Belarus is a landlocked republic, which is located in east central Europe. It is surrounded by Russia to the east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west and Lithunia & Latvia to the northwest. The territory of Belarus comprises many forests, lakes and marshes. Lakes and rivers punctuate the country. Minsk is the capital and largest city of Belarus, which is situated in the center of the country. Its other important cities are Brest, Grodno, Gomel, Mahilyow and Vitebsk.

Since from the Middle Ages, Belarusian territory was ruled over by foreign countries. In the 18th century, the Russian Empire annexed it. National and cultural development of Belarus was made from the mid 19th century. Belarus became a republic in the Soviet Union as the Byelorussia Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) in 1922. On 25th of August, 1991 Belarus declared its independence. In 1986 a terrible accident took place in Ukraine, which was greatly affected to Belarus and so it is suffered from the effects of nuclear fallout.

Belarus has a centrally planned economy which is dominated by state controlled heavy industry. Its government is a presidential republic in which the executive is the chief authority. Earlier, the country was referred to in English as "White Russia". During the 17th century the Russian tsars used "White Ruthenium", asserting that they were trying to recapture their heritage from the Polish-Lithuanian Common wealth. After the common wealth broke up the lands that now make up Belarus were officially referred as "Belarus" and "Belarusi". Today officially the country is known as the Republic of Belarus".

During 6th to 8th centuries, Belarus was highly dominated by Slaves. But at last Belarus got rid from slave. In the 13th century, Mongol attacked on Belarus Due to this invasion, Belarus was badly influenced, and ultimately the Grand Duchy of Lithuania swallowed up parts of Russia. The duchy controlled over the territories around kernave Trakai & Vilnius cities and Samogitia. By the 15th century, the Grand Duchy extended mostly territories of Eastern Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

But king of Poland, Grand Duke Jagiello, joined the Grand Duchy in 1386 and ultimately in 1569, a new state was established which was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth since medieval times Belarusian territory was under foreign rule. By 1795 the state was annexed by Imperial Russia Belarusian national and cultural development made major strides from the mid - 19th century. Belarus first declared independence on 25th march, 1918. At that time Belarus formed the Belarusian People's Republic. This republic was short-lived because the regime was overthrown after the German withdrawal 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).

On 25th of August 1991 Belarus declared its independence, contributing to the collapse of the USSR in December. At that time, Stanislav Shushkevich became Chairman of Supreme Soviet of Belarus. Shushkevich met to Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine in Belavezhskaya Pushch on 8th December, 1941 for declaration of the dissolution of Soviet Union and formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since 1994, Belarus was ruled by Alexander Lukashenko, who was the leader of the country. He followed Soviet style deomestic policies.

As of 2005, Belarus makes major strides for reuniting with Russia. In November, 2005 a draft constitution was sent to both the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko for approval. This step was taken for creating a unity between Belarus and Russia.

Belarusian rubles per US dollar - 2,150 (2005), 2,160.26 (2004), 2,051.27 (2003), 1,790.92 (2002), 1,390 (2001)

Belarus has centrally planned economy dominated by state-controlled heavy industry, since Soviet times. However the country has handled the difficult transition since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Though Belarus is economically stable, but it is totally dependent on raw material supplies from Russia. Its industry and agriculture are under the control of states. So Belarus is one of the very few state capitalistic national economies remaining.

The major sub-sectors of collective farming such as the cultivation of potatoes and cattle breeding dominated Belarus' agriculture. After 1965, due to the creation of heavy industry and mechanical engineering the country achieved the economic development. During the Soviet Union Belarus was the most developed republic. However, economic growth returned in 1996 and in 2001 Belarus was first of CIS countries to reach 1990 levels of industrial production and agriculture production. Its gross domestic product for 2005 was $ 79.13 billon. In 2005 GDP increased by about 8 to 9 %. So Belarus has the highest Standard of living of all the CIS states. Its unemployment rate was about 2% (according to 2005 statistics).

In the last complete census conducted in the Soviet Union in 1989 the population of Belarus was 10,151,806. According to the 2005 Statistics, its population is approximately 10,300,483. Its majority of the populations are native Belarusians. Its population growth rate is - 0.06%. The area of Belarus is 207,600 km square. So its density is about 50 persons per square kilometer and it's about 71.7% of the total population lives in urban areas, in which is the capital and largest city of Belarus. The average life for Belarusian citizens is 68.72 years, for males it is 63.03 years and for females it is 74.96 years. Belarus' migration rate is 2.3 for every 1000 people in Belarus.

Belarusian is the official state language of Belarus and in 1995, after a national referendum on the subject; Russian also was elevated to a state language. More then 90 percent of the population speaks Russian language, while the people of rural areas speak mostly Belarusian, but in urban areas it is rarely heard.