Personal accounts of Polesie as it existed in the 20's and 30's
Ryszard Kapuściński: ... about Polesie and Pińsk
The poverty in Polesie was dreadful, simply unimaginable. And it continues. One can say that I am rooted in poverty. That's probably why I became interested in the Third World. I could understand it and to feel somewhat at home there.
The home of my childhood I remember as if seen in a fog. I have some notion of it now because they showed it to me when in 1979 I visited Pinsk. Pińsk was a small town in which there lived not many Poles, so all of knew each other, at least by sight. The Poles accounted for just a few percent of Pińsk's population. The Belorussians and the Lithuanians accounted for 10 percent each and the rest, about 73%, were Jews. According to prewar statistics, Pińsk was one of the most Jewish towns in Poland.
The local Poles constituted - as we would put it today - an extraneous element, really devoid of the possibility of putting down roots. If anyone did become rooted in the land of Polesie it was the gentry, usually of Polish ancestry or so Polonized as to consider itself Polish. That Polesie gentry wasn't to well off compared to, say, the landed squires of Małoposlka - frankly, it was poor. Wealthy were the Radziwiłłs, who owned much property in Polesie. But that was a totally different world.
But the ordinary Poles of Polesie should be divided into three categories. The most numerous were the military. The 84th Regiment of the Royal Fusiliers was stationed in Pińsk. In addition to the infantry there was a detachment of the River Navy. When, in September 1939, the area was being invaded by the Soviet Army, the sailors sailed their vessels onto the lakes and scuttled them. Because of the low level of the water, the vessels sunk only partially. For a long afterwards they somberly stuck out above the mirror of the water. Besides the miliary, the clergy constituted a numerous group. In Pińsk of course there was a Catholic Church. The town was know outside Poland for its strong Jesuit center, the largest in Eastern Europe. Finally, in the third category, probably the least numerous, were the teachers. My parents belonged to this third groups. They were not locals. My mother was from the region of Krakow, my father, from the Kielce region.
After independence was regained following WWI, the Polish authorities undertook the repolonization of Polesie. Young people who were unable to find work elsewhere were offered positions in Polesie, inter alia, in education. My father came there and matriculated in the Teachers College in Pruznach. Piotr Jaroszewicz was also a graduate of the College. My father worked first in Uniereniec and then in Pińsk. I suppose that working in Pińsk, he met my mother. I regret that I know so little about this.
I was born in 1932, so when the WWII started I was only seven years old. Subsequently, I wasn't that interested in Pińsk and Polesie. As you know, my interests were far afield. I know more about Africa, South America and the Middle East.
In my memory of those years remain only single events, fragments, impressions, colors, brightness. And so, for example, only years later I learned of the great fire in Pińsk in 1935. I don't remember the fire, but the impression of brilliance of some terrible brightness has survived. All that is very literal, fleeting, solidly backup with facts and necessary earnestness. Even somewhat later events coalesce and tangle.
[The above is an unofficial translation by Peter K. Gessner of an interview Ryszard Kapuściński gave to Barbara Hołlub, the Polish text of which was published in the September 24th, 1992 issue of Przekrój]
Tomasz Szkopek: Poleszucy
120 miles east of Warsaw, on the far side of the Bug streches an extensive widening in the direction of the Dnieper River lowland along the course of the Prepec River. The major part of was before WWII the largest Polish province of Polesie which occupied 1/10 of the country's area. Yet on its territory there were only 14 towns, among the Brześć with 50,000 inhabitants and Pińsk with 32, 000. Yet, in spite of appearance, this was not an agricultural area, cultivable land constituting bu 23% of the land, the least of any Polish province.
The 1.1 million inhabitants gave a population density of only 31 persons/per km2, the lowest in Poland. In this province there were also the least Poles, laborers, intelligentsia, roads, railway lines, house hold and farm machinery, money and debts. There was just one thing that there was no shortage of: marshes, which occupied 45% of the province's area, from 21% in the district of Brześć to 65% in that of Kobryin. These metamorphosed into forgotten meadows and woods. Many localities, particularly in the central part of Polesie, could be reached only during some months of the year. The entirety was criss-crossed by a large number of tributaries of the Prypeć River which were rich in fish.
