Turov-Pinsk Principality

a Russian feudal principality of the tenth through 14th centuries, located in the basin of the Pripiat’ River and its tributaries, in the territory of an eastern Slavic tribal group known as the Dregovichians. The capital of the principality was Turov (on the Pripiat’ River), and important cities of the region included Pinsk, Klechesk (Kletsk), Sluchesk (Slutsk), and Mozyr’.

In the tenth and 11th centuries, the Turov-Pinsk Principality played an important role in the relations of Kievan Rus’ with Poland and the Lithuanian tribes. The ancient trade route from Kiev to the Baltic passed through the region. Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh and his son Mstislav drew support from the principality in their struggle with the Minsk princes, who took possession of the area for a short time in 1132. In the mid-12th century the principality was freed from Kievan control after a long feudal struggle. In the late 12th and early 13th centuries it disintegrated into several smaller feudal principalities: Turov, Pinsk, Slutsk, and Kletsk. In the first half of the 14th century the territory was seized by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 16th century it was incorporated into Poland, but it was returned to Russia at the end of the 18th century.