Belarus, also known as White Russia, is a land of hills and marshes

Belarus (formerly Byelorussia) is an independent country and a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which was formed in late 1991. The country was formerly a republic of the now-defunct Soviet Union.

Belarus was under the strict control of the Soviet central government until the early 1990's. In the midst of political upheaval in the Soviet government following an attempted coup in August 1991, Belarus declared its independence. In December 1991, Belarus was one of the three former Soviet republics, including Russia and Ukraine, to establish the CIS. The country's economy neared collapse in 1994. In April 1994, the government announced an agreement to merge the economy with Russia's. Many opposed economic union, and in October, the union was postponed. The parliament outlawed use of the Russian ruble for domestic transactions.

Bison roam in the ancient Belovezha Forest, a nature preserve covering 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares) in the Brest region of Belarus.

The dense hardwood forests that cover almost a quarter of Belarus make lumbering an important industry. Timber, used in the manufacture of furniture, is floated to market down the Dnepr, Western Dvina, and Neman rivers.

The wet summers and sandy soils of Belarus are ideal for growing potatoes—for use as animal feed as well as for human consumption. Other crops include barley, flax, oats, rye, and wheat.

Factories in the chief manufacturing centers of Minsk, Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Grodno, and Brest produce automobiles, glass, textiles, bicycles, farm machinery, and building materials.

The land that is now Belarus was first settled by East Slavic tribes in the 400's. In the 800's, the region came under the influence of the Kievan state, and during the 11OO's, it was subdivided into several Kievan principalities. In the early 1300's, Belarus became part of the grand duchy of Lithuania, which merged with Poland in 1569.

Following the union of Lithuania and Poland, Belarus participated in the Polish Renaissance culture of the 1500's and 1600's. During this period, about 25 per cent of its people became Roman Catholics. In the late 1700's, when Austria, Prussia, and Russia divided Poland up among themselves, Belarus became part of the Russian Empire.

During World War I (1914-1918) and the Soviet-Polish War (1919-1920), Belarus suffered great devastation. Communists formed the Byelorussian Republic in 1919, and in 1922, it joined the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). The Treaty of Riga had awarded the western part of the republic to Poland in 1921, but the area was returned to the Soviets in 1939.

Because it lay along the direct route between Berlin and Moscow, Belarus suffered tremendous losses during World War II (1939-1945) as the German Army advanced along the Western Front. During the Nazi occupation, 1.5 million Belarusians were permanently moved east of the Volga River, and a large section of the Jewish population fled abroad. More than three-quarters of the republic's towns and cities were destroyed.

After World War II, Belarus rebuilt and restored its urban areas. By the late 1970's, it was one of the leading Soviet republics in urban and industrial growth.

Belarus, also known as White Russia, is a land of hills and marshes surrounded by Poland in the west, Lithuania and Latvia in the north, Russia in the east, and Ukraine in the south.

An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986 had a major impact on Belarus. The winds caused about 70 per cent of the radioactive fallout to land on Belarus. The radiation contaminated the republic's food and water supplies and caused many health problems.