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Country of the Week: Belarus Belarus Is a Landlocked Country in Eastern Europe, Near Russia and Poland

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Country of the Week: Belarus Belarus Is a Landlocked Country in Eastern Europe, Near Russia and Poland Country of the Week: Belarus Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, near Russia and Poland. Belarus is a small, landlocked machines, such BASIC country in Eastern Europe. as tractors. What does landlocked mean? (It is Belarus has surrounded by other countries with no about 9 and access to the sea.) What is the largest a half million 12 country that borders Belarus? (Russia.) people. Close to Belarus is mostly flat, with a cool climate. two million live in the capital and largest The national animal, the European bison, city, Minsk. Minsk is a beautiful city with almost became extinct in the 1920s. The historic buildings that sits near two rivers. animal is still very rare and there are only It is known for being very clean and safe. a few thousand in the world. Does this What do you notice about the city look like the American bison? Although from this picture? President Alexander the country does grow crops like wheat Lukashenko has led the country for 25 and potatoes, the most important part years. He is a harsh ruler and some have of the economy is manufacturing large criticized him for limiting freedom. NEXT GENERAL Belarus is a landlocked Europe that still has the death penalty. The country in Eastern Europe. government owns important industries, just What countries border it? (Russia, as it did when it was part of the communist Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.) It Soviet Union. Unemployment in the country has a cool climate and thousands of lakes. is less than one percent. Belarus is not About 40 percent of the country is forest popular with tourists. Its main industry is land. The national animal, the European manufacturing, especially large machines bison, is related to the American bison. such as tractors. Belarus also has large There are only about 6,000 in the world, amounts of peat, which is dried plant and 1,400 live in Belarus. matter that is used as fuel and fertilizer. Belarus has a population of about Agriculture is not as important as it once 9.5 million. More than 70 percent live was. Some of the country’s main crops are in urban areas. Just under 2 million barley, wheat, and potatoes. In 1986, there people live in the capital and largest city, was an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear Minsk. Minsk is a clean and beautiful city, power plant in neighboring Ukraine. About located on two rivers. What can you tell 70 percent of the radiation came into about the city from this picture? Belarus. More than 30 years later, about Alexander Lukashenko has been president one-fifth of the farmland in Belarus still since 1994. He is a harsh ruler who limits cannot be farmed. How do you think this freedoms. Belarus is the only country in affected the economy? NEXT ADVANCED Located in Eastern this mean? (Likely to become endangered Europe, Belarus has a unless the situation threatening it improves.) population of about 9.5 million. President The capital and largest city, Minsk, sits Alexander Lukashenko has run the on the Svislach River, seen here, and the country since 1994. What was it part of Nyamiha River. It dates back to the 11th before this? (The Soviet Union.) He has century. The city has 19th century churches, been called “the last dictator in Europe” along with stark Stalin-era architecture. and accused of corruption and human Just as when it was part of the Soviet Union, rights abuses. Partly because of this, the government maintains state ownership Belarus has not joined the European of important industries and discourages Union. It is also the only country in privatization. The unemployment rate is Europe with the death penalty. around 1 percent. Peat is one of the Belarus is landlocked, but it has many country’s most important resources. What rivers and thousands of lakes. About 40 is peat? (Decayed vegetable matter found percent of the land is forest. The national in bogs and used for fertilizer and fuel.) animal, the European bison, was hunted Since the Soviet era, Belarus’s economy nearly to extinction in the early 20th has relied on manufacturing, especially century. About a quarter of the world’s heavy machinery such as tractors. Belarus European bisons live in Belarus. They are has many of historic sites, but it attracts currently listed as “vulnerable.” What does few tourists. Why? NEXT 12 NewsCurrents Week of April 22, 2019 Copyright 2019 Knowledge Unlimited Country of the Week: Belarus (cont'd) Belarus became a part of the Russian Empire in the 1700s. By the end of the 1700s, Belarus people speak BASIC was part of the Russian Empire, Russian, and and in the 1920s it became part of the only about 20 Soviet Union, which was centered in Russia. percent of the During World War Two, the Soviet Union population 13 fought against Germany. World War Two was speaks terrible for Belarus, and millions of people Belarusian, but the two languages have died. This statue is part of a memorial in the a lot in common. One of the most famous village of Khatyn to all the people who died people from Belarus is the painter Marc during the war. What do you think this Chagall. He was raised in a Jewish family, statue shows? How does it make you feel? and many of his paintings, such “The In 1517, Francysk Skarina translated Fiddler,” show images and scenes from his and printed the Bible in the Belarusian village growing up. What do you think is language. This helped Belarusian develop happening in this painting? What do into a modern language. Today, most you think of it? END GENERAL Belarus was part of of the people in Belarus are ethnically the Russian Empire Belarusian. The Belarusian language and throughout the 1800s and became one Russian are both official languages of of the first republics of the Soviet Union the country, but Russian is much more in the early 20th century. What was the widely spoken. Francysk Skaryna was a Soviet Union? (A group of states with a publisher who translated and printed a centralized Communist government based version of the Bible in old Belarusian in in Moscow, Russia.) Belarus suffered huge the early 1500s. This created the basis for losses during World War Two. What was the development of the modern Belarusian the main country that fought against language. Do you think it is important the Soviet Union in World War Two? to preserve this language? Why? (Nazi Germany.) It is estimated that One of the 20th century’s most famous between one-quarter and one-third of the painters, Marc Chagall, was born and country’s population died. In 1943, almost raised in a Jewish family in Belarus. everyone in the town of Khatyn was Chagall used bright colors and scenes murdered in a brutal attack. This statue that were not realistic. Even after he in the Khatyn Memorial reminds people moved to Paris, he continued to include of what happened. What do you think of images from his childhood village in when you look at this statue? his work. This painting is called “The The Soviet Union broke up in the early Fiddler.” What do you notice about this 1990s. Today, more than 80 percent painting? END ADVANCED Belarus was controlled by In 1517, Francysk Skaryna translated Lithuania, Poland, and, by and printed the Bible in old Belarusian. He the end of the 18th century, the Russian is credited with laying the foundation for Empire. In 1922, Belarus became part of the the modern Belarusian language. Today, Soviet Union. It is estimated that between 2 more than 80 percent of the population and 3 million people were killed in Belarus is ethnically Belarusian. But about 70 in World War Two. More than two-thirds percent of the people speak Russian, while of the Jewish population was killed in only 23 percent speak Belarusian. Do you the Holocaust. The village of Khatyn was think it is important to preserve this the site of a terrible massacre during the language? Why? war. This statue, depicting the only adult The painter Marc Chagall was born and to survive and his dead son, is part of raised in Belarus. Chagall’s work has the Khatyn Memorial, commemorating the strong colors and elements of cubism civilian casualties in the war. What does and surrealism. What is cubism? (An this statue evoke for you? In 1986, there art movement that emphasized geometric was a terrible accident at a nuclear power shapes and abstract forms over realism.) plant in Ukraine. What was it called? He was heavily influenced by the Jewish (Chernobyl.) About 70 percent of the community in which he grew up. What radiation entered Belarus. Twenty percent elements of modernism do you see in of Belarus’s farmland is still contaminated. his painting “The Fiddler”? END Copyright 2019 Knowledge Unlimited Week of April 22, 2019 NewsCurrents 13.
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