| Velykyi Zhytyn | |||||||||||
| Other Name: | Polish: Żytyń Wielki | ||||||||||
| Settlement Type: | Village | ||||||||||
| Flag Border: | no | ||||||||||
| Pushpin Map: | Ukraine Rivne Oblast#Ukraine | ||||||||||
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Velykyi Zhytyn in Ukraine | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Type: | Country | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Type1: | Oblast | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Type2: | Raion | ||||||||||
| Subdivision Name2: | Rivne | ||||||||||
| Elevation M: | 192 | ||||||||||
| Area Total Km2: | 1.84 | ||||||||||
| Population Total: | 1232 | ||||||||||
| Population Density Km2: | auto | ||||||||||
| Module: |
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Velykyi Zhytyn (; pl|Żytyń Wielki) is a village in the Rivne Raion in the Rivne Oblast in north-western Ukraine with about 1,200 inhabitants (2006).
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.
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 grandmotherMaria Rivne-Nesvitskayaand 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]