Belarus (
IPA
:
/ˈbɛləruːs/
) (
Belarusian
and
Russian
: Беларусь,
transliteration
: Byelarus’,
Polish
: Białoruś
listen
(
help
·
info
)
is a
landlocked country
in
Eastern Europe
,
that borders
Russia
to the north and east,
Ukraine
to the south,
Poland
to the west, and
Lithuania
and
Latvia
to the north. Its capital is
Minsk
; other major cities include
Brest
,
Grodno
,
Gomel
,
Mogilev
,
Vitebsk
and
Bobruisk
. A third of the country is forested, and agriculture and manufacturing are its strongest economic sectors.
Until the th century, the
Belarusians
lacked the opportunity to evolve a distinctive national identity, since the lands of modern-day Belarus belonged to several countries, including the
Duchy of Polatsk
, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
, the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
, and the
Russian Empire
. After the short-lived
Belarusian People's Republic
(–), Belarus became a
constituent republic of the Soviet Union
, the
Byelorussian SSR
.
The final unification of Belarusian lands within its modern borders took place in , when the ethnically Belarusian lands that were part of
interwar Poland
were annexed by the USSR and attached to the Soviet Belarus. The territory and its nation were devastated in
World War II
, during which Belarus lost about a quarter of its population and more than half of its economic resources;
the republic recovered in the post-war years and became one of the founding members of the
United Nations
. The parliament of the republic declared the sovereignty of Belarus on
July
,
, and following the
collapse of the Soviet Union
, Belarus declared independence on
August
,
.
Alexander Lukashenko
has been the country's president since . During his presidency, Lukashenko has implemented Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of the economy, despite objections from Western governments. Since , Belarus has been negotiating with Russia to unify into a single state called the
Union of Russia and Belarus
.
Most of Belarus's population of .million reside in the urban areas surrounding Minsk and other
oblast
(regional) capitals.
More than % of the population are native Belarusians, with sizable minorities of Russians, Ukrainians and Poles. Since a referendum in , the country has had two official languages:
Belarusian
and
Russian
. The
Constitution of Belarus
does not declare an official religion, although the primary religion in the country is
Russian Orthodox
. |