Theme Week Belarus
Monday, 25 July 2022 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Around the World / Rund um die Welt Category/Kategorie: General , Theme Weeks , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Victory Square in Minsk © Mikkalai
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Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a
landlocked country in
Eastern Europe . It is bordered by
Russia to the east and northeast,
Ukraine to the south,
Poland to the west, and
Lithuania and
Latvia to the northwest. Covering an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) and with a population of 9.3 million, Belarus is the
13th-largest and the
20th-most populous country in Europe. The country is administratively divided into
seven regions .
Minsk is the capital and
largest city .
Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus’ , the Principality of Polotsk , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and the Russian Empire . In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917, different states arose competing for legitimacy amidst the Civil War , ultimately ending in the rise of the Byelorussian SSR , which became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. After the Polish-Soviet War , Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland. Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939, when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland , and were finalized after World War II. During World War II, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. In 1945, the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations , along with the Soviet Union.
European bisons, national symbols of Belarus, in Białowieski National Park © Ludwig Schneider/cc-by-3.0
The parliament of the republic proclaimed the
sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990, and during the
dissolution of the Soviet Union , Belarus declared independence on 25 August 1991. Following the adoption of a new
constitution in 1994,
Alexander Lukashenko was elected Belarus’s first president in the country’s first and only free
election post-independence, serving as president ever since. Lukashenko heads an
authoritarian government with a
poor human rights record due to widespread abuses. Lukashenko has continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as
state ownership of large sections of the
economy . Belarus is the only country in Europe officially using the
death penalty . In 2000, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, forming the
Union State .
Belarus is a
developing country , ranking 53rd in the
Human Development Index . It has been a member of the
United Nations since its founding and has joined the
CIS , the
CSTO , the
EAEU , the
OSCE , and the
Non-Aligned Movement . It has shown no aspirations of joining the
European Union but nevertheless maintains a
bilateral relationship with the bloc and also participates in two EU projects, the
Baku Initiative and the
Eastern Partnership . Belarus suspended its participation in the latter on 28 June 2021, after the EU imposed more sanctions against the country.
Here you can find the complete
Overview of all Theme Weeks .
Read more on
History of Belarus ,
History of the Jews in Belarus ,
Culture ,
World Heritage Sites ,
Cuisine ,
Tourism ,
Economy ,
Politics ,
Human Rights ,
Foreign Relations ,
Belarus Tourism ,
Wikivoyage Belarus and
Wikipedia Belarus . Learn more about the
use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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