Gammalsvenskby
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Gammalsvenskby ( sv, Gammölsvänskbi, label= Gammalsvenska, lit=Old Swedish Village; uk, Старошведське, translit=Staroshvedske; german: Alt-Schwedendorf) is a former village that is now a neighbourhood of Zmiivka ( uk, Зміївка, links=no) in Beryslav Raion of
Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast ( uk, Херсо́нська о́бласть, translit=Khersónsʹka óblastʹ, ), also known as Khersonshchyna ( uk, Херсо́нщина, ), is an oblast (province) in southern Ukraine, currently claimed and partly occupied ...
, Ukraine. It was briefly known as Verbivka ( uk, Вербівка, links=no) prior to being integrated with Zmiivka. Gammalsvenskby is known for its imperial
Estonian Swedish Estonian Swedish ( sv, estlandssvenska; et, rannarootsi keel, lit=Coastal Swedish) are the eastern varieties of Swedish that were spoken in the formerly Swedish-populated areas of Estonia (locally known as ''Aiboland'') on the islands of Orms ...
cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...
. Zmiyivka also includes three former villages settled by ethnic Germans: The Lutheran villages of Schlangendorf and Mühlhausendorf and the Roman Catholic village of Klosterdorf. In the nineteenth century, the whole region, and large parts of southern Russia, contained villages settled by Germans belonging to various Protestant faiths, particularly Lutherans and Mennonites, as well as
Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. The
Askania-Nova Askania-Nova ( uk, Асканія-Нова) is a Ukrainian nature reserve located in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, within the dry Taurida steppe near Oleshky Sands and active member of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. It is also a resea ...
biosphere reserve is located near the village. In March 2022, Russian military forces reached Gammalsvenskby as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The village remained occupied until November 11, 2022, when it was reclaimed by the Ukrainian army.


Resettlement of Estonian Swedes and founding of Gammalsvenskby

The population of Gammalsvenskby traces its origins to Hiiumaa (Dagö) in present-day Estonia, once a part of the Duchy of Estonia. Under the Treaty of Nystad, the island was among the territory ceded to the Russian Empire in 1721 at the end of the Great Northern War. A few decades later, a portion of the peasant population in conflict with the local aristocracy, answered
Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
's 1762 '' ukase'' calling for settlers in Novorossiya on territory newly conquered from the Ottoman Empire; today this land is in
Southern Ukraine Southern Ukraine ( uk, південна Україна, translit=pivdenna Ukrayina) or south Ukraine refers, generally, to the oblasts in the south of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern E ...
. Enticed by promises of new fertile land along the Dnieper, about 1,200 people departed Dagö on August 20, 1780, and trekked overland to Novorossiya, arriving on May 1, 1781. Only about 400 Swedes remained behind in Dagö. While some sources call the Estonian Swedes' migration an outright expulsion from their Estonian homeland, other accounts stress the fact that these poor and oppressed
serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
s were given what may have seemed like a generous offer. Regardless of the impetus, the outcome of this mass migration was disastrous. Of the 1,200 villagers who left Estonia, only 900 made it to Novorossiya. On arrival, there was no trace of the houses they had expected to find. Moreover, during their first year in Ukraine, an even larger portion of the settlers died, mainly due to dysentery. That first year, 318 died along with another 116 the following year. By 1794, only 224 people remained in Gammalsvenskby. In 1802, the Russian government ordered all male Swedes to marry by the age of 30 in an effort to boost the population.


