Poleshuks

The Poleshuks, Paleshuks or Polishchuks, also known as Polesians (Belarusian: палешукі, romanized: palešuki; Ukrainian: поліщуки, romanized: polishchuky; Russian: полещуки, romanized: poleshchuki; Polish: Poleszucy), are the indigenous population of Polesia (also known as Polesie and Polissia). Their native speech forms a dialect continuum between the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages and includes recently codified West Polesian, as well as many local variations and sub-dialects.

Since the interbellum, the Poleshuks started developing a sense of identity, influenced by the ethnic politics of the Second Polish Republic within the Polesie Voivodeship. The voivodship had the sparsest population and among the lowest levels of prosperity, due to its adverse climatic and agricultural (soil) conditions. A 1923 Polish statistical document said that 38.600 of 880.900 of population in Polesie Voivodeship (about 4%) were identified as Polezhuks, who self-identified their ethnicity in the census as tutejszy ("local"). The document noted that they were using East Slavic dialects, transitional between Ukrainian and Belarusian, sometimes identified as a separate Polesian language. In the 1931 Polish Census the question about ethnicity was replaced with the question about mother tongue. As a result, 62.5% of population identified their language as tutejszy ("local"). (14.5% declared Polish and 10.0% declared Yiddish or Hebrew as mother tongue.) That some respondents declared their language as Belarusian or Ukrainian was interpreted as the formation of the corresponding ethnic consciousness in the area.

In 1988, Nikolai Shelyagovich created the public-cultural association "Polesie" on the Belarusian Culture Fund. Its goals were the revival of the Western Polesie language, and recognition of the local residents of as a national minority, with some further supporting national and cultural autonomy or even independence of Western Polesie. The organization caused great interest among the intelligentsia of Minsk and Brest, attracting many well-known scholars, researchers, philologists, historians, writers and poets. With the Belarusian referendum in 1995, the activities of the association gradually tapered off.

The cuisine of Polishchuks is characterized with abundance of products won through fishing and gathering, such as fish (tench, crucian carp, perch), berries, mushrooms and grass. Many dishes are prepared with the use of rye flour, for example pies, pancakes and various kinds of bread. A traditional Polesian dish is buckwheat varenyky with soured milk. Another authentic speciality in the region is kvasha, prepared from soured rye and buckwheat flour. Typical festive dishes cooked by Polishchuks are borshch, kissel, thick pancakes with sour cream, cottage cheese with milk and millet kasha.