50 Fun Facts About Belarus

What is the capital and largest city of Belarus?

It has special status outside the six regions and was awarded the title Hero City in 1974.

Which of these countries does NOT border Belarus?

Belarus touches five countries: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

The name Belarus is usually translated as what?

Theories tie "white" to early Christianisation, white clothing, or lands never conquered by the Tatars.

Who became president of Belarus in 1994 and was later labelled "Europe's last dictator"?

The 1994 vote is considered the country's first and only free election; term limits were scrapped in 2004 and he remained in office for more than three decades.

Belarus is the only country in Europe that still does what?

It is one of only three European countries outside the Council of Europe, with Russia and Kosovo.

Roughly what share of the radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster landed on Belarus?

The reactor was only 16 km beyond the border in Ukraine, and about a fifth of Belarusian land was contaminated.

The 1991 agreement dissolving the Soviet Union was signed in which Belarusian forest?

Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich signed it at Viskuli on 8 December 1991, creating the CIS.

Białowieża Forest is the last stronghold of which animal, Europe's heaviest?

The last wild ones were shot there in 1921; the species was rebuilt from captive animals and now numbers over 800 in the forest.

Which banned flag, dating to the 1918 People's Republic, do Belarusian opposition groups fly?

The official red-green flag came from a 1995 referendum and is a de-communised version of the Soviet-era design.

What decorates the hoist edge of the official red-and-green flag of Belarus?

The pattern comes from traditional dress; the 1995 change removed the hammer, sickle and red star of the Soviet flag.

Draniki, the national dish of Belarus, are what?

Potatoes are so central that Belarusians are jokingly nicknamed "bulbashi" (potato people) by their neighbours.

Which two languages are both official in Belarus?

Although most call Belarusian their mother tongue, over 70% actually speak Russian at home.

Which painter, born near Vitebsk in 1887, is Belarus's most famous artistic son?

He founded an art school in Vitebsk after the revolution before leaving for Paris in 1923.

Which Belarusian oral historian won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Her books include Zinky Boys, on the Soviet-Afghan war, and Voices from Chernobyl.

Francysk Skaryna of Polotsk printed the first book in Eastern Europe, a Bible, in which city around 1517?

It was among the first Bibles printed in an East Slavic language, decades before Moscow had a press.

A 1067 clash on which river provides the traditionally accepted founding date of Minsk?

Minsk later fell under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1242.

Before 1795, Belarus was ruled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then which larger polity?

The Commonwealth was created by the Union of Lublin in 1569 and destroyed by the partitions of 1772-1795.

Roughly what fraction of its population did Belarus lose during World War II?

Some 2.2 million people died and 209 of 290 towns were destroyed; the population did not recover until 1971.

Which border stronghold saw the first major battle of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941?

Its defenders held out for weeks; the Soviets gave it the unique title "Hero Fortress" in 1965.

Until roughly when was Belarus's government almost entirely made up of former wartime partisans?

Former partisan leaders Kirill Mazurov and Pyotr Masherov ran the republic through its rapid industrialisation.

Belarus celebrates Independence Day on 3 July, which commemorates what?

A 1996 referendum moved it from 27 July, the 1990 sovereignty declaration date.

The Rada of the 1918 Belarusian People's Republic, still operating abroad, holds what record?

The Rada still exists abroad more than a century later.

Which two Belarusian castles, both UNESCO sites linked to the Radziwiłł family, are 29 km apart?

Mir is a 16th-century brick Gothic castle listed in 2000; Nesvizh, the family seat, followed in 2005.

Which 19th-century survey chain of measurement points through ten countries is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

It ran from Norway to the Black Sea and gave the first accurate measurement of a meridian arc.

Which Belarusian was the first from her country to win a Grand Slam singles title, in 2012?

She also won Olympic mixed-doubles gold that year with Max Mirnyi, who holds ten doubles majors.

Aryna Sabalenka became world No. 1 for the first time in which year, after winning her first major?

She reached world No. 1 the same year and later held the ranking for the entire 2025 season.

Biathlete Darya Domracheva won three gold medals for Belarus at which Winter Olympics?

She was awarded the Hero of Belarus medal for it and later married Norway's Ole Einar Bjørndalen.

Belarus finished fourth in 2002 Olympic hockey after a shock quarter-final win over which country?

Hockey is the state-sponsored second sport after football; Lukashenko himself plays regularly.

Which Belarusian gymnast won six gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics?

He is the only male gymnast ever to have been world champion in every event.

Which Belarusian manufacturer builds the world's largest dump truck, with a 450-tonne payload?

The BelAZ-75710 debuted in 2013 at the plant in Zhodino; tractors are the country's other heavy-machinery export.

Belarus and Russia are formally linked in a supranational confederation called what?

Founded by treaties in the late 1990s, it promised a common currency that has never materialised.

In May 2021 Belarus forced a Ryanair flight to land in Minsk to arrest which opposition journalist?

The Athens-Vilnius jet was diverted with a fake bomb threat; the EU responded with tougher sanctions.

Which former English teacher ran against Lukashenko in 2020 after her husband was jailed?

She set up a Coordination Council in Vilnius; Lithuania and Poland do not recognise Lukashenko as president.

Which annual arts festival, held in Vitebsk since 1992, showcases Slavic music?

Winners of its "Through Art to Peace" award get a star on the city's Square of Stars.

Kupala Night, the midsummer folk festival, is celebrated in Belarus on the night of which dates?

Belarus follows the Julian calendar date; revellers jump bonfires and hunt for a mythical fern flower.

Minsk's National Library, opened in 2006, is famous for having what shape?

The 23-storey polyhedron lights up at night and has an observation deck on top.

Which three major rivers run through Belarus?

The Neman flows to the Baltic while the Dnieper heads south to the Black Sea.

Belarus's highest point, Dzyarzhynskaya Hara, is only how tall?

The country is flat and marshy, with about 40% forest and some 11,000 lakes.

Roughly how many lakes does Belarus have?

Lake Narach in the north is the largest; the country sits between continental and maritime climates.

Belarus is divided into how many regions (oblasts)?

Each is named for its capital city, from Brest in the west to Vitebsk in the northeast.

Which Belarusian city is the country's second largest and capital of its southeastern region?

It sits in the area worst hit by Chernobyl fallout.

The Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs were separately founding members of what in 1945?

Stalin negotiated the extra seats to boost Soviet voting power in the General Assembly.

Belarus's currency was redenominated in July 2016 at what rate of old rubles to one new ruble?

Years of inflation had made the old notes worthless; the ruble had already lost 56% against the dollar in one day in 2011.

Which Polish-Lithuanian-American Revolutionary War hero was born in 1746 in what is now Belarus?

He is a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania and Belarus alike.

Vitebsk-born Zhores Alferov shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on what?

His double-heterostructure lasers made fibre-optic communication and CD players possible.

Polotsk, the oldest city in Belarus, is first mentioned in the chronicles in which year?

Its Saint Sophia Cathedral, built 1044-1066, deliberately rivalled those of Kyiv and Novgorod.

Which Belarusian city on the Neman near Poland is the centre of the country's Roman Catholic minority?

It sits just 15 km from Poland and 30 km from Lithuania.

Which Belarusian club has represented the country in the UEFA Champions League group stage?

The national team, by contrast, has never reached a major tournament.

Traditionally, how does a Belarusian host greet an honoured guest?

Rye bread dominates because the climate is too harsh for much wheat.

Minsk's metro, the ninth in the Soviet Union, opened in which year?

A 2011 bombing at Oktyabrskaya station killed 15 people; two men were executed for it within a year.