Voloka, Chernivtsi Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast


Voloka is a village in Chernivtsi Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Voloka rural hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.
The current population of the village is 3,035.
Most inhabitants are Romanians and they are almost exclusively engaged in the creation of bridal gowns, a business that has proved quite successful in the past decade, as the village has managed to make a name for itself in almost all of Ukraine and Russia as well as Romania.
Until 18 July 2020, Voloka belonged to Hlyboka Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Chernivtsi Oblast to three. The area of Hlyboka Raion was merged into Chernivtsi Raion. In 2001, 97.56% of the inhabitants of Voloka spoke Romanian as their native language, while 2.08% spoke Ukrainian. In the 1989 census, the number of residents who declared themselves Romanian plus Moldovan was 2,907, representing 92.37% of the locality's population of 3,147. A large majority of the population switched their declared census identities from Moldovan and Moldovan-speaking to Romanian and Romanian-speaking between the 1989 and 2001 censuses.
In 2001, the Volokivska or Voloka rural community had 6,086 inhabitants, including 4,919 Romanian-speakers, 1,090 Ukrainian-speakers, and 55 Russian-speakers. In addition to the villages of Voloka and Valia Kuzmyna, it also included the village of Hrushivka village. According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, the majority of the population of 1,187 people of Hrushivka was Romanian-speaking, with a minority of Ukrainian speakers and of Russian-speakers. In the 1989 census, the number of residents who declared themselves Romanian plus Moldovan was 1,089, or 96.71%, but there were also 17 Ukrainians and 6 Russians. A majority of the population switched their declared census identities from Moldovan and Moldovan-speaking to Romanian and Romanian-speaking between the 1989 and 2001 censuses.
In 2001, out of 6,086 individuals who lived in the Voloka rural hromada, 1,090 were Ukrainian-speaking, 4,929 were Romanian-speaking, including 4,759 who called the language Romanian and 170 who called it Moldovan, and 40 were Russian-speaking. In 1989, out 5,928 inhabitants, 821 were ethnic Ukrainians, 1,693 were ethnic Romanians, 3,348 were ethnic Moldovans and 44 were Russians. A majority of the Romanian plus Moldovan population switched their declared census identities from Moldovan and Moldovan-speaking to Romanian and Romanian-speaking between the 1989 and 2001 censuses. The reason why the "Moldovan" identity was dominant during the Soviet period, but was replaced by the "Romanian" one after 1989, including in Voloka and the Voloka rural hromada, was the fact that the inhabitants of the Chernivtsi and Sadagura rural raions, and of the Bukovinian part of the Novoselytsia rural raion, were pressured in 1944 to adopt a "Moldovan" national/ethnic identity.

Notable people