In the nineteenth century, the whole region, and large parts of southern Russia, contained villages settled by Germans belonging to various Protestant faiths, particularly Lutherans and Mennonites, as well as Roman Catholics.

[2] After the Ukrainian liberation, Russia has repeatedly targeted the civilian population in Gammalsvenskby with bombings including use of white phosphorus munitions.

A few decades later, a portion of the peasant population in conflict with the local aristocracy, answered Catherine the Great's 1762 ukase calling for settlers in Novorossiya on territory newly conquered from the Ottoman Empire; today this land is in Southern Ukraine.

[4][5][6] Enticed by promises of new fertile land along the Dnieper, about 1,200 people departed Dagö on 20 August 1780, and trekked overland to Novorossiya, arriving on 1 May 1781.

[7] Although the Swedes did not make full use of the arable land they had been allocated — they focused their industry more on fishing than farming[7] — the reallocation of farm land to the German newcomers strained relations between Gammalsvenskby's Swedes and their German neighbors, although intermarriage between the communities did occur, as is evidenced by parish register entries for weddings in both communities' churches.

[15] In 1922, the Swedish Red Cross led an expedition to Gammalsvenskby to provide aid and guidance in developing the region and its farmland.

[15] Conflicts with Soviet authorities over taxation, collectivization policies, and the right to maintain their Lutheran faith increased the efforts by some villagers to seek return to Sweden.

These efforts were not immediately embraced by Sweden's representative to Moscow, Carl Gerhard von Heidenstam [sv], who urged caution.

[15] On 28 June 1928, 429 villagers voted to emigrate back to Sweden under the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia's support for ethnic self-determination.

By June 1929, the Soviet government reached an agreement with the Swedes regarding disposition of their property in Ukraine and passport fees, and most of the people of Gammalsvenskby began preparing to leave.

They travelled by train through Hungary and Austria to Germany, passing through Sinaia, Brașov, Lőkösháza, Budapest, Vienna, Passau, and Stralsund on the way to Sassnitz.

[16] Instead, the government took a very paternalistic approach towards the Gammalsvenskby emigrants, requiring them to apprentice with established farmers to learn Swedish agricultural practices.

Peter Knutas and Waldemar Utas wrote to the Ukrainian SSR that the move to Sweden was a thoughtless step and sought permission for three families to return to Ukraine.

With the support of the Communist Party of Sweden, they established a minor collective farm called Röd Svenskby (Red Swedish Village).

The famine of 1932–1933 renewed interest in the idea of returning to Sweden, and some villagers signed a list stating that they wanted to leave the country.

[4] With the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the German army arrived in Gammalsvenskby on 25 August 1941, where the soldiers were welcomed as liberators.

Nearly 150 residents of Gammalsvenskby were caught by Soviet authorities at the end of the war and sent to labor camps, but were allowed to return to Ukraine as early as 1947.

[16][19] In 1951, after the exchange of territories by Poland and the Soviet Union, around 2,500 people were relocated to the area from the Drohobych Oblast villages of Lodyna, Dolyshni Berehy, and Naniv.

[28] During the 2022 annexation referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine, the Russian occupiers shut off the internet and mobile communications in the village, and the population of Gammalsvenskby refused to take part in the balloting.

[29] During the 2022 Kherson counteroffensive, the village was about 10 to 15 kilometres (6.2 to 9.3 mi) southeast of the frontlines, and it was reported that the population was hoping for liberation by Ukrainian forces.

The village has also been the target of several attacks by Russia making use of white phosphorus munitions to deliberately cause as much devastation to the local civilian population as possible.