An issue of the magazine "Polska" devoted entirely to the Volhynia region. The history and geography of Volhynia is recalled, as well as literature on the region. The issue is illustrated with people in folk costume, as well as open-air views. There is also an illustration of the ruins of the Dominican church in Czartoryski or the front and main altar in the Pochaivska Lavra (Source: "Polska", Warsaw 1936, R: 2, no. 14, after: Jagiellonian Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text

The name of Wołyń in our imagination is connected with the notion of boundless, green fields and meadows, fertile, spacious, luminous, or it awakens in our souls the memories of the stormy but glorious past of these lands and the lush life of the borderlands of our most glorious Commonwealth, where the knight never took off his armour to be always ready for an armed struggle with the enemy, and where the numerous, threatening and mighty castles of Wołyń stood guard over the security of the Polish state!

This land flowing with milk and honey, this former granary of Poland, besides the historical sentiment, also presents an extraordinarily interesting terrain, rich in historical monuments, in natural wonders, in the beauty of landscapes, in the peculiar, exotic folklore of its inhabitants, with outstanding, ethnically different character traits and external features.

The majestic ruins of many old castles and chateaus, which once formed defensive lines and a bulwark against the storms from the East, are today such a characteristic decoration, and the ancient and later churches of various denominations, better or worse preserved magnificent residences of magnate families, the enchanting Krzemieniec Mountains with their steep slopes, or the mysterious ravines full of primeval charm, or the wide, flat, foggy dales or inaccessible, reed-infested river banks - all this, together with the only wild azalea groves in Europe, with mines and legends, creates the incredible charm of these parts, which lures the tourist and attracts him like a magnet.

Volhynia probably takes its name from the oxen, huddled in huge herds in its vast expanses, and over the centuries its boundaries have constantly changed their outlines and volumes, expanding and contracting, while its history has been a constant contretemps and a game of bounce. The original Volhynia reached westwards as far as the Bug river, encompassing also today's Chełm Land, while geologically and topographically it should be divided into two, or rather three, fundamentally different parts. The northern part of the region was known as Polesie Wołyńskie, i.e. a flat, lowland, marshy, partly sandy plain, overgrown with a poor pine forest, crossed by parallel to the north overflowing tributaries of the River Pripyat, such as: Turia, Stochód, Styr, Horyń and Słucz.

They roll slowly all year round, and during the spring thaws turn into huge, difficult to navigate lakes and streams, which often change their channels after these floods. Volatile sands, quagmires and lean subsoil combine to form an infertile whole. Volhynia proper, which occupies the south-central part of the region, has a different appearance. It is a fertile, hilly, serene land, where agriculture flourishes, especially those branches which require a warmer, sunnier climate, and is covered in beautiful, high deciduous forests.

The southernmost part of Volhynia is today's "Volhynian Podole", otherwise known as "Volhynian Switzerland". It consists of several picturesque hill ranges, among which the Krzemieniec Mountains, with their highest peak, the Castle Mountain, or Bona Mountain, occupy the first place. In the Volhynian highlands, we find traces of the most ancient man from the Stone Age and remains of lake dwellings from the third thousand years before Christ.

The ancient amber prospectors were believed to have mystical and healing properties, which is why it was so highly valued by the ancients. The Greek and Roman cultures radiated from the area, as did the Scythian culture from the Black Sea steppes, which introduced the Vistula tribes to cereal cultivation. The horror of the plundering Norman invasions contributed to the organisation of related Slavic peoples into states. The trade routes by which Arab merchants traveled through Volhynia were also a civilizing factor. One of them went from Byzantium and Kyiv via today's Rivne and Chelm to Greater Poland, the other via Ostróg, Krzemieniec, Sandomierz and Cracow towards Bohemian Prague.

Until the arrival of the Varangian-Ruthenians, the Volhynian tribes under the name of Dulębs and Burzans formed the Union of the Czerwieńskie Grody, remaining under the authority of the Lechitic tribe, and belonging to those lands which, according to the oldest Ruthenian chronicle by Nestor, Vladimir, Duke of Kyiv, took away from the Lachians at the end of the 10th century. From then on, for several centuries Volhynia remained under the rule of the Rus princes of the dynasties: Monomachovichs, Mstislavovichs and Rurykovichs. Despite this, the Polish influence is very strong here.

Volhynia is temporarily occupied by Bolesław Chrobry during his expedition to Kyiv, and later by Bolesław Śmiały; Bolesław Kędzierzawy and Henryk the Duke of Sandomierz are guests here. At the beginning of the 13th century, as a result of constant feuding between the princes, Volhynia came under the rule of Leszek the White, who ceded it to his daughter Salomea, wife of Coloman of Hungary, who crowned himself king of Halicz and Vladimir, and gave his state the Latin name of "Galicia and Lodomeria", which was repeated after the partition of Poland by Austria, which named itself Coloman's successor. Volhynia then falls again under the rule of the Ruthenian princes and, sharing their fate, becomes the prey of the Tartars.

