Polesia, also called Polissia, Polesie, or Polesye, is a natural (geographic) and

historical region History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

within the East European Plain, including the Belarus–Ukraine border region and part of eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. This region should not be confused with parts of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

also traditionally called "Polesie".

Extent

One of the largest forest areas on the continent, Polesia is located in the southwestern part of the Eastern-European Lowland, the Polesian Lowland. On the western side, Polesia includes the crossing of the Bug River valley in

and the Pripyat River valley of Western Ukraine. The westernmost part of the region, located in Poland and around

Brest, Belarus Brest, formerly Brest-Litovsk and Brest-on-the-Bug, is a city in south-western Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the Polish town of Terespol, where the Bug (river), Bug and Mukhavets rivers meet, making it a border town. It serves as ...

, historically also formed part of the historic region of

Podlachia Podlachia, also known by its Polish name Podlasie (; ; ), is a historical region in north-eastern Poland. Its largest city is Białystok, whereas the historical capital is Drohiczyn. Similarly to several other historical regions of Poland, e.g ...

, and is also referred to as such. The modern Polish part was not considered part of Polesia by the late 19th-century '' Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland'', which defined the region as roughly a triangle between the cities of Brest in the west,

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

in the northeast and

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

in the southeast. The swampy areas of central Polesia are known as the Pinsk Marshes (after the major local city of Pinsk). Large parts of the region were contaminated after the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

and the region now includes the

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation, also called the 30-Kilometre Zone or simply The Zone, was established shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. Initially, Soviet authorities declar ...

and Polesie State Radioecological Reserve, named after the region. This includes Ukraine north-northwest of its capital

region. File:Палеская правінцыя (2001).svg, Polesie within Belarus File:Regions of Ukrainian Polesia.svg, Geographic regions of Polesie (Polissia) within Ukraine File:Podlasie Historia.png, Polesia or Podlachia in eastern Poland

Name

The names ''Polesia/Polissia/Polesye'', etc. are constructed from the East Slavic root ''les'' 'forest', and the prefix '' po-'', which in the meaning of 'on, by, along' is used to create place names.Compare Inhabitants of Polesia are called Polishchuks.

History

In ancient times, the areas of today's western and west-central Polesia were inhabited by the people of the Milograd culture, the

Neuri The Neuri or Navari (; ) were an ancient Slavs, Slavic or Balts, Baltic people whose existence was recorded by ancient Greco-Roman world, Graeco-Roman authors. Identification The Neuri belonged to a group of northern European peoples of unknown ...

. In the late Middle Ages Polesia became part of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

, following it into the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

(1569). It became part of

in the late-18th-century

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

. Polesia was largely part of

from 1921 to 1939, when the country's largest province, the Polesie Voivodeship, bore that name, with the eastern part forming part of the Byelorussian SSR, within which the Polesia Region was created in 1938. From 1931 to 1944, it was explicitly mentioned as constituent part of the short-lived (

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, is a liturgical rite that is identified with the wide range of cultural, devotional, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Chri ...

) Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Volhynia, Polesia and Pidliashia. Polesie 1920

Following the 1939

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, most of the region was under Soviet 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.

Geography

Polesia is a marshy region lining the Pripyat River ( Pripyat Marshes) in Southern Belarus ( Brest, Pinsk, Kalinkavichy,

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

), Northern Ukraine (in the Volyn,

Rivne Rivne ( ; , ) is a city in western Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Rivne Oblast (province), as well as the Rivne Raion (district) within the oblast.

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...

and

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

s), and partly in Poland (

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

). It is a flatland within the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

s of the

Western Bug The Bug or Western Bug is a major river in Central Europe that flows through Belarus (border), Poland, and Ukraine, with a total length of .Prypyat rivers. The two rivers are connected by the Dnieper-Bug Canal, built during the reign of Stanislaus II of Poland, the last king of the

. Notable tributaries of the Pripyat are the

Horyn The Horyn or Haryn (, ; , ; ; ) is a tributary of the Pripyat, which flows through Ukraine and Belarus. The Horyn is long, and has a drainage basin of .Stokhid, Styr, Ptsich, and Yaselda rivers. The largest towns in the Pripyat basin are Pinsk,

Stolin Stolin is a town in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Stolin District, the largest district in the region. Stolin is located from the Belarus–Ukraine border. As of 2025, it has a population of 14,034. Stolin i ...

, Davyd-Haradok. Huge marshes were reclaimed from the 1960s to the 1980s for

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

land. The region is subdivided into several subregions among which are: ;Poland * Western Polesia ;Ukraine * * , a.ka. Lviv Polissia * * * * ;Belarus * Brest Paliessie * Zaharodzie * Prypiat Paliessie * Mazyr Paliessie * Homiel Paliessie According to the late 19th-century ''Geographical 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 northern

Volhynia Volhynia or Volynia ( ; see #Names and etymology, below) is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between southeastern Poland, southwestern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, but in ...

) and Drevlian Polesia.

Chernobyl disaster

This region suffered severely from the

. Huge areas were polluted by

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...

elements. The most polluted part includes the

and the adjacent Polesie State Radioecological Reserve. Some other areas in the region are considered unsuitable for living as well.

Tourism

The Polish part of the region includes the Polesie National Park (''Poleski Park Narodowy''), established 1990, which covers an area of . This and a wider area adjoining it (up to the Ukrainian border) make up the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

-designated West Polesie Biosphere Reserve, which borders a similar reserve (the Shatsk Biosphere Reserve) on the Ukrainian side. There is also a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

called Prybuzhskaie-Paliessie in the Belarusian part of the region. The wooden architecture structures in the region were added to the

World Heritage Tentative List on 30 January 2004 in the Cultural category.

Notes

References

External links

The Official Site of Radomysl Castle

at the

Encyclopedia of Ukraine The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' (), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies. Development The work was created under the auspices of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (Sarcelles, near Paris). As the ...

Origin of Polesie lakes and parabolic dunesSave Polesia - E40 waterway would destroy biodiversity hotspots and key protected areas, says new reportPolesia , Wilderness without borders: Protecting one of Europe's largest natural landscapes - Frankfurt Zoological Society
{{coord missing, Ukraine Historical regions in Belarus Historical regions in Poland Historical regions in Russia Historical regions in Ukraine Belarus–Ukraine border