Belarus

Belarus

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 two-thirds 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.

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/1135 ft), is located in an upland area just southwest of Minsk.

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 Dvina), 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.

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.

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.

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.

The cities of Belarus are heavily polluted, especially industrial centers such as Soligorsk and Novopolotsk, 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. During the Soviet period, 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 station in northern Ukraine, about 16 km (about 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. The situation has deteriorated in the villages in the contaminated zones, with food and other goods in short supply and radiation-linked disease on the rise.

Belarus adopted its first post-Soviet constitution in 1994. Under the constitution, a popularly elected president replaced the chairperson of the unicameral (single-chamber) legislature, called the Supreme Soviet, as head of state; the president could dismiss the prime minister and members of the Council of Ministers, but not the legislature or other elected governing bodies. President Alexander Lukashenko, who was elected in the first presidential election of 1994, initiated a referendum in 1996 with a proposal to amend the constitution to broaden his presidential authority, extend his term from five to seven years, and create a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature. On November 24, amid widespread allegations of vote fraud, official tallies showed the president’s proposal had passed with more than 70 percent of the vote. Lukashenko immediately dissolved the opposition-led Supreme Soviet and created a new legislature composed of his supporters. Although the Constitutional Court previously ruled the referendum results were to be used only for advisory purposes, within days the new legislature passed a law making the results binding. The next day, November 28, Lukashenko signed into law the new constitution. Belarus is now a presidential republic in which the opposition has little voice. All citizens have the right to vote from the age of 18.

Under the 1994 constitution a president is the head of state of Belarus. The president creates a Council of Ministers, whose chairman is the country’s prime minister. The 1996 amendments to the constitution invested the president with the power to dissolve the legislature.

Under the 1994 constitution, Belarus was to have a unicameral legislature (Supreme Soviet) of 260 members elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of five years. Under the constitutional amendments of 1996, the Supreme Soviet was replaced by a bicameral National Assembly, consisting of a 110-member Chamber of Representatives and a 64-member Council of the Republic.

The judicial system of Belarus consists of three high courts: the Supreme Court, the Supreme Economic Court, and the Constitutional Court. The latter court is charged with protecting the constitution, and its decisions are not subject to appeal. It has the power to review the constitutionality of presidential edicts and the regulatory decisions of the other two high courts. The amended constitution allows the president to appoint half of the Constitutional Court and its chairperson; the legislature is to appoint the remaining members. (Under the 1994 constitution its 11 judges were nominated by the president and elected by the Supreme Soviet.) Following the referendum, seven of its judges, including the chairperson, resigned in protest.

Belarus is divided administratively into six oblasts, which have the same names as their largest cities. The Minsk, Hrodna, Homyel’, Mahilyow, Vitebsk, and Brest oblasts are each divided into smaller administrative districts, called rayony. The oblasts have their own councils for the administration of regional affairs. In addition, the president has appointed a plenipotentiary, or diplomatic agent, in each oblast to report local affairs to the executive.

The Communist Party of Belarus had a monopoly on power until 1990, when a coalition of pro-reform groups was allowed to participate in elections to the Supreme Soviet. The legislature was little changed, however, as Communist Party members won most seats. The party was banned in the wake of the failed coup attempt to take over the Soviet government by Communist hard-liners in August 1991. However, the ban was lifted in February 1993 and the party was restored as the Party of Communists of Belarus (PCB). The Communists won a plurality in the 1995 elections to the Supreme Soviet, followed by the Agrarian Party. Both parties support the retention of a centrally planned economy and state-run farms. The political middle ground is occupied by the United Civic Party. The main opposition movement since its formation in 1988 has been the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF). No members of the BPF were elected to the Supreme Soviet in 1995. More than 20 political parties were active in Belarus in 1996.

Health care in Belarus is state operated and free of charge. Hospitals are generally undersupplied by Western standards, and pharmaceuticals are scarce. Higher-quality medical facilities can be found in hospitals and clinics under city jurisdiction. The Chernobyl’ disaster’s impact on the health of the population has severely strained the country’s limited health care system.

Military service is compulsory for all males for 18 months beginning at the age of 18. In 1997 the army was composed of approximately 50,500 troops and the air force had 22,000 troops. There is no navy. In addition to the regular army, Belarus maintains a border guard with about 8000 members.

Belarus inherited more than 500 strategic and tactical nuclear warheads when the USSR was dissolved in 1991. In 1992 Belarus signed a protocol in which it agreed to implement the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) and to adhere to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. In December 1996 Belarus completed the process of deporting its nuclear warheads to Russia, where they were to be dismantled.

Belarus is a member of approximately 50 international organizations, most notably the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Health Organization (WHO). In early 1995 Belarus joined the Partnership for Peace program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a plan designed to promote military cooperation between NATO and non-NATO states. In 1996 the president of Belarus denounced NATO’s planned eastward expansion that would allow Belarus’ neighbors in Eastern Europe—including the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland—to join NATO’s regional defense alliance.