Belarus

Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, between Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Its 207,600 km² (80,200 sq mi) are low and flat, with forests, marshes, the Neman, Pripyat and Dnieper rivers and some 11,000 lakes. Minsk is the capital, and Belarusian and Russian are both official languages.

The land became part of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, and in the Middle Ages city-states such as the Principality of Polotsk ruled it. By the 14th century it belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, until the partitions of 1792 to 1795 gave it to Russia. A Belarusian People's Republic was declared in 1918 under German occupation, and the Byelorussian SSR helped found the Soviet Union in 1922. The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 left most of its fallout on Belarus. Independence came on 25 August 1991.

The 1994 constitution describes a semi-presidential republic with a strong presidency. Belarus forms a Union State with Russia, signed in 2000, and belongs to the CSTO and the Eurasian Economic Union. The state controls much of the economy, heavy machinery such as tractors has long been a main export, and potatoes and meat are important farm products. The currency is the Belarusian ruble.

The Mir Castle Complex, Nesvizh Castle, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha forest, shared with Poland, and points of the Struve Geodetic Arc are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In Białowieża Forest the leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine agreed on 8 December 1991 to dissolve the Soviet Union. Marc Chagall was born near Vitebsk in 1887. Traditional dress was made of flax or wool, decorated with regional patterns.