Polesie Voivodeship

Województwo poleskie
(Coat of Arms)
Historical region	Polesie

Polesie Voivodeship (Polish: województwo poleskie, Belarusian: Палескае ваяводзтва) was an administrative unit of interwar Poland (1918–1939). It ceased to exist in September 1939, following German and Soviet aggression on Poland (see: Polish September Campaign).

Population

Mother tongue in Poland, based on 1931 Polish census

The provincial capital, and also the largest city was Brześć nad Bugiem (Brest-on-the-Bug; now: Brest, in Belarus). The province was made up of 9 powiats (counties), and had only 12 substantial towns or cities and just 97 villages. In 1921, the population numbered 879,417, and population density (20.8 persons per km²) was the lowest in interwar Poland. By 1931, thanks to an extensive government-sponsored settlement programme, the population had risen to 1,132,200, and the population density to 31 per km².

Polesie had the lowest concentration of ethnic Poles of all the voivodeships. According to the 1931 census, Poles, scattered throughout the province, made up around 15% of the population, Ukrainians (mainly in the south-east) numbered about 5%, Belarusians 6.6%, and Jews (mainly in towns) around 10%; the vast majority of population (62.6%) described themselves merely as “locals” (tutejsi), and for the greater part were poor farmers of Belarusian origin. Smaller communities of Russians also existed. The illiteracy rate was 48.4%, the highest in Poland, and well above national average of 23.1% (in 1931).

Location and area

Initially, the area of the voivodeship comprised 42 149 km². However, in 1930 Sarny county became part of the Volhynian Voivodeship, thus the area shrunk to 36 668 square kilometers. Even after this change, it still was the biggest Voivodeship of interwar Poland.

Polesie lay in eastern part of the then Polish state, bordering the Soviet Union to the east, Lublin Voivodeship and Białystok Voivodeship (1919–1939) to the west, Nowogródek Voivodeship to the north and the Volhynian Voivodeship to the south. Most of it consisted of the Polesie swamp - a flat, vast, sparsely inhabited area, with several rivers and streams. Access to some villages and hamlets required boats, especially in early spring, when the waters of the Pripyat and other rivers (like the Pina, the Styr and the Horyn) rose as the snow melted. In 1937 forests covered 33.3% of the Voivodeship (compared with the average for the whole country of 22.2%). The biggest lake in the voivodeship's area, Lake Wygonowskie, lay on the Oginski Canal.

Cities and counties

Administrative map of the voivodeship. Note: in 1930 Sarny county became part of the Volhynian Voivodeship

Brześć, the voivodeship’s capital and biggest city, did not have an impressively large population - about 50 700 (according to the 1931 national census) and some 55 000 in mid-1939. Other urban centers included: Pińsk (in 1931 pop. 31 900), Dawidgródek (pop. 11 500), Kobryń (pop. 10 100) and Prużana (pop. 6 500).

Counties of Polesie Voivodeship:

• Brześć county (area 4625 km², pop. 216 200),

• Drohiczyn Poleski county (area 2351 km², pop. 97 000),

• Iwacewicze county (area 3562 km², pop. 83 700),

• Kamień Koszyrski county (area 3243 km², pop. 95 000),

• Kobryń county (area 3545 km², pop. 114 000),

• Łuniniec county (area 5722 km², pop. 109 300),

• Pińsk county (area 5587 km², pop. 183 600),

• Prużana county (area 2644 km², pop. 108 600),

• Stolin county (area 5389 km², pop. 124 800).

It was created on February 19, 1921 with its capital was Pińsk. After a fire in August 1921, the voivodship's capital was moved to Brześć Litewski. Brześć Litewski was renamed as Brześć nad Bugiem ("Brest on the Bug" in Polish) on March 20, 1923. First administrative division was listed below:

Counties of Polesie Voivodship (1921–1923)

• Brześć county

• Drohiczyn Poleski county

• Kossów county

• Łuniniec county

• Pińsk county

• Prużana county,

• Sarny county

On January 1, 1923, Stolin county (powiat) was created from some gminas from ones of Łuniniec, Pińsk and Sarny.

On December 16, 1930, Sarny County was transferred to Wołyń Voivodeship.

On April 1, 1935, Kossów county's capital was moved to Iwacewicze and it was renamed as Iwacewicze county .

Infrastructure and industry

In popular opinion, interwar Poland comprised two parts - Poland “A” (better developed) and Poland “B” (less developed). On this scale, however, the Polesie Voivodeship might class as Poland “C”: it was by far the most backward region of the country. Industry was non-existent, agriculture poorly developed, the rail network consisted of barely a few lines. There were few rail hubs: Brześć (with 5 routes), Łuniniec, Żabinka and Sarny. In 1937 the total length of railroads within voivodeship amounted to just 1,063 km., while rail density was just 2.9 km per 100 km² (the lowest in the country). One of the few signs of modernity in the infrastructure was a paved road connecting Pińsk and Drohiczyn Poleski constructed in the late 1930s.

Voivodes

• Walery Roman 14 March 1921 – 3 May 1922
• Stanisław Józef Downarowicz 18 May 1922 – 2 October 1924
• Kazimierz Młodzianowski 4 October 1924 – 5 May 1926
• Vacant 5 May 1926 – 14 July 1926
• Jan Krahelski 14 July 1926 – 8 September 1932 (acting to 23 December 1926)
• Wacław Kostek-Biernacki 8 September 1932 – 2 September 1939
• Jerzy Albin de Tramecourt 17 February 1937 – 7 September 1937 (acting for Kostek-Biernacki)

September 1939 and its aftermath

On September 17, 1939, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and after the German invasion of Poland, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland. As the bulk of the Polish Army had concentrated in the west of the country to fight the Germans, the Soviets met with little resistance and their troops quickly moved westwards, until they reached Brześć. The Soviet authorities occupied the voivodeship and annexed it to the Soviet Union, dividing it between the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Polesia Voblast). As of 2009 most of the former Polesie Voivodeship (including Brześć and Pińsk) belongs to Belarus; only the southern part belongs to Ukraine (Kamień Koszyrski and Sarny).

Sources

• Mały rocznik statystyczny 1939, Warszawa, Nakładem Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej (Concise Statistical Year-Book of Poland, Warsaw 1939)

See also

• Belarus’s current Brest Voblast