AHC: Celtic language spoken on Russian Empire/USSR territory

"Moreover, of the nine branches into which the living Indo-European languages are divided (or eight, if one takes Balto-Slavonic as a single branch), only one branch, Celtic, is not represented in the U.S.S.R...." https://books.google.com/books?id=QTU7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA142

"The Soviet Union was host to a large number of genetically and typologically diverse languages. ... In fact, all branches of Indo-European *except Celtic* [my emphasis--DT] were spoken on Soviet territory." https://books.google.com/books?id=WUeWBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8

OK, so the challenge is obvious: get a Celtic language spoken on the territory of the Russian Empire and its successor state the USSR.

I can think of two possibilities:

(1) A very ancient POD: "The Galatians were a Celtic people that dwelt mainly in the north central regions of Asia Minor or Anatolia, in what was known as Galatia, in today's Turkey. In their origin they were a part of the great Celtic migration which invaded Macedon, led by Brennus. The original Celts who settled in Galatia came through Thrace under the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios c. 278 BC. These Celts consisted mainly of three tribes, the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii, but they were also other minor tribes. They spoke a Celtic language, the Galatian language, which is sparsely attested." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatians_(people) Can we have some of them make their way to the Caucasus? They might have better chances of survival as a separate people in that mountainous area than they did in Asia Minor.

(2) A more modern possibility: Catherine the Great establishes Irish-speaking colonies in New Russia (after all, she invited lots of other European ethnic groups to settle there). They are later reinforced with new arrivals after the Irish potato famine.

I know, incidentally, that Yuzovka (later Stalino, later Donetsk) was founded by a Welshman, the businessman and mining engineer John Hughes, after whom it was named. "By 1900, when John Hughes had died and the factories were run by his sons, twenty-two Welshmen, some with their families, were recorded as living at Yuzovka." http://tinyurl.com/jlhjez7 But I'm not sure that they spoke Welsh, and even if they did they would not be numerous enough to count for my purposes.

Any other ideas? There used to be a theory that the Cimmerians were proto-Celts (from the resemblance to "Cimbri"--though it's actually not clear whether the Cimbri were Celtic or Germanic, anyway) but that seems pretty much discredited. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimmerians
 
Some Poles wanted to settle a few thousand Irish colonists in Ukraine in 1655 (there was a lot of Irish willing to flee anywhere from Cromwell's policies at the time). However, the proposal was shelved, allegedly because Polish leaders suspected that the Irish, if settled in blocks, would be just as disloyal as rebellious Ukrainians. If they went ahead with it, we might have got a few Irish-populated (and Irish-speaking) districts in Ukraine, and since most of Ukraine was destined to become part of the Russian Empire, it likely satisfies your challenge's conditions.
 
Some Poles wanted to settle a few thousand Irish colonists in Ukraine in 1655 (there was a lot of Irish willing to flee anywhere from Cromwell's policies at the time). However, the proposal was shelved, allegedly because Polish leaders suspected that the Irish, if settled in blocks, would be just as disloyal as rebellious Ukrainians. If they went ahead with it, we might have got a few Irish-populated (and Irish-speaking) districts in Ukraine, and since most of Ukraine was destined to become part of the Russian Empire, it likely satisfies your challenge's conditions.

If they are settled in western Ukraine, we could get just another national group wanting to leave Austria-Hungary.
 
From the first link, you have Greeks and Albanians, both having fled their homelands.

Similarly, a crushed Irish Independence rebellion might induce the Soviets to offer a refuge for Irish Republicans (of course, few of them spoke Irish at that point).

Oooo..... Peter the Great imports Cornish miners, and Cornish survives ONLY in Russia!
 
If they are settled in western Ukraine, we could get just another national group wanting to leave Austria-Hungary.
Yes, but since Galicia (which was to become the bulk of Austrian Ukraine) was the most densely populated and one of the most reliable parts of Polish Ukraine in 1655, it is likely that the Polish government would try to settle the Irish elsewhere in Ukraine, so as not to disturb loyal landowners in Galicia and to ensure that the Irish colonists perform their intended function (a barrier against Ukrainian Cossacks who controlled Central Ukraine in 1655 (having rebelled in 1648), and a paramilitary force to keep in line Ukrainians in other Western Ukrainian palatinates still governed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Volhynia and Podolia). Volhynia and Podolia were both annexed by Russia in 1793-95 OTL, and the Irish settlement would have been too limited to prevent the partitions of Poland, so these palatinates (and Irish districts thereof) would likely get annexed by Russia in this TL as well.
From the first link, you have Greeks and Albanians, both having fled their homelands.
It was sometimes more complicated than that. Some of my own ancestors were Crimean Greeks who had lived there from the time immemorial (likely since the Ancient Greek colonization of the Black Sea coast). They spoke Crimean Tatar rather than Greek by the 18th century and were rather well integrated in the Crimean Khanate's society (of course, they still were treated as dhimmi, second-class citizens, since they stayed true to their Orthodox Christian faith).

