The document summarizes information about the village of Bohdanivka located in the Chernihivka district. It provides a brief history of the village, noting that it was founded around 200 years ago by Mennonites from Germany under the name Gnadenfeld. Today, Bohdanivka is a modern village with around 300 houses and 670 residents, that has amenities like water, electricity, a school, kindergarten, and cultural center. The document also mentions several historical and cultural sites in the village like a Mennonite farmstead museum, old German cemetery, and a 100-year old saphora tree.

1. School of Bogdanivka
The project was
created by tenth form
pupils Vita Bystrytska,
Maryna Lubinets,
Dasha Zelikova

2. And is the village large? Oh, no!
It’s just a hamlet in a ring.
All its daily drinking water
Comes from one, lone tiny spring.
Neither cold nor hot, its water
Mild and soft will ever please;
At times it rains, at times it snows,
And sometimes comes a gentle breeze.

3. My dear friend, villages keep in their
memory the past of our people. Some of them
are quiet ancient, others appeared not long ago.
Each village is individual with its history,
traditions and especially with people.
At the course of the times a lot of villages
had been disappearing. The reasons are
different. Some of them stopped their existence
because of their people had moved to other
places.
Nowadays there are 60 small and big villages
in Chernihivka district. Each of them has its
own name with some unusual origin. The name
of the village usually comes from the name of
its founder. Sometimes it is connected with its
history or location. It may be the name of some
river, lake, forest, hill or what not.

4. We know the English word motherland. For Ukrainian
people it has two meanings. Firstly, it is the place you
were born in. Then it means the whole country where
you live. For us our motherland begins in our own
village, in which we have grown up. To our mind our
native village is the best place in the world. As the
English people say, “East or West, home is best” or
“There is no place like home”.

5. Our village’s
name is
Bohdanivka. It
is situated in
the
Chernihivka
district. It is
not big, but it
is not small
either. There
are about 300
houses in it.
And 670
people live and
work here.

6. Our village was founded about 200 years ago by the
Mennonites from Germany. The first name was Gnadenfeld
(from German it means the beneficial field). The village
Gnadenfeld was considered to be one of the most attractive
among the many beautiful Mennonite villages in
Molotschna Colony. And later it was renamed Bohdanivka.

7. Today
Bohdanivka is a
modern village.
There is water,
electricity in the
houses and on the
streets. The most of
the houses are big,
not so new but nice.
There is a secondary
school, a
kindergarten, a
house of culture,
shops , a library in
the village. In the
middle of the village
there is a park.

8. Village Сouncil, Club, Kindergarten, Secondary
school of Bohdanivka

9. The historic-cultural
complex “The Mennonite
Farmstead” invites to see the
signs of a Mennonite history.
This brick house was
placed parallel to the street,
you can find the original cellar
and a well there. Besides, all
the wooden things are original
too (floors, window frames,
doors, shutters). The roof has
been replaced with corrugated
cement-asbestos. Here one will
find the old furniture and
utensils.
The guests can see the
displays of the Mennonite clay
tiles, bricks, stone tiles,
millstones and different other
things of stone.
For the better learning of
the history of the land the
guests will see the agricultural
machinery dating from the
end of the 19 th century.

10. From the history of village education (School of Gnadenfeld
before second world war; School since 1943; School from
1947 to 1950)

11. There a lot of our compatriots was lost during
the second world war. In memory of their feat
the monument to the Grieving mother and Lost
soldier was erected in the park. Each year the
schoolchildren bring flowers to the Brotherly
Tomb to honour them.

12. Not far from the
village the old
German Cemetery is
located. Today the
first inhabitants’
tombs are hidden
under of bushes of
lilac and only lonely
fragments in a grass
remind to us of died.
In 2004 the
monument for future
generations here was
put.

13. You can find the saphora on the territory of our village.
The Japanese pagoda tree, a deciduous tree native to
China and Korea, is also known as the Chinese scholar
tree because it is traditionally planted by the graves of
Chinese schoolmasters. Several varieties of this tree
that differ in size, flower color, and hardiness are
cultivated worldwide. We don’t know who planted it but
it is more than 100 years old.

14. In summer, autumn, winter or
spring our village is very beautiful.
Rolling fields interspersed with
woodlots are characteristic of the
countryside in our flat region. Parks,
a lot of gardens make it wonderful.

15. We love our native place. It is
well worth visiting.