Berezne

Berezne Березне
Orthodox church in Berezne
Coat of arms
Country Oblast Raion	Ukraine Rivne Oblast Berezne Raion
First mentioned	1445
Magdeburg law	1584
Population (2011)
• Total	13,390

Berezne (Ukrainian: Березне, Russian: Берёзно, Polish: Bereźne) is a city in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, located on the Sluch River north of Rivne. It is the administrative centre of the Berezne Raion. Population is 13,390 (2011)

Berezne was established in 1445 within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Since the Union of Lublin the town was part of the Kingdom of Poland, where it remained until the Partitions of Poland. Annexed by the Russian Empire, Berezne in 1919 returned to Poland. In the Second Polish Republic it was a garrison of the Berezne Battalion of the Border Protection Corps. Until 1939, Berezne belonged to Kostopol County, Volhynian Voivodeship.

In 1943, during the Volhynian Genocide, 96 ethnic Poles of Berezne were murdered by Ukrainian nationalists of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The first attack on the town took place in June 1943. Other attacks occurred in the second half of that year, and as a result Polish survivors fled to larger towns, such as Rowne. In June 1945 the remaining Poles were forced to leave Berezne.

The majority of the population in the area has always been Ukrainian. However, it is notable that substantial minority populations of Poles and Jews have lived there as well. Rule over the area changed hands between the Poles and the Russians over the centuries, culminating with Ukrainian independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Starting in the mid-17th century resentment of the Ukrainian population grew over the presence of what they considered foreigners in their midst; and demagogues, starting with Bogdan Chmelnitsky, used this to fan the flames of nationalism. Chmelnitsky initiated bloody pogroms against thousands of Jews in Ukraine. Unfortunately the Jews of Berezne did not escape this particularly vicious manifestation of nationalism which took many innocent lives.