Southwestern Krai

The Southwestern Krai was also known as the Kyiv General Governorate. Historically, it consisted of the provinces of Kyiv, Podolia (Podilia) and Volhynia. After the turn of the 20th century, Kholm Province was added, carved out of the Lublin Province to the west. Kholm was very short lived (1913-1915). Together the area was also known as "Right Bank Ukraine," being on the right (west) side of the Dnieper River. This territory bordered the Austria-Hungary Empire.

This territory was also a part of the the Pale of Settlement, an area in western Russia where Jews were allowed by Catherine the Great (1729–1796, reigned 1762-1796) to permanently settle.

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Volhynia Province was established in 1797 after the Second Partition of Poland (1793). German immigrants to Volhynia came not at the invitation of the Russian crown, but rather by the invitation of wealthy landowners. Because of this, they received no settlement help and did not have same privileges or regulations that other German immigrants had in the Volga and Black Sea areas. German settlement began between the first and second partitions of Poland. The earliest recorded were in 1783. The heaviest migration into the area began in 1831, followed by a second wave beginning in 1863.

In 1920, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles divided Volhynia between Poland and Russia. In 1939, Poland ceded its western section to the USSR. Today, all of historical Volhynia is in northwest Ukraine bordering Poland and Belarus.

According to the Imperial Census of 1897, there were 2,989,482 inhabitants in Volhynia Province, with 1,502,803 men and 1,486,679 women. Of those, 171,331 (5.73%) were native German speakers.

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