Belarus in brief

belstat.gov.by
General information:
Belarus is situated in Eastern Europe. It occupies the territory of 207,6 millions square kilometres and hosts a population of 9714 thousand (2006); the capital is the city of Minsk (1797,5 thousand). Mostly plain territory. Main rivers – Dnepr, West Dvina., Neman, Pripyat’, West Bug. The country is divided into six regions with centres in Brest, Vitebsk, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk and Mogilev. 70% of the population dwells in the country’s 100 cities.

Political build:

After the USSR fell apart, one of its parts, called BSSR reformed itself into the Republic of  Belarus. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on the 27^th of July of 1990 by the High Council of BSSR. The first Constitution of the newly independent country was adopted on the 15^th of march of 1994. By this document a presidential republic with a one-house parliament. In June of 1994 the elections of the first President occurred and A. Lukashenka was elected. Having acquired great authority, granted by the Constitution, in 1996 Lukashenka starts preparing the overthrowing of the government. A new version of the constitution was prepared secretly from the Parliament. The High Council tried to resist the usurpation attempts and proclaimed the President impeached. In response to that Lukashenka, supported by Russia, dissolves the parliament and the Constitutional court. A new constitution was adopted, giving even more authority to the President; the parliament becomes a two-house one, all the representatives and senators in the first parliament were appointed directly by the President. In 1999 Lukashenka’s term expired, but was prolonged by his own decision. After the referendum in 2004 the limits for re-election of a single person for the post of President were cancelled. Now A. Lukashenka can get “re-elected” for an unlimited number of times.

Economy

In Soviet times Belarusian economy was called an “assembly line”. Belarusian industry is mainly machine building, radioelectronics and chemical industry. Potassium salt is the only natural resource the country is rich in, all the other raw materials are imported. Belarusian economy is export-oriented, main trade partners are Russia, Germany, Poland and the countries of the Community of Independent States.The GDP is 79231 billion BRB, GDP growth is 7.6% a year on average. Besides the general features, Belarusian economy is characterized by low unemployment and low Jenny index, showing the difference in income between the richest and the poorest.

 Tourism

If you travel by any means of land transport from Western and Central Europe to Russia and back, it’s hard to miss Belarus. The shortest road from Europe to Moscow goes through Belarus. Most travellers visit this country only as a part of a transition route and only in the years of independence Belarus started creating its own tourist infrastructure. The main objects of tourism are: Belovezhskaya puscha (an untouched part of the Central European forest, a hunting place of all monarchs starting from first Lithuanian dukes), besides this relict forest there are relict swamps and lakes (Pripyatski National park), Berezinsky biosphere reserve, The Braslav Lakes national park and so on), numerous architectural and historical monuments of the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Nesvizh – home city of the Radzivil dukes, Grodno with its royal palaces and well-preserved old city, that is very rare in Belarus) and many other prominent places, abandoned before and restored now.
Village and ecological tourism is also on the rise now.  

Culture

For over two centuries Belarusian culture has been in decline – cultural values were periodically taken abroad, their creators emigrated or were repressed. A lot of Belarusian works of art are now parts of museum and private collections in Moscow, St.-Petersburg, less in Warsaw and Vilnius. There are theatres in Belarus, musical ensembles that are not known well enough, but worthy of European recognition, festivals of pop, classical, ethnic, blues, jazz, rock music are often organized. Belarusian cinematography mostly specializez in war movies (that is why Minsk film studio is often called Guerrilla-film) and movies for children.

Ethnic and religious structure

The title ethnos – the Belarusians – live from Belastok in the West, to Smolensk and Bryansk in the East. On the territory of Belarus they make a majority of population (82%). Besides Belarusians, the country is inhabited by Poles, Russians, Jews, Ukrainians and Lithuanians.
The traditional religions are the Orthodox and the Catholic churches. Protestants are also present, but there have been many varieties of them – from the Calvinists and the Arians in the 16^th century, to the Baptists and the Charismats in the end of the 20^th. From the 19^th to the 20^th centuries the united Greco-Catholic church was dominant, but after Belarusian lands were incorporated in the Russian Empire, it was dissolved by 1840.
The ethnic composition of Belarus has also changed dramatically. A hundred years ago most of the population of towns and cities were Jewish, because they were forced to live there by the government. Hasidism appeared and spread from Belarus, many early activists of Zionist movement lived and worked here.  
The dominant language in the Belarusian cities in the 19^th century was polish, in 20^th century it was replaced by Russian. 

Transport and travel

Brest is the main gateway from Belarus to the West. The border control and customs service there are both Belarusian and Russian, because Belarusian eastern frontier is in fact open. Belarus borders the EU through three countries – Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. The main transport route goes through the border with Poland, Latvian and Lithuanian borders are used mostly for two-way contacts. The border and customs control on the border of Belarus and Ukraine is pretty strict. From the times of economical decline of the 90’s most Belarusian airports are not functioning. Only Minsk-2 airport is being slowly restored because it is an international one. Most of the routes were opened only in the last few years. It is possible, that soon Minsk-2 will work as planned. Planes can also get into Belarus through Vilnius, the airport of which is only 30km away from the Belarusian border – almost the distance from the centre of Belarusian capital to Minsk-2.

Where do the countries go, and where do they appear from?

When I was 10-11 years old I liked Ancient History, we were taught at school, I wanted to learn more than was written in the textbook. I was very surprised, when I couldn’t find the powerful ancient states on the map. Take Egypt, for instance. Back in Soviet times there was no such country on the map, but there was a United Arabic Republic in its place. But I knew that there should’ve been Egypt! This incompatibility between my knowledge in history and geography. But it is one thing when it happens in Africa or Indochina, where a new country could appear any day. One day, Egypt also returned to the world map. But Ceylon became Sri-Lanka and the eastern part of Pakistan, a region of ancient Bengalia turned into a new country of Bangladesh.
But it is a completely different matter when such a thing happens to your own country or its neighbours. Back in the childhood I wanted to learn about my country in the ancient times, but couldn’t find anything about it in the books or on the maps. Most Europeans learn history and geography at school but apply them only when they’re mature. I guess, many Europeans who had some business relations with Belarus were also surprised – where did this country that nobody knows anything about come from?
For several thousands of years of humanity’s written history geography haven’t changed much – outlines of continents are similar in any epoch, but people tend to move from one place to another and name the places, they travel through. And if the history is written and the maps drawn by different peoples, one place can have many names. Countries don’t disappear and appear out of nowhere. You just have to approach names critically.

Some countries are named for their geographical peculiarities. For example Montenegro of the Netherlands, though there are lowlands and tree covered mountains, which look black at dawn and dusk in other countries. If Belarus was called according to its geography, there would be no better feature than swamp. There are swamps in many countries, but Belarus is a country in the middle of a swamp. There are no mountains or seas, but there are rivers, forests and swamps. Belarusians are the people, who learned to live in marshes, to dry them, feel them, rule them.

Uladzimir Matskevich,