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belarus:
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While archeological evidence points to settlement in today's Belarus
at least 10,000 years ago, recorded history begins with settlement by Baltic and
Slavic tribes in the early centuries A.D. With distinctive features by the ninth
century, the emerging Belarusian state was then absorbed by Kievan Rus' in the
9th century.
Belarus was later an integral part of what was called Litva, which
included today's Belarus as well as today's Lithuania.
Belarus was the birthplace of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Belarusian was the
state language of the Grand Duchy until 1697, in part owing to the strong flowering
of Belarusian culture during the Renaissance through the works of leading Belarusian
humanists such as Frantzisk Skaryna.
Belarus was the site of the Union of Brest
in 1597, which created the Greek Catholic Church, for long the majority church
in Belarus until suppressed by the Russian empire, and the birthplace of Thaddeus
Kosciuszko, who played a key role in the American Revolution.
Occupied by the
Russian empire from the end of the 18th century until 1918, Belarus declared its
short-lived National Republic on March 25, 1918, only to be forcibly absorbed
by the Bolsheviks into what became the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). Suffering massive
population losses under Soviet leader Josif Stalin and the German Nazi occupation,
Belarus was retaken by the Soviets in 1944.
The massive April 26, 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl power plant, across the border in Ukraine, had a devastating effect on Belarus; as a result of the radiation release, agriculture in a large part of the country was destroyed, and many villages were abandoned. Resettlement and medical costs were substantial and long-term.
It declared its sovereignty on July
27, 1990, and independence from the Soviet Union on August 25, 1991. It has been
run by the authoritarian Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.
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