# Shvaikivtsi

Shvaikivtsi is a village in Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine belonging to the Zavodske settlement hromada. It was the administrative center for the former Shmankivchyky village council.

## Geography

Shvaikivtsi is located on the west bank of the Nichlavka River, a tributary of the Nichlava in the Dniester basin, 12 km (7.5 mi) from the district center and 5 km (3.1 mi) from the nearest railway station, Hadynkivtsi.

## Toponymy

Mykola Krykun gives the following variants of the names of the village. Schweik recorded the following relevant sources in chronological order:
* Szwajkowce, s. – Lifting register 1629, 1650, 1667;
* Szwajkowce, s. – Kamenets Zemstvo Book 1636;
* Szwajkowce, s. – Commissioner's Register 1678;
* Sewoykofce, s. – Boplan.

## History
### Ancient times

A mound and a settlement from the Kievan Rus period have been found near the village.

### Middle Ages, modern era

The first written mention of the settlement was in 1485 as the property of the Buczacki brothers, who had the Abdank coat of arms.
In 1485, the sons of David Buczacki, Michal, Stanislav and Jan, acquired the villages of Shvaikivtsi and Sekmanivtsi in Podilia from the Fredro family.
According to the 1569 Podolsk Voivodeship tax register, compiled by royal captain and customs officer Stanisław Jacimirski, the village belonged to the Golinski heir. It had three plowmen, each of whom was required to pay 10 groschens per plow.
The tax register of the Kamianets eyalet for 1681 describes the state of the village: "The village of Shvaikivtsi is abandoned, not far from Chortkiv. One watermill was destroyed. By estimating the cost of 5000."
In 1785, the village had 306 inhabitants. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there were two inns (owned by Jews) and two shops in Shvaikivtsi. In 1880, there were 96 houses and 633 people in the village. Several locals emigrated to Canada. In the village, there was a folwark (owned by the deceased German Rudorf), and a mill.
* Shvaikivtsi on the map of von Mig, 18th century.
* Shvaikivtsi on the Austrian topographic map, 1861–1864.
* Shvaikivtsi on the Austrian topographic map, 1869–1887.

### 20th century

For some time, Shvaikivtsi was the center of a commune of the same name. From August 1, 1934 to 1939, the village belonged to the Kolindiana commune.
On July 20–21, 1941, the NKVD shot the villagers Dmytro Ivantsiv and Anton Yavorskyi in the town of Uman in the Cherkasy Oblast.
The village was first occupied by Nazi Germany in June 1941, a similar time to the rest of Ukraine, and then was transferred back to Soviet control under the Ukraine Soviet.
After this, it became part of the country of Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

### Period of Independence

In March 2009, a cross appeared on a poplar tree between Shvaikivtsi and Hadynkivtsi.
Since November 27, 2020, Shvaikivtsi has belonged to the Zavodske settlement Hromada.

## Education

For some time, there was an unofficial school in the village (in particular, in 1880), where Edward Paklerski worked as a teacher.
In Austria-Hungary, there was a single-grade school with Ukrainian as the language of instruction; during the Polish Empire, there was a two-grade utraquist (bilingual) school.
The school building is well-preserved and children were studying there until 2004.

## Religion

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church, Shvaikivtsi (UGCC; 1734) is a wooden church which was restored in the 1990s.
In the village, there is a chapel of All Saints of the Ukrainian people, built in 2004 in honor of Pope John Paul II's visit to Ukraine.

## Sights

* Shvaikivtsi Mound I (Western Podolia group of Scythian times) is a newly discovered object of cultural heritage, protection number 1479.
* The settlement of Shvaikivtsi II (Bronze Age; Early Iron Age; Trypillian culture; Chernyakhov culture) is a newly discovered object of cultural heritage, protection number 1850.
* A monument to fellow villagers killed in the German-Soviet war (1985).
* A monument to the religious figure V. Bayrak (2004, sculptor D. Pylypiak).
* A sculpture of St. Florian (1864; founder Rudroff)

## Social sphere and economy

The village had a chapter of the Prosvita society since 1906, as well as a Sich, agricultural association, library, choir and theater groups, and cooperatives.
Until 2021, there was a club and a library, which were reorganized into a studio with Shmankivtsi Center for Cultural Services of the Zavodske settlement hromada.
There is a first-aid post, Zlagoda PAP, and Andriy, Sokil-2, and Kurgan-2 farms.

## Notable people

* Volodymyr Bairak (monastic name Vitalii; 1907–1946), Ukrainian religious figure, Basilian hieromonk.

## In literature

In 2022, Liudmyla Humeniuk published the book Shvaikivtsi in the course of centuries.