The Russian Empire occupied Crimea in 1771, forced the Ottomans to 'free' the Khanate from Turkish suzerainty in 1774, and installed a pro-Russian Khan of 'independent Crimea.' The Khan in question was a brutal ruler with delusions of modernization (he spoke French to his courtiers, tried to establish a regular army in Crimea, and entertained thoughts of full religious freedom and equality of confessional communities, which was obviously in conflict with the Sharia law). More conservative and independent-minded Tatars rebelled, were defeated by Russians and the Khan's soldiers, and went on to massacre Crimean Christians blaming them for the Khan's policies and the Russian occupation.

Russians then offered all Crimean Christians an opportunity to leave Crimea and resettle in Southern Ukraine, which my ancestors did. In this way, the Khanate lost most of its traders and skilled craftsmen, which made it easier for Russia to annex Crimea in 1783.
 
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Some Poles wanted to settle a few thousand Irish colonists in Ukraine in 1655 (there was a lot of Irish willing to flee anywhere from Cromwell's policies at the time). However, the proposal was shelved, allegedly because Polish leaders suspected that the Irish, if settled in blocks, would be just as disloyal as rebellious Ukrainians. If they went ahead with it, we might have got a few Irish-populated (and Irish-speaking) districts in Ukraine, and since most of Ukraine was destined to become part of the Russian Empire, it likely satisfies your challenge's conditions.

Assume the Irish colony is in eastern Ukraine (well, east-central Ukraine, the belt of land just east of the Dniepr at Kiev). That area was ceded to Russia in 1667. So there it is, right away.
 
Assume the Irish colony is in eastern Ukraine (well, east-central Ukraine, the belt of land just east of the Dniepr at Kiev). That area was ceded to Russia in 1667. So there it is, right away.
This area was never governed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the start of the Cossack rebellion in 1648. Yes, it is colored Polish on some maps, but the real situation in early 1655 was like that (green is the core territory of the Cossack Hetmanate, light-green is short-term annexations):
image005.jpg

Therefore, the Irish military colony could have been settled in Galicia, Volhynia or Podolia, but preferably the latter two palatinates, since they were de-facto frontier areas.
 
Well, why not have Catherine the Great invite Irish settlers into the Ukraine at the same time she invited in the Germans. Same general offer; the settlers are exempt from the draft and are allowed to teach their children in their own language. Just as you end up with the German-Russian community, you might also end up with a Gaelic-Russian community. Now, there are a few problems; Catherine invited the Germans in because she, herself, was German and wanted to modernize and populate the region. She has no personal connection to the Irish, so I'm not sure why she would make an offer to them (I suppose you could handwave her meeting an Irish nobleman in court who sells her on the idea).

However, I could see some Irish, hoping for a better life and free land, taking her up on the offer. Perhaps you see Gaelic-speaking Fishing/agricultural villages dotting the Black Sea coast. It would actually be really interesting to see how an Irish Catholic community would develop, surrounded by Ukrainians and Germans.
 
My maths teacher at school (a loooong time ago) was Russian but with a Yorkshire surname. His family had gone to Russia in the 17th/18th century.(I'm hazy on the details) as part of a small diaspora of textile workers. Perhaps if a group of Cornish, Welsh or Scottish miners were to move in a similar way?
 
If we are going with a more military based route: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Wild_Geese

France, Austria, Spain, Poland, and Sweden are mentioned in the article. I'll have to look into it a bit more but there were three individuals who were high ranking officers in the Imperial Russian military that were Irish (OOC: it appears that my family may have ties to one of those individuals, surprisingly enough). Definitely some possibilities here...
 
This area was never governed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the start of the Cossack rebellion in 1648. Yes, it is colored Polish on some maps, but the real situation in early 1655 was like that (green is the core territory of the Cossack Hetmanate, light-green is short-term annexations).

Point taken, but part of the Polish interest was to settle the land with someone more reliable than Cossacks.

Probably not remotely practical, but...
 
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