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Polesia Палессе • Полісся Polesie | |
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Natural and historical region | |
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 Polesian Lowland marked in dark green | |
| Countries | Belarus,Poland, andUkraine |
| Largest city | Homel |
Polesia, also calledPolissia,Polesie, orPolesye,[a] is a natural (geographic) andhistorical region inEastern Europe within theEast European Plain, including theBelarus–Ukraineborder region and part of easternPoland.[2] This region should not be confused with parts ofRussia also traditionallycalled "Polesie".[3]
One of the largest forest areas on the continent, Polesia is located in the southwestern part of theEastern-European Lowland, thePolesian Lowland. On the western side, Polesia originates at the crossing of theBug River valley inPoland and thePripyat River valley ofWestern Ukraine.[4] The westernmost part of the region, located in Poland and aroundBrest, Belarus, historically also formed part of the historic region ofPodlachia, and is also referred to as such. The modern Polish part was not considered part of Polesia by the late 19th-centuryGeographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, which defined the region as roughly a triangle between the cities of Brest in the west,Mogilev in the northeast andKyiv in the southeast.[5] The swampy areas of central Polesia are known as thePinsk Marshes (after the major local city ofPinsk). Large parts of the region were contaminated after theChernobyl disaster and the region now includes theChernobyl Exclusion Zone andPolesie State Radioecological Reserve, named after the region.
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The namesPolesia/Polissia/Polesye, etc. are constructed from theEast Slavic rootles 'forest', and the prefixpo-, which in the meaning of 'on, by, along' is used to create place names.[6] Inhabitants of Polesia are calledPolishchuks.
In ancient times, the areas of today's western and west-central Polesia were inhabited by the people of theMilograd culture, theNeuri.[7]
In the late Middle Ages Polesia became part of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania, following it into thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569). It was annexed byRussia in the late-18th-centuryPartitions of Poland. Polesia was largely part ofPoland from 1921 to 1939, when the country's largest province, thePolesie Voivodeship, bore that name,[2] with the eastern part forming part of theByelorussian SSR, within which thePolesia Region was created in 1938. From 1931 to 1944, it was explicitly mentioned as constituent part of the short-lived (Byzantine Rite)Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Volhynia, Polesia and Pidliashia.[8]
Following the 1939invasion of Poland, most of the region was underSoviet occupation, with the western outskirts under German occupation until 1941, and then the entire region, including the pre-war Soviet-controlled part, was under German occupation until 1943–1944. Since the end of World War II, the region has encompassed areas in eastern Poland, southern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine.[citation needed]
Polesia is a marshy region lining thePripyat River (Pripyat Marshes) in Southern Belarus (Brest,Pinsk,Kalinkavichy,Gomel), Northern Ukraine (in theVolyn,Rivne,Zhytomyr,Kyiv andChernihiv Oblasts), and partly in Poland (Lublin). It is a flatland within thedrainage basins of theWestern Bug andPrypyat rivers. The two rivers are connected by theDnieper-Bug Canal, built during the reign ofStanislaus II of Poland, the last king of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Notable tributaries of the Pripyat are theHoryn,Stokhid,Styr,Ptsich, andYaselda rivers. The largest towns in the Pripyat basin arePinsk,Stolin,Davyd-Haradok. Huge marshes were reclaimed from the 1960s to the 1980s forfarmland.[clarification needed]
The region is subdivided into several subregions among which are:[citation needed]
According to the late 19th-centuryGeographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland Polesie was divided into Northern Polesia, itself divided into Upper Polesia or Pinsk Polesia and Lower Polesia or Mazyr Polesia, and Southern Polesia, itself divided into Volhynian Polesia (overlapping northernVolhynia) and Drevlian Polesia.[5]
This region suffered severely from theChernobyl disaster. Huge areas were polluted byradioactive elements. The most polluted part includes theChernobyl Exclusion Zone and the adjacentPolesie State Radioecological Reserve. Some other areas in the region are considered unsuitable for living as well.[9]
The Polish part of the region includes thePolesie National Park (Poleski Park Narodowy), established 1990, which covers an area of 97.6 square kilometres (37.7 sq mi). This and a wider area adjoining it (up to the Ukrainian border) make up theUNESCO-designated West PolesieBiosphere Reserve, which borders a similar reserve (theShatsk Biosphere Reserve) on the Ukrainian side. There is also aprotected area called Prybuzhskaie-Paliessie in the Belarusian part of the region.
The wooden architecture structures in the region were added to theUNESCOWorld Heritage Tentative List on 30 January 2004 in the Cultural category.[10]
There are areas in Russia traditionally called Polesie (Russian:Полесье) as well. However there the origin of the term is different: historically it referred to transitional areas from woodless fields to densely wooded territory.[3]
"Полесье" .Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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