Berdichev

a city in Zhitomir Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, on the Gnilopiat’ River (Dnieper basin) 43 km south of Zhitomir. Junction for railroad lines (to Zhitomir, Shepetovka, and Kazatin). Population, 60,000 (1968).

In Berdichev there is machine building (chemical engineering and machine tools), food processing (sugar, malt, and other factories), and light industry (a shoe factory and clothing factories). The city has a pedagogical institute and a machine-building technicum. There are pedagogical and medical colleges in Berdichev. Among the historical monuments that have been preserved are the monastery fortress of the Carmelites (founded in 1627) and the Polish Roman Catholic church in which Honoré de Balzac, the French writer, and Evelina Hanska were married in 1850. Berdichev was first mentioned in 1545.