This charming land wa inhabited by an usual people: 62.5% of the inhabitant could not specify their nationality, nor the name of their native language, registering in the population census as "local". They were usually called Poleszuki, who referred to the language they spoke by the terms "simple" or "peasant," in contrast to the language of the "gentry," i.e. Polish. These were Belorussian dialects, simplified, with a significant addition of Polish words, and also Russian and Ukrainian ones.
In addition to them, Polesie was inhabited by Poles (14.5%), Jews (10%), Belorussians consious of their nationality (6.6%), and Ukrainians (4.8%). Excluding the southern zone inhabited by the Ukrainians, the division of role was simple. The Poles lived in Brześć and the sparse towns as civil servants, as railway employees, as members of the River Flotilla in Pińsk, and as landed gentry. The Belorussian and the Polszucy were the peasantry and the Jews monopolized commerce and the trades as well as logging industry. Among the Christians, tens of thousands were members of the landed gentry who frequently spoke in a Polish-Belrussian jargon and who were conscious of their status.
Most characteristic of Polesie was the almost moneyless economy. The agricultural population produced some wheat and potatoes (the lowest harvests in the country) primarily for their own needs, as well as cucumbers and cabbage. The pigs and domestic fowl fed themselves on the meadows and represented an addition source of food. Eggs were exchanged in the shops for salt and matches. The peasants built one room dwellings from wood, clay and straw, saw clothes from linen and skins, fabricated carts and agricultural implements, ploughs were frequently used. Frequently no use was made of nails and metal parts. Sometimes they bought trade goods for which it was necessary to go to the district "town," but such a journey, for instance to Pińsk from distant villages, could take up to 15 hours in one direction.
An important role was played by fish which were massively plundered. On the other hand a measure of wealth were cows, also pastured on marshy meadows, hence small and mean, but in large numbers. Many a Poleszuk had 40 heads of cattle, except that many of them served solely as producers of manure, the only fertilizer used hereabouts. The further from the railway the more the economy had this natural character. Here and there they even instead of matches they maintaind glowing embers, and when it went out, they borrowed fire from their neighbors.
During WWI and the Polish-Bolshevik strife, 50% of the farms were destroyed. Almost none of the estates carried out intensive agriculture. In Polesie they did not really know about credit, only in the 30's were some plans realized in this respect. The mean cash reserves of the farms came to 10.72 zl. Trade was made difficult by the fact that aside some railway lines and roads, communication was archaic. Also in these areas there were no cash markets or agricultural co-operatives.
Business was carried on only by shopkeepers who used appropriate methods. As stated in the Annual of the Eastern Lands for 1937, among the shopkeepers of Polesie the principal of an honest price, of fair trade, of quality assurance garantees are entirely unknown, The average Poleszuk almost always returns home with the conviction that he was swindled. A similar problem took place in the sale of fish, where weighing was carried out using various units, for instance, Russian ones, or the weight was estimated "by eye."
During the 20's enormous profits came from lumber. Boys who frequently came with their own horses, were paid legendary pennies, frequently in the forms of coupons. They and the workers of the wood mills were also paid with vodka. The lumbering was carried in a plunderous manner, along road, canals, and from the best stands. The left over trunks were allowed to rot, polluting further the marshy land. The wood was sold primarily to England. During the ten year period, woodland decreased by one third, hence the authorities forbade further logging.
The 30's brought about a sigificant fall in illiteracy, which in 1921 extended to 71% of the population. Nonetheless, 25% of the children did not go to school. Through education the polonizaiton of the Poluszuks took place. Before the outbreak of WWII, only 25% of the words in the speech of the adults was Polish, but among the youth some 40-50% . Attachment to the Polish state was rising.
Investment plans for the 40's envisage extensive amiliaration of and building of roads which were to increase significantly the area of cultivation, improve their quality and create areas suitable for settlement. Part of the marshes were drained prior to September 1939, however the intentions of the Polish engineers saw their realization only during the Soviet administration. One has to admit that Socialist State carried out this work honestly, its just that it was not anticipated that decreasing the size of Eastern Europe's natural "sponge" will have fatal consequences for the ecosystem.
