Naliboki Forest

Naliboki Forest (Belarusian: Налібоцкая пушча, Nalibotskaya Pushcha (pushcha: wild forest, primeval forest)) is a large forest complex in the northwestern Belarus, on the right bank of the Neman River, on the Belarusian Ridge.

Nalibotskaya Pushcha is famous for its nature and rich, although tragic, history. The forest is named after a small town of Nalibaki situated in the middle of it, although the title of "informal capital of the forest" belongs rather to the town of Ivyanets.

Much of the area is occupied by pine forests and swamps, and some parts of the Naliboki are rather hilly. Rich fauna include deer, wild boars, elks, beavers, bears, bison, wood grouses, heath cocks, snipes etc. From the 10th to the 11th century, although very scarcely populated, the big forest on the right bank of upper River Neman was strategically important for the pagan Lithuanian tribes. The important Ruthenian towns Minsk and Zaslawye were founded on the edge of the forest as fortresses to defend the Ruthenian frontier against Lithuanian forays. In the middle of the 13th century, the forest defended the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the south from the attacks of the Golden Horde and its vassal, the principality of Halych-Volhynia, thus helping the newly formed state to survive. The border between Ruthenia (which remained under Tartar power) and Lithuania that was established as a result of this clash, left traces in the local legends about the battles with Tartars at Mahilna and Koydanava and predetermined the long lasting division of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Lithuania proper and “Lithuanian Russia”. As a result of the Union of Krewo (1385) and subsequent Christianization of Lithuania in 1387, local pagans were converted to Catholicism, and the area stayed predominantly Catholic until today. The long-term clash of Russian Orthodox and Polish-Lithuanian Catholic identities in the Naliboki Forest lasted until recent times, as exemplified in such prominent 20th century figures as Felix Dzerzhinsky, or many heroes of Catholic resistance both to Nazi and Soviet regimes.

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Wikipedia