Maintaining the Swedish heritage

From 1787 to 1805, German colonists were invited to Gammalsvenskby to bolster the region's population. The Germans referred to the area as the "" (''Swedish District'') and the village as "Alt-Schwedendorf". They soon founded three neighbouring villages: Schlangendorf, Mühlhausendorf, and Klosterdorf. With the arrival of these Germans, the Swedes were quickly outnumbered and eventually many of the area's pastors and teachers were German-speakers who did not know Swedish. Although the Swedes did not make full use of the arable land they had been allocated — they focused their industry more on fishing than farming — the reallocation of farm land to the German newcomers strained relations between Gammalsvenskby's Swedes and their German neighbors, although intermarriage between the communities did occur, as is evidenced by parish register entries for weddings in both communities' churches. While the Swedes and Germans were sometimes rivals, they were never enemies and the two communities cooperated when times were bad. Despite this, the people of Gammalsvenskby maintained their traditions, Church of Sweden Lutheran faith, and old Swedish dialect. At the end of the 19th century, some ties with Sweden were re-established, with the Ukrainian Swedes viewed as a "lost tribe" that preserved older Swedish traditions, such as writing in
runes Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...
and maintaining an older form of the Church of Sweden's liturgy. Prince Carl raised more than 6,000 rubles in Sweden and Finland to support construction of a new Swedish church in the village to replace the previous wooden church given by
Prince Potemkin Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (, also , ;, rus, Князь Григо́рий Алекса́ндрович Потёмкин-Таври́ческий, Knjaz' Grigórij Aleksándrovich Potjómkin-Tavrícheskij, ɡrʲɪˈɡ ...
that burned in the mid-19th century. The new parish church of St. John opened in 1885. For a time, before the revolutions that followed World War I, visits from Sweden became frequent, and some villagers subscribed to Swedish newspapers. Despite this, there were efforts by Russia to better integrate the Ukrainian Swedes with the Russian Empire. The original settlement plans exempted Ukrainian Swedes from conscription into the tsar's army, but this changed by the end of the 1800s and 130 men from Gammalsvenskby were inducted into the Russian army during World War I.


Relocation attempt to Sweden

During the Russian Civil War, Gammalsvenskby was largely held by the Red Army, although the village did come under artillery fire from the White Army under General Anton Denikin. After fighting moved away from the villages in 1921, villagers sought aid from Sweden, including writing to
Archbishop of Uppsala The Archbishop of Uppsala (spelled Upsala until the early 20th century) has been the primate (bishop), primate of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward un ...
Nathan Söderblom. In 1922, the Swedish Red Cross led an expedition to Gammalsvenskby to provide aid and guidance in developing the region and its farmland. Under this plan, two new Swedish villages, Nysvenskby ("New Swedish Village") and Svenskåker ("Swedish Field"), were established in part to preserve their right to the land. The neighboring German villages similarly established additional outposts, Friedenheim and Neuklosterdorf. Conflicts with Soviet authorities over taxation, collectivization policies, and the right to maintain their Lutheran faith increased the efforts by some villagers to seek return to Sweden. On September 1, 1927, 136 farmers from the village petitioned "the people of Sweden, Finland, and America" for aid to reunite them with their fellow Swedes. These efforts were not immediately embraced by Sweden's representative to Moscow, , who urged caution. On June 28, 1928, 429 villagers voted to emigrate back to Sweden under the
Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia The Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia (russian: Деклара́ция прав наро́дов Росси́и) was a document promulgated by the Bolshevik government of Russia on November 15 (November 2 by Old Style), 1917 (sig ...
's support for ethnic self-determination. At this time, pressure in Sweden to allow the return of the people from Gammalsvenskby increased, and on February 22, 1929, the
Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
approved their right to come to Sweden. By June 1929, the Soviet government reached an agreement with the Swedes regarding disposition of their property in Ukraine and passport fees, and most of the people of Gammalsvenskby began preparing to leave. The villagers could only take with them what could be packed on a passenger train. On July 22, 1929, the Swedes of Gammalsvenskby who had received an exit permit were brought downriver to
Kherson Kherson (, ) is a port city of Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers appr ...
on two steamers. From there, the Swedish Red Cross brought them on the cargo ship ''Firuzan'' to
Constanța Constanța (, ; ; rup, Custantsa; bg, Кюстенджа, Kyustendzha, or bg, Констанца, Konstantsa, label=none; el, Κωνστάντζα, Kōnstántza, or el, Κωνστάντια, Kōnstántia, label=none; tr, Köstence), histo ...
, Romania, where the overland journey began. They travelled by train through Hungary and Austria to Germany, passing through Sinaia, Brașov,
Lőkösháza Lőkösháza () is a village in Békés County, in the Southern Great Plain region of southeast Hungary. Geography It covers an area of and has a population of 1804 (2015). An important railway line crosses the Hungarian-Romanian border here (t ...
, Budapest, Vienna,
Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...
, and
Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, Neub ...
on the way to Sassnitz. From there, they took the ferry across the Baltic Sea to Sweden. On August 1, 1929, 885 Ukrainian Swedes arrived in Trelleborg, Sweden, where they were received by Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. Of those who opted to remain in Gammalsvenskby, 19 families (94 people) soon moved on to Manitoba, Canada, where earlier emigrants from Gammalsvenskby had settled. Six of these families later returned to Sweden. The majority of the villagers stayed in Sweden, many of them settling in
Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...
, as well as in Västergötland and
Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized fo ...
. In an effort to integrate these "ancient Swedes" with modern Sweden, officials did not allow them to stay in a single, common settlement. Instead, the government took a very paternalistic approach towards the Gammalsvenskby emigrants, requiring them to apprentice with established farmers to learn Swedish agricultural practices. About four months after arriving in Sweden, some emigrants requested to return to Ukraine. Peter Knutas and Waldemar Utas wrote to the Ukrainian SSR that the move to Sweden was a thoughtless step and sought permission for three families to return to Ukraine. Some emigrants also joined the
Communist Party of Sweden The name Communist Party of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti, link=no, abbreviated SKP) has been used by several political parties in Sweden: * Left Party (Sweden), known as the Communist Party of Sweden from 1921 to 1967 ** Communist Part ...
in hope of reflecting their loyalty to Soviet authorities. The movement of Ukrainian Swedes — both to Sweden and then back to the Ukrainian SSR — was used for propaganda purposes by both anti-Soviet and pro-Soviet media.