Before the change in the ecosystem, the composition of the inhabitants of Polesie was altered. First the Soviets deported 35 thousand Poles and killed many. Next, the Germans, murdered almost all the Jews, with the help of the renegade Russian army of and the Ukrainians. Then, the Ukrainians murdered in the most savage manner 15 thousand Poles, At the end of the War, the Germans were killing Belarussians and Poleszuks, putting 148 villages to the torch. A little known fact is that in Polesie the Germans introduced the most draconic regulations of all the occupied territories. The death penalty applied really to everything. Finally, the front passed and behind it the NKGB, the Soviet Secret Police, finished the job. Probably few functionaries of the Belarussian, Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish Police which had aided the Germans survived.
The soldiers of the 30th Infantry Division of Poland's Underground Resistance Army, managed to get out of Polesie during the Warsaw Uprising and were the single significant unity made it to the gates of Warsaw. There however they "came to terms" with the Red Army and returned to Polesie .. to the Brześć's Fortress, whence they journeyed to Siberia's gulags.
And the Poleszucy. According to the participant and student of the Polish Underground, C. Holuba, they made up 50% of the unit. The Soviet and German occupations finally convinced them to embrace Poland. After the war, they remained on the other side. The stopped being the people of the marshes, they became kolhoz farmers, and instead of sawing their own clocks, they worked in the largest Soviet Wood Products Factory in Pińsk. Maybe from "locals" they became Socialist people.
And today? I don't know. In a television report from a contemporary village in Polesie, old peasants sitting in front of a hut agreed that "in the Polish times there was more poverty, however there was cheer!!!"
[The above is an unofficial translation from Polish by Peter K. Gessner of an article by Tomasz Szkopek which appeared in the December 8, 1999 issue of Bez Uprzedzeń]
Zbigniew Karpiński: Regarding "Poleszucy"
Marian Dubiecki - earlier a collaborator of Romurald Tragutt, next a deportee to Siberia -- how else? -- finally a historian, writing a biography of Tragutt, noted "It's a strange phenomenon, but nonetheless one noted and confirmed by many, that it is as if the soul of the nation had establish it principal location there far from its cradle." He had in mind here principally Polesie, since it was from there that came Romurald Tragutt (a couple of miles from Kobryn), Koścuszko, his friend Niemczewicz, then Naruszewicz, Kraszewski, and so on. Dubiecki wrote his book in 1924. He doesn't mention Cyrul Terlecki, bishop, co-creator of the Union of Brześć in 1596, who was born near Drohiczyn. He didn't mention Poland's last king, Sanisław August Poniatowski, who was born in Wolczynie, lying there on the right side of the Bug River, not far from Brześć. And how many came after them. Oreszkowa, Rodziewiczowna.
...
One should also mention the first president of Israel, Hertzog, the syn of a rabbi from a village of Polesie, between Kobryniem and Pińsk.It was the opinion of the Poles inhabiting those land, landowners, that the hut of the Poleszuk was an motley arsenal armaments collected over generations. The acquired it group plunder, collected it following encounters and march throughs of armies. They took it from wounded insurgents, marauders, lone hunters, and on every other occasion. Maybe there was a lot of exaggeration in this opinion, but an individual who could be trusted could sometimes acquire not only the carefully stored ezamples of the handguns of the Napoleonic granadiers, but also earlier muskets made by Sztucer, and not for a song, because they knew their firearms.
The Poleszuk didn't consider the Radziwills or the Rodziewiczs as the legitimate owners of the wood, only God. Guest going on hunts in the company of local Poles, could here the frequent reports of shots in the distance. That was the work of the Poleszuks who protected their game by shooing it from the neighborhood.
[The above is an unofficial translation from Polish by Peter K. Gessner of an letter by Zbigniew Karpiński which appeared in the April 11, 2000 issue of Bez Uprzedzeń]