Myrne (Freudental)
Freudental (now Myrne) was a German colony within the Liebental Colonists’ District of Odesa Uyezd in the Kherson Governorate. Today, the territory of the former colony lies within Izmail District, Odesa Region.
The colony was founded in 1806 by settlers from Alsace and the Palatinate who had arrived from Hungary, where they had lived since 1782. For a long time, Freudental retained an ethnically homogeneous population. Whereas by 1886 many German colonies were inhabited not only by Germans but also by Jews and Ukrainians, Freudental was populated exclusively by Germans.
The economy was based on agriculture and cattle breeding. The colonists brought potatoes with them and contributed to their spread in the region. Sheep breeding was abandoned due to difficulties in marketing wool. Attempts to develop sericulture also proved unsuccessful.
In 1812, an independent Lutheran parish was established, headed by Pastor Adolf Granbaum. Pastors served for several years, and sometimes for decades.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the colony had about 140 households and approximately 1,300 inhabitants. In the center stood the Lutheran church, a school, and a zemstvo postal station. Income was generated by a steam-powered flour mill, four shops, and a tavern. The colony was renowned for its vineyards.
The residents experienced the fall of the autocracy, the collapse of the Russian Empire, and the bloody events of the Civil War. In the summer of 1919, they took part in the anti-Bolshevik Grossliebental Uprising.
The colonists were hostile to Soviet rule, which was finally consolidated in February 1920. During collectivization, sixteen families (67 people) in Freudental were dekulakized. The exact number of victims of repression among the residents has not yet been established; according to the German researcher Anton Bosch, it was forty-eight. In 1937, eighteen people were executed; in 1938, fourteen; and in 1941, another four.
During the war against Nazi Germany, the colony was located in the Romanian administrative zone of Transnistria, though under the authority of the SS Special Detachment R (German: Sonderkommando R). In March 1944, in connection with the advance of the Red Army, the residents of the colony were evacuated by order to the Reichsgau Wartheland (Poland). After the war, they were repatriated to the USSR.
As a German settlement, Freudental ceased to exist. In the center of the village, a memorial obelisk dedicated to the colonists was erected in the post-Soviet era.
