Biriukove (Ukrainian: Бірюкове; Russian: Бирюково, romanized: Biryukovo) or Krynychne (Ukrainian: Криничне, Russian: Криничное, romanized: Krinichnoye) is a rural settlement in Dovzhansk urban hromada, Dovzhansk Raion (district) of Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine. Population: 3,951 (2022 estimate)[1], 4,027 (2013 est.)[2].
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It is situated in 18 km from Sverdlovsk near the river Kundryuchya, a tributary of the Donets. The nearest railway station, Dolzhanskaya, is situated in 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) out of Biryukove. The nearby villages Bratske [uk] and Dovzhanske [uk] are subordinated to Biriukove, because it is a center of the village council.[3]
Burial mounds dating back to the Bronze Age have been uncovered near Biriukove.[3]
Biriukove was founded in 1778 by serfs from the villages Rovenky and Krasnovka, as the village Krynychne.[5][4]
During the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks established control over Krynychne in December 1917, incorporating it into the Soviet Union. In March 1920, the Communist chairman of the village council, a man named M. Biriukov, was allegedly murdered by "kulaks".[3][6] Krynychne was renamed to Biriukove in his honor in 1921.[3][4]
About a thousand citizens of Biriukove were participants in World War II. About 340 of them died, while 780 were decorated with awards.[3] A monument named "Motherland" was erected in honor of the soldiers who died.[5]
In 1964, Biriukove received urban-type settlement status.[4][3]
Since 2014, Biryukove has been occupied by the unrecognized state the Luhansk People's Republic.[7][better source needed] On July 7, 2014, one Ukrainian border guard was wounded after a mortar attack on this town's checkpoint, south of Sverdlovsk, Luhansk Oblast.[citation needed]
In 2016, the settlement was renamed by the Verkhovna Rada back to Krynychne as part of decommunization in Ukraine.[8]
