Velykyi Zhytyn (Ukrainian: Великий Житин; Polish: Żytyń Wielki) is a village in the Rivne Raion in the Rivne Oblast in north-western Ukraine with about 1,200 inhabitants (2006).

Velykyi Zhytyn
Великий Житин
Żytyń Wielki
St Michael’s Church (1767)
St Michael’s Church (1767)
Flag of Velykyi Zhytyn
Coat of arms of Velykyi Zhytyn
Velykyi Zhytyn is located in Rivne Oblast
Velykyi Zhytyn
Velykyi Zhytyn
Location of Velykyi Zhytyn in Ukraine
Velykyi Zhytyn is located in Ukraine
Velykyi Zhytyn
Velykyi Zhytyn
Velykyi Zhytyn (Ukraine)
Coordinates: 50°39′18″N 26°21′5.76″E / 50.65500°N 26.3516000°E / 50.65500; 26.3516000
Country Ukraine
Oblast Rivne Oblast
RaionRivne
Area
 • Total
1.84 km2 (0.71 sq mi)
Elevation
192 m (630 ft)
Population
 • Total
1,232
 • Density670/km2 (1,700/sq mi)
Map

It is located on the regional road P-5 and P-77 9 km northeast of the oblast and Raion seat Rivne. The Kustinka River, a tributary of the Horyn, flows through the village.

History

edit

The village was mentioned in 1518 in an act of the King of Poland Sigismund I the Old. In this act, he confirmed his rights over the estates of Prince Kostiantin Ivanovich Ostrozky, inherited from his wife's grandmother—Maria Rivne-Nesvitskaya—and her husband Prince Semyon Nesvitsky.

The first Ukrainian president, Leonid Kravchuk, was born in Velykyi Zhytyn in 1934. At that time, the village was part of the Second Polish Republic.[1]

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the village was first occupied by the Soviet Union until 1941, then by Nazi Germany until 1944, and then re-occupied by the Soviet Union, which eventually annexed it from Poland in 1945. From October 1943 to February 1944, the German occupiers operated the Stalag 360 prisoner-of-war camp in the village.[2]

References

edit
  1. ^ Motyl, Alexander J. (2019). "The Conceptual President: Leonid Kravchuk and the Politics of Surrealism". Patterns in Post-Soviet Leadership. pp. 103–121. doi:10.4324/9780429301162-6. ISBN 9780429301162. S2CID 199306662.
  2. ^ Megargee, Geoffrey P.; Overmans, Rüdiger; Vogt, Wolfgang (2022). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-253-06089-1.