Berestechko (redirected from Beresteczko)

Berestechko 

a city in Gorokhov Raion, Volyn’ Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, on the Styr’ River (Dnieper basin), 25 km southeast of the Gorokhov railroad station. Population, 2,900 (1968). Berestechko has a brick plant, a food combine, and a zootechnical technicum. It became a city in 1940. On June 18–20, 1651, a battle was fought near Berestechko between the troops of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii and the Crimean khan Islam-Girei III on one side and the Polish army commanded by King John Casimir on the other. On June 20, on the day of the decisive battle, Islam-Girei fled from the field of battle, taking Khmel’nitskii with him as a prisoner. I. Bogun took over the leadership of the Ukrainian army. The Ukrainian cossacks built a fortified camp and held out for a long time against the siege of the Polish army. A considerable number of them later broke through the encirclement. The failure at Berestechko led to the signing of the Belaia Tserkov’ Treaty of 1651, which was unfavorable to the Ukraine.

REFERENCE

Golobutskii, V. A. Osvoboditel’naia voina ukrainskogo naroda pod rukovodstvom Khmel’nitskogo (1648–54). Moscow, 1954.