Poleszuk

From Freepedia

Poleszuk (Polish spelling; Belarusian: Паляшук, Paliašuk; Ukrainian: Поліщук, Polishchuk; Russian: Полешук, Poleshuk) is the name given to the people who populated the swamps of Polesie.

When asked for their nationality, they usually answered tutejšy ("I am local"), so during a census in the Polish part of the Russian Empire they were generally categorized as "others" or, depending on their religion, as "Poles" or "Belarusians".

The Primary Chronicle uses the name Dregovichs for an ancient Slavic tribe settled between Pripyat and Western Dvina rivers. The name comes from the Slavic word dregva or dryhva ("swamp"). This tribe is thought to be the ancestors of modern Poliszuks.

The Poleszuk dialect, close to the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish languages, was recently assigned as a dialect of Ukrainian.

Nowadays the Poleszuk national identity remains strongest in Belarus. There were around 800,000 of them in 1931. The population of the Polish and Ukrainian parts of Polesie have assimilated the respective nations.

At the end of 1980s, there was a minor campaign in Soviet Belarus for the creation of a separate "Polesian language" based on the Polesie dialects. However, they received no support, so the campaign eventually melted away.

External links

• Excerpts from "At the Crossroads of History. Between East and West. Across the Borderlands of Europe" by Anne Applebaum