From TheBestLinks.com
Poleszuk (Polish), Poliszuk or Polishuk (local Ukrainian dialect), Palyashchuk (Belarusian), or Poleshchuk (Russian) is the name given to the people who populated the swamps of Polesie.
Asked for nationality, they usually answered tutejszy, i.e., "I am local", so during a census in Poland part of the Russian Empire they were put either in the cell "others" or, depending on the religion, in "Poles" or "Belarusians". (A similar was reported to happen in other places, e.g., in Wilno province.)
The Primary Chronicle uses the name Dregovichs for an ancient Slavic tribe settled between Pripyat and Western Dvina rivers. The name comes from the Slavic word dregva (dryhva), "swamp". This tribe is thought to be ancestors of modern Poliszuks.
Their dialect, being close to Ukrainian, Belarussian and Polish languages, was recently assigned as dialect of Ukrainian.
Nowadays most of this populace remained self-conscious in Belarus. There were around 800,000 of them in 1931. The population of Polish and Ukrainian parts of Polesie assimilated with the respective nations.
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