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(43,138 posts) Sat Mar 19, 2022, 05:39 AM Mar 2022

Why is there a Swedish-speaking village in rural Ukraine?

The village of Gammalsvenskby or "Old Swedish Town" in southern Ukraine is in Swedish news following reports that it is currently surrounded by Russian troops. But why is it there in the first place?

https://www.thelocal.se/20220317/why-is-there-a-swedish-speaking-village-in-rural-ukraine/

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia visit Gammalsvenskby on a state visit to Ukraine in 2008. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT/Scanpix

The history of Gammalsvenskby – or Gammölsvänskbi in the local dialect – can be traced back to the end of the Great Northern War. In 1721, this war between Sweden and Russia which marks the end of Sweden’s time as a great European power. It is referred to in Swedish as stormaktstiden or “the period of great power”, and it ended with Sweden losing a great deal of territory in the Baltic region to Russia, including swathes of land in present-day Latvia, Estonia and Russia.

One of these losses was the island of Hiiumaa (known as Dagö or “Day Island” in Swedish) in present-day Estonia. This island, having been part of Swedish-speaking Estonia since 1563, had a sizeable Swedish-speaking population, who were resettled by Imperialist Russia in 1780 to what was then referred to as Novorussiya, an area of former Russian territory which became part of Ukraine in 1918.

These resettlers – as many as 1,200 – trekked from Hiiumaa in Estonia to the banks of the Dnieper river in southern Ukraine in a journey taking nine months. At least a quarter of them died on the way, and many more were wiped out by dysentery in their first year in Ukraine. By 1794 – just fourteen years after relocating – only 224 people remained in Gammalsvenskby.

However, Gammalsvenskby’s population slowly increased in the following years, partly due to the arrival of Black Sea Germans, ethnic Germans who were encouraged to settle on the north coast of the Black Sea by Alexander I of Russia in the late 18th and early 19th century. In German, this area of Ukraine was referred to as Schwedengebiet or “Sweden District”.

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