Berestechko (, ) is a town in

Lutsk Raion Lutsk Raion () is a raion (district) in Volyn Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the ...

Volyn Oblast Volyn Oblast () or simply Volyn (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northwestern Ukraine. It borders Rivne Oblast to the east, Lviv Oblast to the south, Poland to the west and Belarus to the north. Its Capital city ...

, Ukraine. It is located on the

Styr River The Styr (; ; ) is a right tributary of the Pripyat, with a length of . Its basin area is and located in the historical region of Volhynia. The Styr begins near Brody, Lviv Oblast, then flows into Rivne Oblast, Volyn Oblast, then into Bre ...

. Population:

History

Berestechko received

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

in 1547. Around the same era,

Socinian Socinianism ( ) is a Nontrinitarian Christian belief system developed and co-founded during the Protestant Reformation by the Italian Renaissance humanists and theologians Lelio Sozzini and Fausto Sozzini, uncle and nephew, respectively. I ...

communities were active in the town. In 1651 the

Battle of Berestechko The Battle of Berestechko (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Битва під Берестечком, Polish language, Polish: ''Bitwa pod Beresteczkiem''; 28 June – 10 July 1651) was fought between the Cossack Hetmanate and Crimean Khanate ag ...

during the

Khmelnytsky Uprising The Khmelnytsky Uprising, also known as the Cossack–Polish War, Khmelnytsky insurrection, or the National Liberation War, was a Cossack uprisings, Cossack rebellion that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Poli ...

took place near the settlement,Берестечко // Большая Советская Энциклопедия. / редколл., гл. ред. С. И. Вавилов. 2-е изд. том 5. М., Государственное научное издательство «Большая Советская энциклопедия», 1950. стр.12 in which the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

engaged in a battle with

Zaporozhian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks (in Latin ''Cossacorum Zaporoviensis''), also known as the Zaporozhian Cossack Army or the Zaporozhian Host (), were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossa ...

and

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

. Owing to the loss of the Ukrainian Cossacks, the settlement remained under control of the Polish Royal House. Following the

third partition of Poland The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...

, Berestechko become part of the Russian Empire. From 1795 until the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, Berestechko was part of

Volhynian Governorate Volhynia Governorate, also known as Volyn Governorate, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. It consisted of an area of and a population of 2,989,482 inhabitants. The governorate ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Following the 1917

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

in Russia, violent outbreaks occurred concerning disputes over the boundaries of each empire. Following an agreement between the two parties, from 1921 to 1939 Berestechko was part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. In September 1939 it became part of the

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...

following the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

, and became a town in January 1940. The Germans occupied Berestechko (then part of the

Reichskommissariat Ukraine The ''Reichskommissariat Ukraine'' (RKU; ) was an administrative entity of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. It served as the German civilian occupation regime in the Ukrainian SSR, and ...

) from 23 June 1941 to April 1944, during which they forced all Jews in the town to live in a ghetto, and eventually executed them in 1942. A witness to the execution in the town stated, "The Jews dug their own pits, accompanied by ten requisitioned Ukrainians. People climbed on trees to watch the execution in spite of the ban. The Germans shot them so that they fell down into the pit." Out of the six

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

s present in the town, only one of them remained standing following the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

occupation. During 1943 the town became a refuge for Poles fleeing the Volyn massacre, and the Germans formed a

Schutzmannschaft The ''Schutzmannschaft'', or Auxiliary Police ( "protection team"; plural: ''Schutzmannschaften'', abbreviated as ''Schuma'') was the collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and the Balti ...

with several Poles to help defend against the

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on 14 October 1942. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany, the S ...

. The town church was attacked by the UPA on 30 December 1943, but the UPA were pushed back. The Poles would eventually leave the town for other nations, or to be deported off to

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s. On 17 January 1944, the Germans left the town. After the end of the war, the town was rebuilt and in 1946 it was electrified. By 1950, a

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

, a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

and several schools were in operation, and by 1968 a brick factory, food processing plant, and zootechnical school were also established. As of 1989, the

food industry The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, ...

remained the basis of the economy. Following the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

the town became part of Ukraine.

Population development

Transport and Infrastructure

Transport

Berestechko is located 25 km southeast of the railway station Horokhiv, on the Lviv railway. The closest major roads are

European route E40 European route E40 is the longest European route, more than long, connecting Calais in France via Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with Ridder in Kazakhstan near the border with ...

, Highway M19, and Highway H17, all approximately situated within 40 km of the town. A local bus operates here, offering connections with local towns and also a connection to

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Education

Berestechko has a secondary school, a vocational school, a hospital, a psycho-neurological boarding school, a library, a house of culture, a cinema and a schoolboy's house. There is a music school on Naberezhna Street. It was previously a synagogue and the building is strictly protected by the state as a historical monument.

Notable people

* Volodymyr Leontovych (1881–1968): Construction engineer and architect who helped erect the "Battlefield of Berestechko National Historic Memorial Preserve" monument. *

Ivan Yizhakevych Ivan Sydorovych Yizhakevych (; January 18, 1864 – January 19, 1962) was a Soviet and Ukrainian painter and writer, People's Painter of the Ukrainian SSR (1951). Life, education and work Yizhakevych was born in the village of Vyshnopil, Kiev Go ...

(1864–1962): Realist painter,

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

, and graphic artist. * Petro Tabinsky (1888–1950): Religious reformer and dissenter of the

Orthodox Church of Russia The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

(in favour of the Ukrainian Church).

References

External links

Berestechko
at the

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' (), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was created under the auspices of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (Sarcelles, near Paris). As the ...

www.berestechko.info(web-portal)
* {{Authority control Cities in Volyn Oblast Cities of district significance in Ukraine Holocaust locations in Ukraine