After the death of the last descendant of Duke Danilo, the Red Ruthenia Courts passed to Bolesław Trojdenowicz, Duke of Masovia, by right of kinship on the distaff side. After his death, a battle for the Volhynian Land took place between the Polish King Casimir the Great, heir to the Duke of Masovia, and his son, Duke Górecki. As a result, the land was divided in such a way that the western part of the Halich lands with Belz, Chelm and Vladimir fell to Poland, while the north-eastern part with Lutsk as its capital fell to Lithuania. Władysław Jagiełło gave it to Duke Vytautas and then to Duke Świdrygiella.

During the reign of Duke Vytautas a great convention of rulers took place in Lutsk, in which, apart from King Jogaila, Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg and Duke Vytautas, a large number of Lithuanian and Ruthenian dukes took part. The magnificence of this convention was much and long talked about all over Europe. After the death of Duke Swidrygiello, Volhynia was directly incorporated into the Crown and ruled by governors or marshals, chosen from among the princes of Volhynia. The last of these was Prince Constantine Vasily Ostrogski, who signed the Act of the Union of Lublin on behalf of Volhynia. Both during its affiliation to Lithuania and in its unity with Poland, Volhynia had a wide self-government, favouring the development of a feudal system, as a result of which it became a nest of magnates.

The numerous hosts of Ruthenian dukes are multiplied by newcomers: Lithuanian dukes and Polish families related by marriage to magnates. They rule almost as if they were kings-in-waiting, and their political position, as well as the generous gifts of the Jagiellonians, form the basis of their power. The bourgeoisie element is also growing in strength. The "hospodar's" cities, such as Lutsk, Krzemieniec and Vladimir, as strongholds became the mainstay of war organisations, while numerous princely castles, such as Ostróg, Dubno, Zbaraż, Wiśniowiec, Poryck, Kowel, Czartorysk, Klewań, Rivne etc., increased the country's defences. Despite the cross-fertilisation of various cultures on its territory, despite the adoption of Christianity according to the Eastern rite, Volhynia managed to resist the Byzantine influence, constantly gravitating towards the West, towards Poland.

The political tolerance of the Jagiellonians, governed by the principle: "equal with equal, free with free", was a magnet which proved more effective than the "power of the fist" so glorified by some great state systems. One German historian, Jakub Caro, characterised the act of 1413 by which Władysław Jagiełło united Lithuania with Poland as follows: "The Sejm of Horodło put its seal on such a union as has not been encountered in the whole history of Europe." The "Privilege of restoring the Volhynian Land to the Polish Kingdom", subsequently issued by Zygmunt August at the Lublin Union Sejm in 1569, finally incorporated Volhynia into the Crown as the Volhynian Voivodeship, granting it all the rights and liberties of the Polish nobility, while retaining all its previous rights.

The Tartar invasions and the Cossack rebellion led by Chmielnicki (1648-1651), which had even more serious consequences, destroyed most of the castles, villages and towns, palaces and manor houses, churches and Orthodox churches were plundered and burnt down, and the population was slaughtered without distinction of religion and nationality, destroyed this beautiful and rich country for a long time, so that it could not return to its former glory. After the partitions, Volhynia, with the exception of a small patch, was occupied by Russia, but relations were initially quite tolerable, as the administration remained in Polish hands and Polish culture flourished freely.

Tolerance, however, soon turned into extreme reaction after the November Revolution. For taking part in it, the Russian government Russified offices, confiscated huge estates of magnates, closed down Polish schools, closed down monasteries and, in 1838, abolished the Church Union. The repression reached its peak after the '63 uprising, when the rest of the monasteries were closed, most citizens were dispossessed of their estates, and Poles and Catholics were forbidden to buy land. Only Russians - Orthodox or foreigners - were allowed to buy it. Thus, our possessions there were shrinking every year. During the Great War, Volhynia was the scene of some of the fiercest and longest positional battles, and was once again subjected to great devastation and destruction.

The Russian troops, retreating, according to their tactics, carried fires, leaving only ruins behind. Grenades ripped through the fields to the wilds, reducing their cultivation value. In 1916 there were numerous battles of the Polish Legions on the route of the line: Czartorysk-Rafalowka and on the Stochod River, and one of the hills on the Styr River, where many legionaries fell, was given the name "Mountains of Poles". On 9 February 1918, the occupying powers concluded the famous Treaty of Brest-on-the-Bug with the Bolsheviks, by virtue of which the whole of Volhynia, including Chełmszczyzna and Podlasie, was ceded to Ukraine, leaving German troops there, however, in the role of "creators" and "protectors" of this new political entity.

This fourth partition of Poland provoked a huge outcry throughout the country, and the Germans responded to the protesting Polish demonstrations with numerous arrests, especially among academic youth. It was not until after the Germans had seceded in November 1918 that these lands fell into Ukrainian hands, but as early as the following year, in May, our troops took Volhynia back into Polish possession, where, with the exception of a brief interruption during the Bolshevik invasion, it has remained happily. Under Polish rule, this part of the country is currently undergoing increasing development, with rising education, culture and prosperity.

