At least five members of the Kozakiewicz family emigrated from Russian Empire to the USA. What was their journey there? How long it took? What hardship they had to endure to get to the land of the free? In this post I will explore these questions.
Why leave
Members of the Kozakiewicz family left the place their ancestors lived for at least two hundred years (and maybe more). Why did they leave? Why they and hundred of thousands more left and journeyed to the US? There are academic works on the subject that explore many factors. In the family, the legend holds that Kozakiewicz's siblings had no plan to move permanently but went to earn extra money for the family. Life was tough in Russian Empire at the time, farmers still used manual labor to work their lands, electricity was only available in large cities, and horses were still the main mode of transport. Life was changing fast, but not fast enough – the stories of economic opportunities across the ocean were fascinating! And additionally, in the US people could be free from Russian persecution. For example, people could freely use the Belarusian language in their communities and not be forced to use Russian like in Russian Empire.
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| Typical farmer at work in Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire (c) Issak Serbov 1911 |
The tickets were not cheap, so only farmers that were well off could really afford it. So many people who once earned enough money in the US came back. However, they saw the opportunities of new land and considered staying. And then, the First World War (1914 –1918) and the Russian Revolution (1917–1923) sealed their fate – they were not to return back. At first, they invited their relatives to join them – but the government of the newly established USSR put restrictions on movement and the families could not reunite.
Train
To leave Dziahilna and travel to the US Kozakiewicz's first had to reach a seaport Libau – the most western Baltic harbour in the Russian Empire. To get there from Dziahilna, They took a train, a journey of perhaps a day or two. First they had to reach the nearest train station – Kojdanaū.
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| Kojdanaū train station (c) artefakt_uk |
A short ride and they were in Minsk. Today it is a capital of an independent country Belarus, but in 1910 it was the regional center of the Russian imperial Governorate (similar to a province). To get a feel of the city, you can watch a slideshow of old photographs here.
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| Minsk, Vilienski train station |
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| Minsk, the look of departing trains |
The journey from Minsk to Libau took longer, perhaps a day or two. Today this train ride takes about 14 hours, crossing three countries: Belarus, Lithuania, and Latvia.
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| The journey on the train map of the Russian Empire |
In Libau, the passengers had to wait for their ship to depart, sometimes for days and weeks. The small town of Libau (now in Latvia Republic and called Liepāja) could not host masses of immigrants that were waiting their turn to leave. Kozakiewicz's traveled on Russian American Line, which in 1910 built a dormitory where all ticketed passengers could stay.
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| Passenger dormitories in the top right corner |
To read more about Libau's history of immigration, read "Final Point of the Russian Empire".
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| Emigration center in Libau |
At sea
