/source/Zhytomyr_Oblast) expressed their interest in returning to their ancestral homeland. ## See also - [Czech Republic portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Czech_Republic) - [Ukraine portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Ukraine) - [Czech Republic–Ukraine relations](/source/Czech_Republic%E2%80%93Ukraine_relations) - [Czech diaspora](/source/Czech_diaspora) - [Ethnic groups in Ukraine](/source/Ethnic_groups_in_Ukraine) - [Ukrainians in the Czech Republic](/source/Ukrainians_in_the_Czech_Republic) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001 | English version | Results | Nationality and citizenship | The distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue | Selection:"](http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/nationality_population/nationality_1/s5/?botton=cens_db&box=5.1W&k_t=00&p=120&rz=1_1&rz_b=2_1%20%20&n_page=7). 2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua. Retrieved 2022-08-16. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Preclík, Vratislav (2019). *Masaryk a legie* (in Czech). Paris Karviná in association with the Masaryk Democratic Movement, Prague. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-80-87173-47-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-80-87173-47-3). ## External links - [Sdružení Čechů z Volyně a jejich přátel](http://www.scvp.eu/) - [Volyňští Češi](http://www.toman.estranky.cz/clanky/volynsti-cesi) - [Volyňští Češi a jejich osudy v dějinách Evropy](https://web.archive.org/web/20071018024632/http://web.sks.cz/prace/stenicko/stenicko_reserse.htm) - [Volyňští Češi na Krnovsku](https://archive.today/20130502060420/http://bruntal.net/view.php?cisloclanku=2005051301) - [NEŠPOROVÁ, Olga; Proměny religiozity volyňských Čechů; časopis Lidé města, 2005](http://lidemesta.cz/index.php?id=316) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20170927052932/http://lidemesta.cz/index.php?id=316) 2017-09-27 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) v t e Czech diaspora Asia Israel Americas Argentina Brazil Canada Mexico United States Baltimore Nebraska South Dakota Texas Venezuela Europe Austria Vienna Bulgaria Croatia France Germany Italy Poland Romania Serbia Ukraine United Kingdom Oceania Australia New Zealand v t e Ethnic and national minorities of Ukraine Dominant group Ukrainians Over 50,000 Crimean Tatars Russians Rusyns Boykos Hutsuls Lemkos Belarusians Bulgarians Hungarians Romanians Moldovans Poles Jews Armenians Greeks Tatars Under 50,000 Roma Azerbaijanis Georgians Czechs Germans Black Sea Bessarabia Crimea Mennonites Galicia Holenders Transcarpathia Gagauz Koreans Turks under 5,000 Serbs Albanians Karaites Krymchaks Kurds Swedes historical Ruthenians Polish–Lithuanian identity Gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus Little Russian identity Soviet people National or ethnic groups in Ukraine of over 1,000 people are shown. [Portals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents/Portals): - [Czech Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Czech_Republic) - [Ukraine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Ukraine) Authority control databases: National Czech Republic 2 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Czechs in Ukraine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechs_in_Ukraine) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechs_in_Ukraine?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.