50 free Belarus trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Belarus is the landlocked country between Poland and Russia that most people know only from headlines about its long-serving president. There is far more to it: a medieval principality that rivalled Kyiv, five centuries inside the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the forest where the Soviet Union was formally dissolved, the heaviest wild animal in Europe, and a capital rebuilt from rubble in grand Stalinist style after losing a quarter of its people in World War II. This quiz covers geography (which sea does its Neman river reach?), history (Skaryna's Bible, the 1918 republic, Brest Fortress, Chernobyl's fallout, the Belovezha Accords), politics and symbols (why the opposition flies a white-red-white flag), culture (Chagall, Alexievich, Kupala Night, draniki) and sport (Domracheva, Azarenka, Sabalenka, that 2002 hockey upset over Sweden). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Belarus?
Minsk
It has special status outside the six regions and was awarded the title Hero City in 1974.
Q 02Which of these countries does NOT border Belarus?
Estonia
Belarus touches five countries: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Q 03The name Belarus is usually translated as what?
White Rus'
Theories tie "white" to early Christianisation, white clothing, or lands never conquered by the Tatars.
Q 04Who became president of Belarus in 1994 and was later labelled "Europe's last dictator"?
Alexander Lukashenko
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.
Q 05Belarus is the only country in Europe that still does what?
Carries out the death penalty
It is one of only three European countries outside the Council of Europe, with Russia and Kosovo.
Q 06Roughly what share of the radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster landed on Belarus?
About 70%
The reactor was only 16 km beyond the border in Ukraine, and about a fifth of Belarusian land was contaminated.
Q 07The 1991 agreement dissolving the Soviet Union was signed in which Belarusian forest?
Białowieża (Belovezhskaya Pushcha)
Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich signed it at Viskuli on 8 December 1991, creating the CIS.
Q 08Białowieża Forest is the last stronghold of which animal, Europe's heaviest?
European bison
The last wild ones were shot there in 1921; the species was rebuilt from captive animals and now numbers over 800 in the forest.
Q 09Which banned flag, dating to the 1918 People's Republic, do Belarusian opposition groups fly?
White-red-white
The official red-green flag came from a 1995 referendum and is a de-communised version of the Soviet-era design.
Q 10What decorates the hoist edge of the official red-and-green flag of Belarus?
A traditional embroidery-style ornament
The pattern comes from traditional dress; the 1995 change removed the hammer, sickle and red star of the Soviet flag.
Q 11Draniki, the national dish of Belarus, are what?
Potato pancakes
Potatoes are so central that Belarusians are jokingly nicknamed "bulbashi" (potato people) by their neighbours.
Q 12Which two languages are both official in Belarus?
Belarusian and Russian
Although most call Belarusian their mother tongue, over 70% actually speak Russian at home.
Q 13Which painter, born near Vitebsk in 1887, is Belarus's most famous artistic son?
Marc Chagall
He founded an art school in Vitebsk after the revolution before leaving for Paris in 1923.
Q 21Belarus celebrates Independence Day on 3 July, which commemorates what?
The 1944 Soviet liberation of Minsk from the Nazis
A 1996 referendum moved it from 27 July, the 1990 sovereignty declaration date.
Q 22The Rada of the 1918 Belarusian People's Republic, still operating abroad, holds what record?
World's longest-serving government in exile
The Rada still exists abroad more than a century later.
Q 23Which two Belarusian castles, both UNESCO sites linked to the Radziwiłł family, are 29 km apart?
Q 14Which Belarusian oral historian won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature?
Svetlana Alexievich
Her books include Zinky Boys, on the Soviet-Afghan war, and Voices from Chernobyl.
Q 15Francysk Skaryna of Polotsk printed the first book in Eastern Europe, a Bible, in which city around 1517?
Prague
It was among the first Bibles printed in an East Slavic language, decades before Moscow had a press.
Q 16A 1067 clash on which river provides the traditionally accepted founding date of Minsk?
The Nemiga
Minsk later fell under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1242.
Q 17Before 1795, Belarus was ruled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then which larger polity?
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Commonwealth was created by the Union of Lublin in 1569 and destroyed by the partitions of 1772-1795.
Q 18Roughly what fraction of its population did Belarus lose during World War II?
One in four
Some 2.2 million people died and 209 of 290 towns were destroyed; the population did not recover until 1971.
Q 19Which border stronghold saw the first major battle of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941?
Brest Fortress
Its defenders held out for weeks; the Soviets gave it the unique title "Hero Fortress" in 1965.
Q 20Until roughly when was Belarus's government almost entirely made up of former wartime partisans?
The late 1970s
Former partisan leaders Kirill Mazurov and Pyotr Masherov ran the republic through its rapid industrialisation.
Mir and Nesvizh
Mir is a 16th-century brick Gothic castle listed in 2000; Nesvizh, the family seat, followed in 2005.
Q 24Which 19th-century survey chain of measurement points through ten countries is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
The Struve Geodetic Arc
It ran from Norway to the Black Sea and gave the first accurate measurement of a meridian arc.
Q 25Which Belarusian was the first from her country to win a Grand Slam singles title, in 2012?
Victoria Azarenka
She also won Olympic mixed-doubles gold that year with Max Mirnyi, who holds ten doubles majors.
Q 26Aryna Sabalenka became world No. 1 for the first time in which year, after winning her first major?
2023
She reached world No. 1 the same year and later held the ranking for the entire 2025 season.
Q 27Biathlete Darya Domracheva won three gold medals for Belarus at which Winter Olympics?
Sochi 2014
She was awarded the Hero of Belarus medal for it and later married Norway's Ole Einar Bjørndalen.
Q 28Belarus finished fourth in 2002 Olympic hockey after a shock quarter-final win over which country?
Sweden
Hockey is the state-sponsored second sport after football; Lukashenko himself plays regularly.
Q 29Which Belarusian gymnast won six gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics?
Vitaly Scherbo
He is the only male gymnast ever to have been world champion in every event.
Q 30Which Belarusian manufacturer builds the world's largest dump truck, with a 450-tonne payload?
BelAZ
The BelAZ-75710 debuted in 2013 at the plant in Zhodino; tractors are the country's other heavy-machinery export.