The wounds inflicted by slavery and the devastation of war are slowly healing. Under Russian rule, Volhynia was an area of primitive, yet large-scale farming; today, with the use of good soil, together with improved farming tools and a modern system, farming is advancing at a seven-mile pace. The cultivation of beet, hops, tobacco, horticulture, fruit-growing and the increasingly all-embracing livestock breeding are conducive to the development of the associated processing industry and exports abroad; last year, for example, the Soviets bought several wagons of the very expensive clover seed from here.

At present, there has been an almost complete change in the agricultural system through the parceling out of larger estates and the compassing of peasant land, as a result of which, instead of villages, there are scattered colonies and farmsteads, surrounded by orchards and their own fields, which gives Volhynia's entire landscape a different appearance from the old one. But what a different view, if we cross the border of the Bolshevik country close to here, it is like two different worlds! The system of kolkhozes has turned the formerly secluded villages there into huge "grain factories". Instead of individual small farms, huge government-owned agricultural estates have been created, with concentrations of agricultural workers and an increasingly numerous clerical caste, where there is no room for any individuality on the part of the owners, and people become soulless automatons, dependent on the will of the local kolkhoz management.

The nationalisation of the land is also having a negative effect on the whole external appearance of the village, the houses and the population. Along with the disappearance of the charming sense of ownership and personal independence, the sense of humour and care for one's surroundings disappears there, because no one has the enthusiasm to work and maintain it, when one does not know whether one will still live there tomorrow, for whom one is working today, and where everything, like in a machine, is driven by one rod. The development of Volhynia under the present Polish government can also be seen in all areas, for example, while in Russian times there were only 24,000 schoolchildren, today there are over 260,000, and the shabby, dilapidated buildings have been replaced by hundreds of modern, hygienic school buildings, while the Krzemieniec Lyceum is a focus that radiates far beyond the borders of the province.

A new era of industrial development is also taking place, resurrecting old traditions, when the famous Volhynian porcelain from Kort, Mlynets, etc., fired from local clay, sold for more than the weight of gold, went from here to the whole country, and even abroad, and today has priceless museum value. Volhynia has great mineral wealth, much of it concentrated in the so-called Volhynian Industrial Basin, which is currently under development. There is mainly granite exploited there, which is the main slab of the Volhynian subsoil, stretching here from Porohiv Dnieper - interesting basalt quarries, which is a volcanic formation, and chalk, whose wide deposits date from the epoch, when our Poland was covered by the sea. In addition, there is lignite, flint, gypsum, limestone, sandstone, clays: porcelain, faience and pottery, graphite, bog iron ore, peat, glacial erratic boulders, amber in places.

Despite this, however, apart from agricultural processing, such as distilleries, sugar mills, steam mills, sawmills, paper mills, tar mills and apart from cement mills and small iron and glassworks, factory industry had not yet developed. Volhynia was like a borderland of two worlds and two cultures: the Polish - cheerful, full of freedom and merriment, and the eastern, Ruthenian - dark, dark and heavy. Evidence of these qualities, and of our innate liberalism, sense and respect for human rights, was, among other things, the generosity with which Poles - Catholics - once funded all the Orthodox churches in the Eastern Borderlands. And today, when the Bolshevik authorities destroyed all the holy places within Russia - Pochaiv in Poland has become the centre of Orthodox life, to which all the non-Bolshevised, unhappy inhabitants of Sovdepiysia send their longing eyes.

The Muscovites repaid us after the Partitions of Poland for this beautiful trait of high Polish tolerance, which ran through centuries of history, by disappearing or plundering many churches and turning Pochaiv into a forge of anti-Polish propaganda. Perhaps we would have had the right to treat them similarly now, but with all our traditional human courtesy, we did not do so, and following the innate voice of our heart and conscience, we left the tormented Orthodox Church its only refuge and consolation.

The Bolsheviks well understand this difference between the two neighbouring states, and so, fearing an eye-to-eye comparison, they have tightened the border traffic, separating themselves from us as if by a Chinese wall, so that no one except agitators can cross it. The only highway connecting Volhynia with them is overgrown with grass, and the hinges of the almost never-opened turnpikes are rusted. The region of Volhynia is very interesting ethnographically, as, in addition to the indigenous Polish and Ruthenian populations, the southern part of the province is also home to a large number of Czechs, who settled there in large numbers after 1868, when Poles were not allowed to buy land.

The same applies to the Germans, who settled here for the same reasons. Only a handful of Russians remained here, from among the former freedmen, landowners and officials. The Polish element, once culturally and economically the strongest, weakened after the terrible post-insurrection repressions, but is now growing stronger every day, thanks to the military settlement and the restored freedom.

An excellent reflection of life and relations in Volhynia is the very seriously prepared "Rocznik Wołyńskie" ("Yearbooks of Volhynia"), edited by Professor Hoffman and published by the Polish Teachers' Union in Rivne, while the "Guide to Volhynia" ("Przewodnik po Wołyniu"), published by the Volhynian Land Society in Łuck, provides information on the monuments of this land.