Soviet repression, Holodomor, and World War II

In total, around 250 villagers chose to return to Gammalsvenskby. With the support of the Communist Party of Sweden, they established a minor
collective farm Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member ...
called ''Röd Svenskby'' (Red Swedish Village). Life in the Soviet Union turned out to be hard. In 1929, the church in Gammalsvenskby was closed by the Soviet government. The famine of 1932–1933 renewed interest in the idea of returning to Sweden, and some villagers signed a list stating that they wanted to leave the country. This led to the arrest of 20 people by the secret police, the GPU. Five of them were sent to prison. Several villagers were killed in the
Stalinist purge Purges of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union (russian: "Чистка партийных рядов", ', "cleansing of the party ranks") were Soviet political events, especially during the 1920s, in which periodic reviews of members of the Co ...
of the following years. In the 1930s, the majority of the 3,500 Scandinavian descendants living in the
Southern Ukraine Southern Ukraine ( uk, південна Україна, translit=pivdenna Ukrayina) or south Ukraine refers, generally, to the oblasts in the south of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern E ...
were accused of spying and sent with their families to ''
katorga Katorga ( rus, ка́торга, p=ˈkatərɡə; from medieval and modern Greek: ''katergon, κάτεργον'', "galley") was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoner ...
'' in Siberia and
Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...
. With the
Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II, the Second World War. The operation, code ...
, the
German army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
arrived in Gammalsvenskby on August 25, 1941, where the soldiers were welcomed as liberators. During the Nazis's three-year occupation, they granted the Swedish Ukrainians German citizenship and many of the men from Gammalsvenskby joined the German forces — both voluntarily and through conscription. As Soviet troops advanced in October 1943, Swedes and Germans were removed from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine under Germany's evacuation plans. Many evacuees from Gammalsvenskby ended up in Krotoschyn, in the German Warthegau that had been annexed from Poland. Nearly 150 residents of Gammalsvenskby were caught by Soviet authorities at the end of the war and sent to
labor camps A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (espec ...
, but were allowed to return to Ukraine as early as 1947. Others managed to go to Sweden or directly back to Gammalsvenskby. In 1947, under a Soviet policy to remove Germanic place names, Schlangendorf became ''Zmiivka'', Mühlhausendorf became ''Mykhailivka'', and Klosterdorf became ''Kostirka''. Gammalsvenskby was renamed ''Verbivka''. In 1951, after the exchange of territories by Poland and the Soviet Union, around 2,500 people were relocated to the area from the Drohobych Oblast villages of Lodyna, Dolyshni Berehy, and Naniv. Due to the resulting increase in population, the four villages were united under the name Zmiivka. With this migration, Zmiivka became home to the largest
Boykos The Boykos ( uk, Бойки, Boiky; pl, Bojkowie; sk, Pujďáci), or simply Highlanders (верховинці, ''verkhovyntsi''), are an ethnolinguistic sub-group of Ukrainians located in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, ...
(Ukrainian Highlander) diaspora in Kherson Oblast, making up nearly 80% of the villagers. The newly relocated populace was officially prohibited from celebrating their traditional holidays, such as Vertep during Christmas. To make matters worse, the locals among whom they were settled considered the newcomers to be anti-Soviet nationalists. In 1955 a dam was constructed on the Dnieper, creating the Kakhovka Reservoir. This submerged part of the village along with several islands and fishing waters.


