POLESIE (i.e., "along the forest"), the largest and most sparsely populated province of Poland. Area, 14,219 sq.m. Pop. (193') 1,133,398. The bulk of the inhabitants are Ruthenians—the so-called Polesians or Pinchuks, forming a special branch of the Ukrainian nationality, and belonging to the Orthodox Eastern Church. The Catholics form only 22.5% of the population, the Jews 12%.
Polesie forms an eastward extension of the central Polish plain sloping up to the northern highlands and the plateau of Podolia. It forms the basin of the Prypet, a tributary of the Dnieper, into which flow numerous slow rivers from the Lithuanian forests of the north, and from the uplands of the south. The falls of the Lower Dnieper hinder the drainage of Polesie, and the deepening of the channel of the Dnieper tends to dry up the Pinsk marshes. In spring the whole country is flooded and has the appearance of a sea. In reality it consists partly of marshes and lakes, partly of damp meadows with islands of clay or sand, on which most of the villages are built. In such a dreary plain the main feature is the vegetation, which consists of wide pine forests on the sand or on the swamps, with invading firs from the north, of mixed forests and birch groves, and of damp meadows grown with grasses, reeds and stunted willows. It is the only remaining home
of the beaver in Poland, and the elk is still found there. The inhabitants maintain a precarious existence mainly by fishing and hunting. With few horses, there is a special breed of cattle.
Polesie originally formed the early Russian principality of Turov or Pinsk. Conquered by the Lithuanians in 1320, it became, after the union with Poland in 1569, the province of Brest Litovsk. The north-west portion formed part of the estates of the great Polish magnates, the Radziwills and Sapiehas. Wolczyn was the seat of the Czartoryski family. The chief towns are Brest Litovsk, pop. (1931) 48,435, the capital; Pinsk, the seat of an ancient Orthodox bishopric ; Kobryn, Kamenets Litovsk and Luni nets, a junction of the two railways which traverse the marshes.