Agrarian situation and resettlement of the German peasants of Volyn in the 1920s.

Abstract

In the mid-1920s, Ukrainian authorities began to carry out large-scale actions concerning the resettlement of the peasantry from agrarian overpopulated areas to the undeveloped Ukrainian and allied lands. Relocation of Germans, as well as tens of thousands of Ukrainians, Jews and Poles to new places of residence were connected with land hunger, residence in the border area, the provision of cultural-linguistic and other interests of national minorities. In this regard, the most appropriate way was considering resettlement teams on a national basis and relocating them to national administrative units or in places of compact residence of the respective ethnic groups.

In general, in the German colonies allocated 51930 hectares of land for land management. From 1927, 48370 hectares of land was allocated to the German agricultural population from the lands of the colonization fund, including: 4291 – in Melitopolskaya, 4682 – in the Zaporozhye district, where mostly were relocated Germans-colonists of Volyn.

To one courtyard, not less than 5 people with 3 working, 12 acres of land were allocated on the funds of the south of the republic and on the funds of Siberia for each person to 7 acres. After the final resettlement in the entire yard, settlers were issued a loan of up to 300 rubles to the yard on the funds of Ukraine and Siberia.

For a resettlement campaign, it was suggested, in the first place, to evict people from villages, colonies with "the most intricate land relations." Particular attention was paid to populated areas of the border zone, so that it was "sustainable not only in the political but also in economic terms". Land authorities of the border areas were recommended that they urgently conduct appropriate campaigning among the population in order to accelerate and intensify relocation to these territories.

Intensive land allocation led to the fact that almost all colonization land funds of Ukraine in 1927 were involved. Beginning in 1928, the resettlement of the "Excess" of the German agricultural population from the Ukrainian SSR was the largest in Union colonization funds.

The Government of the Republic adopted a 10-year plan for the settlement of the German peasantry in the All-Union colonization fund (until 1937). In accordance with this document, it was planned to relocate 19,000 Germans from the Volyn region to the Union funds.