INTRODUCTION The Republic of Belarus, which became inde- Belarusian State University, for their invaluable pendent from the Soviet Union in 1991, estab- scientific help and support during the prepara- lished diplomatic relations with most European tory period and the realization of the present countries, including Hungary, in the early 1990s. atlas. I also express special thanks – for the re- The quarter-century of independence has pro- view comments – to Prof. Ferenc Probáld, my vided the Belarusian nation with new oppor- former PhD supervisor and professor emeritus tunities and challenges. Belarus, which has a of Eötvös Loránd University, and to fellow ge- different economic model from that of other ographers at Brest University (Belarus). I would Central and Eastern European countries (offi- like to express my gratitude also to the Embassy cially a socially-oriented market economy), has of the Republic of Belarus in Hungary, and to His recently made efforts to break out of its earlier Excellency Ambassador Aliaksandr Khainouski isolation in Europe and has participated in the for technical support and suggestions. Special EU’s Eastern Partnership since 2009. Since 2014, thanks go also to Anatol Palyn, teacher of the Minsk has been a hub of international diploma- high school in Lieĺčycy and to his son, Sasha for cy, and Hungary’s Eastern Opening policy has their efforts and help during my field research in also targeted Belarus. The strategic significance Paliessie between 2007 and 2015. of the country is growing, but even now Belarus The coordination work took place in is barely known to most European citizens. Many Budapest, with three of the Hungarian au- people outside the country have misconceptions thors representing the Geographical Institute, about its domestic socio-economic conditions. Hungarian Academy of Sciences and one the A certain amount of controversy surrounds Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Belarus, and there are divergent views among Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Since 2010 academics and politicians. All this constitutes a we have been developing professional ties with challenge for researchers striving for objectivity. geographers in Belarus, benefitting from the ef- For these reasons (and with a view to fective support of Prof. Ivan Pirozhnik, former meeting the above challenge), the Geographical dean of the Belarusian State University, and Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Prof. Ekaterina Antipova. At their request, Acad. decided to devote a volume in its “in Maps” se- Vladimir Loginov also gave his support to the ries to Belarus. Initiated in 2005 under the editor- project, offering his invaluable experience and ship of Acad. Károly Kocsis, the series comprises expertise. After a period of extended consulta- the following volumes: South Eastern Europe in tion – which gave rise to several preliminary Maps (2005, 2007), Ukraine in Maps (2008) and Belarusian-Hungarian projects (e.g. EastMig, Hungary in Maps (2009, 2011). The present vol- 2012–2014, funded by the International Visegrad ume is thus the fourth in the series. Fund), publications (e.g. Jeney and Karácsonyi Belarus in Maps was created in cooperation eds. 2015, Minsk and Budapest, the two capi- with researchers and teaching staff at the Faculty tal cities), and an exchange project between the of Geography, Belarusian State University, and MTA and the NASB (2012–2015) – detailed tech- the Institute for Nature Management, National nical work on the atlas commenced in 2015. Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Special thanks Unlike earlier volumes in the series, Belarus are due to these fellow geographers in Belarus, in Maps began as a grassroots initiative. The atlas in view of their professional contributions and came into being due in large part to the lobby- their constructive advice. Special thanks are ing and support of Acad. Károly Kocsis, general due to Prof. Ivan Pirozhnik and Prof. Dmitry editor of the series. Funding for the publication Ivanov, deans of the Faculty of Geography of the of the atlas was finally received from the MTA’s 13 2016 grant fund. Belarus in Maps is thus being Byelorussian SSR), which were used in earlier published eight years after the previous English- historical periods. language atlas, Hungary in Maps. It is a small won- Both Belarusian and Russian are offi- der that the Reader now has access to this latest cial languages in Belarus. Having consulted volume in the series! Despite the difficulties that with the Belarusian contributors to the atlas, have arisen during the preparation of this atlas, we decided that it was important to use the we are committed to continuing the “in Maps” Belarusian versions of geographical names (see series, which has already become an important Appendix 1). Like Russian geographical names, cornerstone of regional geography – (stranove- Belarusian geographical names can be transliter- deniye (Rus.), krainaznaŭstva (Bel.) – in Hungary. ated (Romanized) in accordance with the British Drawing from our experience in preparing Standard, which