In the following excerpt, Zaprudnik, summarises the modern status of this remarkable country and places it in the world.

“In the modern world-particularly in the complex passage of Eastern Europe from communism to democracy, threatened by the disruptive forces of chauvinism, Belarus can be viewed as a laboratory of changes, to which a careful evolutionary approach must be taken. Located in the geographic middle of the European continent and straddling the East and West, Belarus has been the arena for the hundreds of military battles and encounters of sundry tongues and creeds. By necessity, the Belarusian people have become deeply imbued with a tolerance of other people’s views and needs. Their historical experience shows that force and violence do not solve problems but, only postpone and aggravate them. This experience has translated into political cautiousness, gradualism, and an evolutionary methodology in solving problems. Taught throughout their history by suffering and sacrifice, the Belarusians have indeed developed a deep sense of humanity.”

“Of modest size and economic potential on the world scale, Belarus epitomizes both the woes of history and the predicaments of the modem age. It lost more then two million people to Stalinist genocide and as many more in the whirlwind of World War 2. Twenty-five per cent of its present-day population of more than 10 million, including 800,000 children, live in the area affected by 70 per cent of the nuclear fallout from Chernobyl. Yet amidst all its shortages and dire needs, and beset by a burdensome legacy of yesteryear that has significantly slowed progress, the republic continues to display an overall calmness (sometimes mistakenly interpreted as meekness and docility ) that could serve as an example for others.”

“The outside world is finally beginning to become acquainted with this East European nation that had been all but hidden in the shadow of a military superpower. Emerging from behind the information curtain as an independent state, Belarus will gradually present itself to the world in all of its colours and shades, offering humanity both its historic experience and its peaceful nature.”

The Belarus people were among the first to accept Christianity through the missionary work of the monks Cyril and his brother almost one thousand years ago. They were ahead of others in the development of the printing press and the Bible was printed by the philosopher and astronomer, Francisk Skarina at the same time that Martin Luther was active in Germany. The patron saint of Belarus, Euphrasinya of Polotsk, belonged to the ruling class during the Polish domination of Belarus. At sixteen years old she refused to marry and joined the convent with the vision that she would serve the real needs of the poor and needy of Belarus. She was a philosopher, geographer, an expert on world religions as well as a princess.

The people of Belarus have been divided and fought over throughout their history, being at times part of Poland, at other times a part of Baltic empires and a large part of the time a part of the Russian Empire. It is an unanswered question why this part of the world, which lies exactly in the centre of Europe and Asia has endured so much warfare and hardship. The people of Belarus are by nature very tolerant and non-aggressive. They have been profoundly religious. Yet history has time and again brought unbearable suffering to her soul .The climate is a northerly one and is not easy to grow enough food in the short summer. It can never be said that life in Belarus has been easy one even before the Communist revolution.

There have been three great tragedies in this republic since the turn of the century. During World War 2 (called the Great Patriotic War) Hitler turned all of his-vengeance on the Belarusian nation. There is a monument now standing outside Minsk, which stands where the former village of Khatin once stood. All of the people in this village were gathered in a barn, which was set on fire, and their homes were burned to the ground . There was one survivor to tell the tale and a statue stands in the place where he found his son who had been shot by the German army. At this site there burns a light for hundreds of villagers, which were destroyed in this way during a two-week blood bath by the Nazis. There are a least 25 sites created to remember the concentration camps which contained between 30,000 and 200,000 people each. In the final toll, Belarus lost one third of its population to Hitler during a reign of terror to match no other in the history of Europe. It has been a popular belief of political leaders that the country that owns the “heartland” or corridor between Europe and Asia can own the world. This is Belarus.

During the worst years of the Stalin regime, Belarus was again to experience the barbarism of uncontrolled power and fear. In an insidious war against those who might oppose him, Stalin had the most independent or religious sent to their execution and placed in mass graves of sometimes 30,000 which were hidden in the dense forests.

On April 26,1986 an even greater tragedy silently befell this nation which lay under the constraining power of the old Soviet regime. The Chernobyl nuclear reactor, which was, positioned just a few miles south of Belarus on Ukrainian soil exploded. The prevailing winds carded the intense radiation of over 40 Hiroshima bombs north and the officials made a quick decision to create rain over Belarus before the cloud turned toward Moscow. This time the tragedy would not be over in a day or a year but would last for unknown generations in the future.

In many ways the tragedy is compounded because the effects of it are not easy to see. Unlike the photo of the dying child in Africa, the children who suffer from Chernobyl radiation develop illnesses and diseases slowly and many times without diagnosis. Most of the highly contaminated areas are in remote regions where the villages are similar, to those at the turn of the century .It is not uncommon to find a family living on the food produced on a plot of land behind the cottage, and for a family of seven or more to be living in a two or three room house without a toilet.

There is a high level of ignorance and superstitions still prevalent in these areas and through they might be able to watch a television, there is no real understanding of the rest of the world. In many ways, it is as though time has stood still. It is not unusual to find that one or both of the parents are alcoholic. Vodka was used by the former regime to pay the collective farm and factory workers and to saddle them with an addiction which would keep them pacified.

The children who come from these areas and other parts of Belarus may feel easily overwhelmed by the extreme differences they are at first exposed to. Chocolate, fruit and ice cream are great luxuries for most of the population especially now in a time of extreme shortages and inflation which makes it impossible to purchase new shoes or a new coat or fancy food.

Once commonly called White Russia, Belarus forms a border with Latvia and Lithuania on the north, Poland on the west, Russia on the east and the Ukraine on the south .It is 207,600 square kilometres in size. Belarus is a land of forests, lakes and marshes .The landscape is flat with woods covering approximately one-third of its territory.

Belarus’ proximity to the Baltic Sea provides a major moderating effect on the climate.
The average July temperature is 22^oC with high humidity.
January’s average temperature is –12^oC with frequent thaws.

Belarus has roughly 10.5 million people . Eighty per cent of the population is Belarussian .The remainder is comprised of Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Jews.

Two-thirds of the population are urban dwellers, the result of rapid industrialization after World War 2, before which only 20 per cent of Belarussians lived in cities.

Major centres include Minsk (the capital,a city of roughly 1.8 million), Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Brest and Grodno.

The devastation of World War 2 practically wiped out Belarus’ agriculture and industry, leading to intensive post-war restoration effort .As a result, a largely rural society was transformed almost overnight into a modern industrialized state.

As a part of Soviet Union, Belarus’ role was to supply the empire with trucks, cars, agricultural machinery, fertilizers and other agri-chemicals, timber products and agricultural produce, mainly potatoes and flax fibres. In return, it relied on the rest of the Union for oil, coal, natural gas, metals, cotton, synthetics, canned goods and pharmaceuticals.

In 1991,the collapse of the Soviet regime gave Belarus its independence. It unfortunately was left in a state of economic chaos that was worsened during its first years as a free country. Today Belarus struggles to make order from the chaos and, as with other republics that were dependent on the Soviet system, it still faces drastic shortages that are basic to a functioning society.