Kudrychy

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Kudrychy, also called Kudrichi, is a small village in Pinsk District, Brest Region, Belarus. It is part of Kalavuravichy selsoviet and lies inside the Middle Pripyat National Landscape Reserve.

Kudrichi Polesie was once hidden by three rivers—Yaselda, Pina and Pripyat—and by swamps. In spring floods, villagers moved from house to house by boats called “seagulls,” earning the nickname “Belarusian Venice.” Boats are more common than horses here because farmland is far away. The people traditionally fished, kept bees, and farmed, taking their goods by river to Pinsk to sell.

The village is first mentioned in 1555. At that time the lands belonged to Bona Sforza and to the Franciscan monastery in Pinsk. It once had about 125 houses but only around 10 inhabitants. Some theories say Kudrichy was used as a place of exile.

A road built in the 1980s led many residents to leave. The village was described by American traveler Louise Arner Boyd in 1934 during a swamp expedition to the Pripyat. Her 1937 photo album Polish Province (Polish Countryside) featured the area.

World War II largely spared Kudrychy because of its remoteness, though nearby villages were burned. It is said that, by order of Nikita Khrushchev, an 18th‑century church in Kudrychy was destroyed by a tractor driver.