was adopted in 1979 by both the previous atlases, we have introduced several the United States Board on Geographic Names innovations. Consequently, Belarus in Maps dif- and the Permanent Committee on Geographical fers in terms of its structure from the earlier atlas- Names for British Official Use (e.g. Homyel’, es. In a departure from the traditional descriptive Vitsyebsk, Rahachow, Iwye). An additional approach, we have sought to present Belarus by method of transliteration (Romanization) is de- focusing on specific issues. Alongside the general rived from the Łacinka of the 19th century and parts, the atlas thus contains chapters, case stud- was elaborated in 2000; it can seem rather al- ies that are specific to the country. These chapters ien (e.g. Homieĺ, Viciebsk, Rahačoŭ, Iŭje) in an summarize the findings of research conducted English-language setting. This script is similar to during the past decade. The subject-matters but not identical with the Latin transcription of covered include: the change of the Belarusian Slavic texts in Cyrillic lettering that was elaborat- nation and language use; the societal effects of ed in the 19th century using the scholarly system the Chernobyl disaster; and issues relating to and was based on Czech. the country’s distinctive economic model. The We decided to use the Łacinka-derived atlas has been supplemented with chapters on version because it was adopted in 2007 at regional geography and regional politics, and the Ninth United Nations Conference on the there is also a separate chapter on the role of ge- Standardization of Geographical Names, which ography in education and research. Text boxes issued an “Instruction on transliteration of have been used to present additional issues in Belarusian geographical names with letters of greater detail. In addition to almost a hundred Latin script”. Moreover, this has been the official maps and diagrams, the atlas is also illustrated international Romanization of Belarusian geo- with photographs on a geographical theme. graphical names since 2013. It should be noted, The data sources are indicated after each ta- however, that when referring to the country’s ble and diagram. Socio-economic data provided name, we have used the official name in English by BelStat (National Statistic Committee of the (Belarus) rather than the Romanized version of Republic of Belarus) was used for the regional and the country’s name in Belarusian (i.e. Bieĺaruś). raion-based maps. The thematic maps of Lieĺčycy Similarly, we use the word Russia rather than (Figure 4.3), Chojniki raions (Figure 4.4) and Minsk the Romanized version of the country’s name city (Figure 6.7) are based on fieldwork and data in Russian (i.e. Rossiya). The appendix contains collection by the authors. Some of the thematic a table with the various forms of the main geo- layers were prepared by Belkartografija under an graphical names appearing in the atlas. agreement with Belarusian chapter authors. The official Romanization of geographical The spelling of geographical names gave names in the neighbouring countries of Ukraine rise to several issues. Even the name of the coun- and Russia (Ukrainian National Transliteration try is sometimes unclear: alongside Belarus, such and the GOST standard) follows far more closely other forms as Biełarus, Byelorussia or indeed the British Standard (e.g. Chernihiv, Smolensk). White Russia can be found in other works. In this We have indicated on the maps the names of atlas, the country’s official name – Belarus – is geographical objects in the official transliterat- used (see Box 1.1). An exception is made when ed versions that are used in the given country referring to older names for the country (e.g. [e.g. Dnepr (Rus.), Dniapro (Bel.), Dnipro (Ukr.)] 14 or we have used their official versions in the literally means “Lowland along the Dniapro [riv- countries that existed in the past (e.g. Gomel, er]”, is shown as Dniapro Lowland rather than as Vit’ebsk). In the case of ordinary words that are Prydniapro Lowland. Russian rather than Belarusian, we have adhered Readers may be interested to know that to the British Standard (e.g. dacha, elektrichka). we had many positive experiences during our To enhance readability, the Belarusian time in Belarus. We found the Belarusians to be terms for administrative units and their English a hospitable, open, and helpful people. Despite counterparts have been used as synonyms (e.g. the difficulties, any hurdles to our professional voblasć – region, raion – district). Further, when cooperation were quickly overcome. We warmly using Belarusian terms, we have omitted inflec- recommend that readers not only look at maps tions (e.g. Homieĺ voblasć instead of Homieĺskaja of the country but also visit Belarus! This lit- voblasć). tle-known European country is rich in natural When providing English versions of various beauty and cultural heritage. Belarusian geographical areas or features, we have Our goal in publishing this latest volume used either the uninflected forms of proper nouns in the “in Maps” series is to offer a regional ge- (e.g.