Thorsell, Elisabeth

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Swedish American Genealogist Volume 37 Number 4 Article 5 12-1-2017 Gammalsvenskby? What is that? Where is that? Elisabeth Thorsell Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag  Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Thorsell, Elisabeth (2017) "Gammalsvenskby? What is that? Where is that?," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 37 : No. 4 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol37/iss4/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@augustana.edu. 7Swedish American Genealogist 2017:4Gammalsvenskby? What is that? Where is that?An almost forgotten Swedish settlement in Eastern EuropeOutside mainland Estonia there are severalislands that have had a Swedish-speakingpopulation since at least the late 1200s. Atthat time, according to a fairly new theory,many Swedes from the island of Ölandmoved across the Baltic and settled on thebig islands there. In the 1500s Sweden tookover as the rulers of nowadays Estonia,Latvia, and Lithuania, but lost the Balticprovinces to Russia after the Great NordicWar in the Peace Treaty of Nystad 1721.The origin ofGammalsvenskbyThe population of Gammalsvenskby tracesits origins to Dagö (Hiiumaa)  in present-day Estonia, once a part of the Duchy ofEstonia.The part of the peasant population whowere in conflict with the local aristocracypetitioned the Russian Empress to acceptthem as their subjects. Empress Catherinethe Great (II) of Russia accepted the peti-tion under the condition that the peasantsresettle in the newly conquered territoriesfrom the Ottoman Empire that were namedNew Russia (today in southern Ukraine.)Enticed by promises of new fertile land,they trekked overland to southern Ukraine,as colonists for the new territories. Whilesome sources call the Estonian Swedes'migration an outright expulsion from theirBaltic homeland, other accounts stress thefact that these poor and oppressed serffarmers were given what may have seemedlike a generous offer. They named their newsettlement as Gammalsvenskby, whichmeans “Old Swedish Village”.Regardless of the impetus, the outcomeof this mass migration was, however,disastrous. Almost half of the nearly 1,000villagers died on the march to their newhome which they were required to get toon their own resources.On arrival, there was no trace of thehouses they had expected to find. More-over, in their first year in Ukraine, an evenlarger portion of the settlers died. Ac-cording to the records of the Swedishcongregation, of the original thousand whohad set out for Ukraine 18 months earlier,From 1803 to 1805, German colonistsfounded three neighboring villages:Schlangendorf, Mühlhausendorf andKlosterdorf. As a consequence of the laterarrival of the Germans and their own loss-es during the migration, the Swedes weresoon outnumbered by the German new-comers. As a result, in later years many ofthe pastors and teachers serving the areawere German. Combined with a growingshortage of arable land, this strained rela-tions between Gammalsvenskby's Swedesand the nearby German population.The people of Gammalsvenskby main-tained their traditions, their Lutheran(Church of Sweden) faith, and their oldSwedish dialect.At the end of the 19th century, some tieswith Sweden were re-established. Con-siderable funds were raised in Sweden andFinland to build a new Swedish church (aprevious wooden church given by PrincePotemkin burned in the mid-19th century).The resulting parish church of St. John wasconsecrated in 1885. For a time before therevolutions following World War I, visitsfrom Sweden became frequent, and somevillagers subscribed to Swedish news-papers.After World War IWorld War I cut the communicationchannels with Sweden. After the RussianCivil War, the Government of Sweden,worrying about the fate of its compatriots,in 1921 petitioned to Moscow to allow resi-dents of Schwedendorf to leave for theirhistorical homeland. This movement wasalso supported by Archbishop Nathan Sö-derblom. The Kremlin decided to negotiatethe terms. However, the Ukrainian Swedeswho already adopted to the Kherson Re-gion started to grumble against it, becausein Ukraine they owned their houses, land,and farms. Emissaries were sent fromStockholm to Gammalsvenskby to con-only 135 people remained alive by March1783.Maintaining the Swedishheritagevince the compatriots to leave the unstableUkraine. Negotiations with the Bolshevikregime and the Ukrainian Swedes stretchedfor almost eight years. In 1929, Moscowallowed for the Gammalsvenskby residentsto leave, but under the condition that theyonly take what they could pack on a passen-ger train. On 1 August 1929, Swedes leftthe Kherson area and around 900 villagersarrived in Sweden. They were received byPrince Carl, Duke of Västergötland in arestaurant. Only a handful had opted toremain in Gammalsvenskby. Nearly ahundred soon moved on to Canada, a coun-try to which earlier emigrants from Gam-malsvenskby had gone. Most of these set-tled in Manitoba; some later returned toSwe-den.The majority of the villagers stayed inSweden, many of them settling in Gotland.Despite their common origins, they werenot allowed to stay in a single, commonsettlement. Considered immigrants in acountry in the middle of a severe economiccrisis, they were sometimes met withhostility. About 250 inhabitants stayed intheir home village.World War II and afterThose years were very difficult for the area,with Germans and Soviets fighting, andpeople were deported to Siberia and otherplaces, and many disappeared.Gammalsvenskby todayThe village has been renamed and is nowcalled Verbivka (Willow-village).After the fall of the Soviet Union,contacts with Sweden and Canada were re-established, and the Church of Sweden andGotland Municipality lent economic sup-port. Today, the village has only around108 people who share a Swedish culturalheritage. Only a few of them still speak theOld-Swedish dialect fluently.King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia camefor a visit in 2008.Church records from Gammalsvenskbyare found at Arkiv Digital.Elisabeth Thorsell(with some help from Wikipedia.)

Gammalsvenskby? What is that? Where is that?

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Gammalsvenskby? What is that? Where is that?

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