Pyetrykaw or Petrikov (; ; ) is a town in Gomel Region,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. It serves as the administrative center of Pyetrykaw District. At the 2009 census, its population was 10,591. As of 2025, it has a population of 10,278.

Geography

Pyetrykaw is located on the left (north) bank of the

Pripyat River The Pripyat or Prypiat is a river in Eastern Europe. The river, which is approximately long, flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and into Ukraine again, before draining into the Dnieper at Kyiv Reservoir. Name etymology Max Vasmer notes in h ...

, west of

Mazyr Mazyr or Mozyr (, ; , ; ; ) is a city in Gomel Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Mazyr District. It is situated on the Pripyat (river), Pripyat River about east of Pinsk and northwest of Chernobyl in Ukraine. As of 2025, ...

and west of the city of

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

, the regional capital.

History

Before 1500, the history of Pyetrykaw is that of the

Principality of Turov and Pinsk The Principality of Turov, later called the Principality of Turov and Pinsk (; ; ), also known as Turovian Rus', was a medieval principality of Kievan Rus' from the 10th century on the territory of modern-day Belarus and northern Ukraine. The Prin ...

. Thus it passed under control of the

Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia The Principality or, from 1253, Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, also known as the Kingdom of Ruthenia, Kingdom of Rus', or Kingdom of Russia, also Halych–Volhynian Kingdom was a medieval state in Eastern Europe which existed from 1199 to 1349. I ...

in the early 13th century, and was devastated in 1240 by the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

, and thereafter remained under the titular control of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as ''Ulug Ulus'' ( in Turkic) was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the division of ...

until it joined the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

in the early 14th century, just before Poland conquered the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia in 1349. In 1502 and 1521 the area was attacked by

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

from the newly independent

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of th ...

. The first written mention of Pyetrykaw goes back to the year 1523, where the community was under the

Olelkovich The House of Olelkovich was a princely family from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th and 16th centuries. Their main possession was the Duchy of Slutsk– Kapyl. They are sometimes known as Slutskys. They were descended from the Lithuanian ...

family's

Principality of Slutsk The Principality of Slutsk () was originally a specific Turov Principality of land in the 12th through 14th centuries. It stood out in 1160 and took shape in the 1190s. It became a large feudal principality in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Hist ...

– Kapyl, part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The town became part of 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 ...

in 1569, and so remained until its annexation by 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 ...

at the

second partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of partitions of Poland, three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition (politics), partition occurred i ...

in 1793. Pyetrykaw was administratively placed in the Mozyrsky Uyezd of

Minsk Governorate Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered th ...

. By the 19th century, it had come under the control of the

Chodkiewicz The House of Chodkiewicz (; ) was one of the most influential Szlachta, noble families of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Lithuanian-Ruthenians, Ruthenian descent within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th and 17th century.Chester S. L. D ...

noble Ruthenian family. In 1900, Pyetrykaw was located in the area of the Russian Empire that allowed resident Jews and had a Jewish community of 2,151, 38.8% of the total population. The town was occupied by the Germans in World War I. It was taken by the

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

in 1920-1921, during the Polish-Soviet War. Pyetrykaw received its status as a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in 1923. During World War II, the town was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by the Germans who exterminated Brest's Jewish community. Pyetrykaw was taken from the Germans on 30 June 1944 as part of

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration () was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (), a military campaign fought between 22 June and 19 August 1944 in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Byelorussia in the Eastern ...

by the soldiers of the 55th Mozyr Red Rifle Division of the 61st Army of the

1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (, ''Pervyy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian"), known without a numeral as the Belorussian Front between October 1943 and February 1944, was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, bein ...

and sailors of the 20th Brigade of the

Dnieper Flotilla The Dnieper Flotilla (, ) is the name given to the various naval flotillas on the Dnieper River. These were particularly active in four conflicts: the Russo-Turkish wars of Russo–Turkish War (1735–1739), 1735–39 and Russo-Turkish War (1787– ...

. More than 3,000 casualties were suffered by the Soviet troops during the battle for Pyetrykaw. Pyetrykaw is located in the area affected by the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

Economy

Among the first industries in Pyetrykaw were the construction of barges for the river traffic and a brick factory. During the Soviet era the shipyard was expanded and various small manufacturing plants were built, including a bread factory. The town depends upon both river traffic and road traffic for much of its livelihood. There are good road connections with Gomel, Brest and Mazyr. There is no bridge across the Pripyat, but there is regular ferry service. The regional newspaper ''Петрыкаўскія навіны'' ("Pyetrykaw News") is published there.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyetrykau Populated places in Belarus Populated places in Gomel region Holocaust locations in Belarus Pyetrykaw district