There were formerly Swedish-speaking communities in
the Baltic countries, especially on the islands Dag, Sel and
Orms along the coast. After the loss of the Baltic
territories to Russia in the early 18th century, many of
them were forced to make the long march to Ukraine. The
survivors of that march eventually founded a number of
Swedish-speaking villages, which survived until the
Russian revolution when the inhabitants were evacuated
to Sweden. The dialect they spoke was known as
gammalsvenska, Old Swedish. Today there exist a few
elderly descendants in the village of Gammalsvenskby, Old
Swedish Village in Ukraine, who still speak Swedish and
observe holidays according to the Swedish calendar.
In Estonia, the small remaining Swedish community was
very well treated between the first and second world
wars. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found
along the coast, had Swedish as the administrative
language and Swedish-Estonian culture experienced an
upswing. However most Swedish-speaking people fled to
Sweden at the end of World War II when Estonia was
reconquered by the Soviet Union.
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