Voronezh Oblast speaks Ukrainian
The Voronezh region speaks Ukrainian. The Ukrainian ethnic territory is known as "Eastern Sloboda Ukraine" or "Podonye."
Ukrainian Cossacks arrived here during the time of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, initially establishing a small wooden fort, which would soon become the center of the local Cossack community, Ostrogozhsk.
Sloboda Ukraine was colonized by Ukrainians in three stages: 1651-1659, 1659-1663, and 1663-1680.
What did a Sloboda Cossack look like (on the right)
https://imgur.com/a/eUMRPE3
The tsarist government was forced to recognize these Cossacks as free inhabitants of the region, unlike its own serfs, so the Cossack settlements were called "slobodas" (meaning free), and the land itself was called Sloboda Ukraine, or Sloboda Ukraine.
Map of Slobodskaya Cossack Regiments
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
Map of the "Slobodsko-Ukrainskaya Governorate" (1765–1780 and 1797–1835)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
Thanks to the Cossacks' efforts, the nomadic enemies were driven back from the Moscow borders, and the Russian government rewarded the Slobodskaya Cossacks for their efforts by annihilating their regiments, and the inhabitants of the region were soon returned to serfdom. This "gratitude" is entirely in keeping with the spirit of Moscow's tsarist regime. Thus, the Ostrogozhsk Regiment ceased to exist, and Ostrogozhsk was no longer a Cossack regimental town. However, Ukrainian life there continued for a long time.
In the first quarter of the 19th century, Kondraty Ryleyev, a great poet and fighter against Russian tsarism for the transformation of the "prison of nations" into a free, fraternal union, visited Ostrogozhsk. "I've been in Ukraine for three weeks now," he wrote from Ostrogozhsk in a letter to Faddey Bulgarin. The city so impressed the poet with its Ukrainian spirit that he wrote an article "About Ostrogozhsk," then a duma dedicated to Hetman Mazepa's stay in Ostrogozhsk in 1696, and began work on the Ukrainian poems "Voynarovsky," "Mazepa," and "Nalivaiko." However, Ryleyev was unable to complete these poems. For attempting to incite an uprising against the tsarist government, he was executed along with four other Decembrists.
The village of Yurasovka in today's Voronezh Oblast was the birthplace of Nikolai Kostomarov, a great Ukrainian historian who proved to the world that Ukrainians are the heirs to the glory and grandeur of Kievan Rus'.
The famous artist Ivan Kramskoy, author of "Christ in the Desert," also hails from the town of Ostrogozhsk.
In 1897, a census by language was conducted. Ukrainians constituted the majority in half of the Voronezh Oblast. Map
https://imgur.com/a/erVBAeS
and census data here
http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ru...
In 1897, 915,883 Ukrainians lived in the Voronezh Governorate.
In 1918, Pavlo Skoropadsky annexed the Putivl, Graivoron, Novooskol, Rylsk, Sudzhan, Belgorod, and Korocha districts of the Kursk Governorate, and the Ostrogozhsk, Biryutsky, Valuysky, and Bogucharsky districts of the Voronezh Governorate.
Map of the Voronezh region as part of Ukraine in 1918
https://imgur.com/a/UhiaU20
Map of Ukrainian settlement and borders of Ukraine in 1918
http://imgur.com/qHr2obo
That same year, the Voronezh region was occupied by the Red Army and incorporated into the RSFSR.
Lands claimed by the Ukrainian SSR in 1924 are indicated by a dotted line.
http://imgur.com/2sijOEY
A census was conducted in 1926. Ukrainians in the Voronezh Oblast numbered 1,078,552. See the 1926 census data here.
http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ru...
And a map of the census results
https://imgur.com/a/onUvr
Map of the peoples of the USSR (from a Soviet atlas) from 1941. Where Ukrainians are shown in the Voronezh region
http://imgur.com/GMNAcuI
During World War II, Nazi Germany intended to incorporate these lands into the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, dividing them between the Kharkov General District and the planned Voronezh General District. Map of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine
https://imgur.com/a/6zdNv10
In 1947, the Ukrainian Kubiyovych compiled a map of peoples, and Ukrainians are again shown in the Voronezh region.
http://imgur.com/BHSXnen
While in 1989 there were 4.5 million Ukrainians in Russia, by 2010 there were already 1.9 million. 60% of Ukrainians have assimilated because there are no Ukrainian schools in Russia.
The current flag of the Ostrogozhsk Cossacks
http://www.ostrogozhsk.ru/history/dvi...
Coat of arms of the Ostrogozhsk district of the Voronezh region
http://www.ostrogozhsk.ru/history/dvi...
Coat of arms of the rural settlement of Korotoyakskoye in the Voronezh region
http://www.ostrogozhsk.ru/history/dvi...
Playlist "Voronezh Ukraine"
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list....