Gammalsvenskby today

Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, contacts with Sweden and Canada were re-established, and in the 1990s the Church of Sweden, Gotland Municipality, and other Swedish organizations lent economic support and led relief efforts.
Chumak Chumak ( uk , чумак) was a historical and traditional wagon-based trading occupation in the territory of modern Ukraine in the late Medieval and early Modern periods of history.Proskurova, S. Chumak-occupation (ЧУМАЦТВО)'. Encyc ...
, a Swedish-owned producer of oil, ketchup and canned food, was established in the nearby town of Kakhovka. In 2008, King
Carl XVI Gustaf Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973. He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Du ...
and Queen
Silvia Silvia () is a female given name of Latin origin, with a male equivalent Silvio and English-language cognate Sylvia. The name originates from the Latin word for forest, ''Silva'', and its meaning is "spirit of the wood"; the mythological god of ...
visited Zmiivka and Gammalsvenskby as part of a
state visit A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country, at the invitation of the head of state of that foreign country, with the latter also acting as the official host for the duration of the state visit. Speaking for the host ...
to Ukraine. , the village had only around 108 people who share a Swedish cultural heritage. Only a few of them still speak the local Swedish dialect fluently and German is often used instead. However, the Swedish heritage is reflected in Zmiivka's emblem, which incorporates the Swedish national symbol (the Tre Kronor), as well as a blue cross on a yellow field, which inverses the
Swedish flag The national flag of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges flagga) consists of a yellow or gold Nordic cross (i.e. a horizontal cross extending to the edges, with the crossbar closer to the hoist than the fly) on a field of light blue. The Nordic cross design t ...
's colors. On April 15, 2001, Gotland signed a sister city agreement with the village. Tourism from Sweden remains an important aspect of the village's economy and an impetus for preservation of the Gammalsvenska dialect. The whole of Beryslav Raion is now heavily Ukrainianized due to the resettlement of many people from western Ukraine in the region, including to the local villages of , , and .


2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

During the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
, Gammalsvenskby was occupied by Russian troops, who later destroyed a monument dedicated to Ukrainian independence in the village. During the
2022 annexation referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine In late September 2022, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian-installed officials in Ukraine staged referendums on the annexation of occupied territories of Ukraine by Russia. They were widely described as sham referendum ...
, the Russian occupiers shut off the internet and mobile communications in the village, and the population of Gammalsvenskby refused to take part in the balloting. People reportedly locked themselves in their homes, refusing to open their doors, although some people did manage to vote no. During the
2022 Ukrainian southern counteroffensive A military counteroffensive was launched by Ukraine on 29 August 2022 to expel Russian forces occupying the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts. Military analysts consider the counteroffensive to be the third strategic phase of th ...
, the village was about southeast of the frontlines, and it was reported that the population was hoping for liberation by Ukrainian forces. The village was liberated by the Ukrainian army on November 11, 2022, following Russian troops' withdrawal to the left (east) bank of the Dnipro.


Gammalsvenska dialect


See also

* Estonian Swedes *
Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast ( uk, Херсо́нська о́бласть, translit=Khersónsʹka óblastʹ, ), also known as Khersonshchyna ( uk, Херсо́нщина, ), is an oblast (province) in southern Ukraine, currently claimed and partly occupied ...
* Oleksandr Khvylia * Black Sea Germans * Swedes of Gammalsvenskby


References


External links and further reading


The Svenskbyborna Society in Sweden

Svenskbymuséet museum
in Roma, Gotland
History of Gammalsvenskby
* * * * * * {{Authority control Neighbourhoods in Ukraine Beryslav Raion Sweden–Ukraine relations Cultural history of Sweden Gotland Estonian diaspora 1780s establishments in Ukraine 1780s establishments in Europe Merged settlements in Ukraine Kherson Governorate