About Belarus
Рубрика: Английский язык | 13.05.2009 12:58 | admin
About Belarus
The Republic of Belarus is a new independent state that has been formed as a result of the dissolution of the USSR. There are a few variants of the origin of the name "Belarus". Here are two of them: Firstly, the white flax clothes of the ancient villagers, their fair hair and the whiteness of their skin. Secondly, when our ancient Slav lands were invaded by Tatars and Mongols, that part of Russia was clear of the invasion and remained "white".
Belarus occupies 207.600 square km. It stretches for 560 km from north to south and 650 km from east to west. It borders on the Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. So, it’s advantageously situated at the crossroads from Western Europe to the East. Such favourable situation has always attracted the enemy. There was not a single war in Eastern Europe that has missed Belarus.
The population of Belarus constitutes about 10 million people. Representatives of more than 160 nationalities live here. Significant numbers of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians live in the Republic along with Belarusians. Читать полностью »