Gammalsvenskby In the middle of the district Kherson Oblast in the south of Ukraine there is a small village with an interesting history. The village is called Gammalsvenskby. Gammalsvenskby is today incorporated with three other villages, Schlangendorf, Mühlhausendorf and Klosterdorf, and on maps they are shown under their combined name, Zmiyivka. Gammalsvenskby is a Swedish name and it means Old Swedes Village or Old Swedish Village. The story of this village starts in the year 1781 on the Estonian island Hiiumaa, 2000 kilometres away from Gammalsvenskby. In 1781 Estonia was under Russian rule. But between the years 1561 until 1721 Estonia was part of Sweden. The people living on the Estonian islands, Hiiumaa is one of these islands, lived rather isolated so they
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