Belarus

I. Introduction

Belarus, officially Respublika Belarus (Republic of Belarus), landlocked republic in east central Europe, bordered by Russia to the east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and the Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania to the northwest. Belarus has a generally flat terrain with many forests, lakes, and marshes. Nearly 80 percent of its people are ethnic Belarusians, and about three-quarters of its population live in urban centers. Belarus has a centrally planned economy dominated by state-controlled heavy industry. Its government is a presidential republic in which the executive is the chief authority. The capital and largest city is Minsk, located in the center of the country.

Since medieval times Belarusian territory was under foreign rule, and in the 18th century it was annexed by the Russian Empire. Belarusian national and cultural development made major strides only from the mid-19th century. Belarus was established in 1919 as the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), which in 1922 became one of the four founding republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In August 1991 Belarus declared its independence, contributing to the collapse of the USSR in December.

II. Land and resources

The total area of Belarus is 207,595 sq km (80,153 sq mi). Generally level terrain is disrupted by a series of highlands that run from northeast to southwest. Belarus has four additional discernible geographic regions: an area of lakes, hills, and forests in the north; an agricultural region with mixed-conifer forests in the west; a broad elevated plain in the east; and the Poles’ye (also called the Pripet Marshes), a lowland of rivers and swamps that extends into Ukraine, in the south. The country’s highest point, Mount Dzyarzhynskaya (346 m/1,135 ft), is located in an upland area just southwest of Minsk.

A. Rivers and Lakes

The Dnieper (known as the Dnyapro in Belarus) is the largest river in Belarus; it flows southward, almost the entire length of the country in the east, passing through the city of Mahilyow. Its important tributaries are the Pripyat’ in the south and the Berezina in the central region. Another major river is the Daugava (Western Daugava), which flows westward from Russia through the northern tip of the republic. The Neman (known as the Nyoman in Belarus), also a west-flowing river, links the western part of Belarus with Lithuania. The Bug, a northward-flowing river along the country’s southwestern border with Poland, is linked at the city of Brest to a canal that connects with the Pripyat’ and subsequently the Dnieper. Belarus has thousands of lakes, the largest of which is Lake Narach in the northwest.

B. Plant and Animal Life

Peat bogs and marshland cover about 25 percent of the country, while the soil of about 70 percent of Belarusian territory is podzolic (acidic with fairly large amounts of iron oxides). The forest region, though extensive, is not contiguous. Coniferous forests predominate, with pine the principal tree; spruce, oak, birch, alder, and ash trees also are found. The Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Puszcza Białowieska) Reserve in the southwest is part of the oldest existing European forest and the sanctuary of the virtually extinct European bison, or wisent. Belarus has more than 70 mammal species, including deer, fox, wild pig, wolves, and the common squirrel. There are 280 bird species, including doves, kestrels, wrens, bullfinches, and woodpeckers. Forests contain grass snakes and vipers, while rivers are the habitat of fur-bearing animals such as mink and otter.

C. Natural Resources

Belarus is relatively poor in terms of natural resources. It has plentiful peat deposits, which are used for fuel and as a mulching material in agriculture. In the southwest there are small reserves of hard coal, brown coal, and petroleum, but they are not easily accessible and remain undeveloped. Belarus also has deposits of potassium salt, limestone, and phosphates. About one-third of the republic is covered in forest.

D. Climate

Belarus has a temperate continental climate, with cool temperatures and high humidity. Average annual precipitation is between 550 and 700 mm (22 and 30 in), with the highest amount occurring in the central region. Generally in Belarus there is precipitation every two days, in the form of either rain or snow. In January the average temperature is -6°C (21°F), and in July it is 18°C (64°F). Extreme temperatures are sometimes experienced in the north, where frosts of below -40°C (-40°F) have been recorded.

E. Environmental Issues

The cities of Belarus are heavily polluted, especially industrial centers such as Salihorsk and Navapolatsk, largely because of the development of heavy industries in the years following World War II (1939-1945). Automobile exhaust is now the source of about half the air pollution in the cities. While Belarus was a part of the USSR, government controls on industrial pollution were virtually nonexistent. In recent years the government has turned its attention to the problem, although somewhat belatedly. Energy conservation and recycling have yet to be implemented in any sustained manner.

The most serious environmental problem in Belarus is the contamination from the April 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl’ nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, 16 km (10 mi) south of the Belarusian border. More than 60 percent of the high-level radioactive fallout of cesium, strontium, and plutonium that was spewed into the atmosphere landed in Belarus, affecting about one-fifth of its territory and more than 2 million of its people. The explosion initially posed its greatest threat in the air, as winds immediately carried the radioactive plume over Belarus. Long-lived radioisotopes then settled in the soil, posing a long-term danger to groundwater, livestock, and produce. More than 160,000 Belarusians were evacuated from their homes in the most heavily contaminated regions of Homyel’, Mahilyow, and Brest. In the villages in the contaminated zones, food and other goods are now in short supply and radiation-linked diseases are on the rise.

Belarus is an extensively wooded country, with pine, fir, and birch dominant in the north, and oak, elm, and white beech prevalent in the south. Little of the country’s woodland is protected, however; in total, 4.2 percent of Belarus’s land area is protected. Biodiversity, soil pollution, and other related issues are areas of concern. Another area of concern is the number of threatened species. For example, wisents were once plentiful in Belarus but are now endangered and protected by government decree. The government has ratified international environmental agreements pertaining to air pollution, biodiversity, environmental modification, and ozone layer protection.