Volyn Oblast
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| Volyns'ka Oblast Волинська область | |
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| Missing image Map_of_Ukraine_political_simple_Oblast_Wolhynien.png Location of Volyn oblast | |
| Missing image Volyn_oblast_detail_map.png Detailed map of Volyn Oblast | |
| Population Total (2004) Density | 1,047,169 52/km² |
| Area | 20,200 km² |
| Raions | 16 |
| Cities | 11 |
| City districts | - |
| Urban localities | 22 |
| Villages | 1,053 |
Volyn Oblast or Volhynia (Волинська область, Volyns’ka oblast’ or Волинь, Volyn’ in Ukrainian) is the most north-western oblast (province) of Ukraine, bordering Belarus to the north and Poland to the west. The capital of the oblast is Luts'k (Łuck). Kovel (Kowel) is the westernmost town and the last station in Ukraine of the rail line running from Warsaw through to Kyiv.
History of Volyn region
See also: Volhynia
Volyn was once part of Kyivan Rus before becoming an independent local principality and an integral part of the early Ukrainian state of Halych-Volynia. In the 1400s, the area came under the control of neighboring Lithuania, in 1569 passing over to Poland and then in 1795, until World War I, the Russian Empire where it was called the Volynskaya Guberniya.
In Krzemieniec there was a Polish language post-secondary school named Liceum Krzemienieckie. It was closed by the Russian government in 1830. In this province communities of Ukrainians (Greek Catholic and Orthodox), Jews, Poles (Roman Catholics) as well as smaller groups of Czechs and Germans lived together in a peaceful manner.
After World War I, the area was assigned to Poland as the Wolhynian Voivodship. In contract to the situation in the Eastern Galicia, the Polish government actively promoted Ukrainian organizations. However, in the course of converting the large latifundia estates owned by Polish nobles into farms former soldiers, mostly ethnic Poles, had priority. This was the key factor in dissatisfaction of the Ukrainian population, despite the fact, that Polish rule saved them from Soviet atrocities, including Soviet collectivization.
During World War II, Volyn was invaded by the Soviet Union and annexed subsequently to Nazi-Soviet pact. As in other Polish provinces the Soviets massacred retired Polish officers and the Polish intelligentsia and then followed waves of deportations to the eastern part of Soviet Union, mostly of Poles. Before the Nazi capture of the province, Soviets also massacred people waiting for deportation (see: prisoners massacre).
The Nazis completed their "holocaust" of the Jews of Volhynia in late 1942. Unlike Poles that were treated as enemies the Nazis had an ambivalent feeling towards Ukrainian guerillas who were known as UPA, Ukrainska Povstanska Armia (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) which was started in this region and then spread to other regions of Ukraine. The UPA fought sporadically with the Nazis and with Soviet partisans. The UPA held that an ethnically pure Volhynia after the genocide of Jews also meant elimination of Poles (see Massacres of Poles in Volhynia). In course of the actions of the UPA the majority of the Polish population of the region was murdered. This also completed holocaust of Jews that had been hidden in the local Polish villages.
Ukraine_Fluesse_mitName_Oblast_Wolhynien.png
In the immediate aftermath of World War II the Polish-Soviet border was redrawn based on the Curzon line. The Poles who remained in the region were transferred to the "Recovered Territories" of western Poland (the former easternmost provinces of Germany).
The region was re-united with the rest of Ukraine by a unilateral decision of the Soviet authorities.
External link
- Official web site of Lutsk (http://www.lutsk.ua)
| Subdivisions of Ukraine | 
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|---|---|---|---|
| oblasts: | Cherkasy | Chernihiv | Chernivtsi | Dnipropetrovsk | Donetsk | Ivano-Frankivsk | Kharkiv | Kherson | Khmelnytskyi | Kirovohrad | Kiev | Luhansk | Lviv | Mykolaiv | Odessa | Poltava | Rivne | Sumy | Ternopil | Vinnytsia | Volyn | Zakarpattia | Zaporizhia | Zhytomyr | ||
| autonomous republic: | Crimea | ||
| cities with special status: | Kiev | Sevastopol | ||
de:Oblast Wolhynien es:Volyn (regin) pl:Obwód wołyński uk:Волинська область