Belarus – Education
Teaching is public and free. The compulsory schooling that begins when the children are six years old includes a primary school of four years and a superstructure of five years. This is followed by another voluntary two-year superstructure, which ends with a graduation certificate.
In accessing higher education, which takes place at a number of public and vocational educational institutions, including 12 universities (1994), special consideration is given to the orphans and to the disabled and victims of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in neighboring Ukraine.
Since independence from the Soviet Union, the education system has strived to ensure that education, despite the lack of textbooks at all levels, is in Belarusian and deals with the country’s own conditions.
ETYMOLOGY: The name Belarus is translated from Belarusian Belarus, by bely ‘white’ and intoxicating ‘Russia’.
DANISH NAME: Belarus
CAPITAL CITY: Minsk
POPULATION: 9,499,000 (Source: COUNTRYaah)
AREA: 207,480 km²
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE (S): Belarusian, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, others
RELIGION: Russian Orthodox 80%, Catholics 17%, others 3%
COIN: Belarusian ruble
CURRENCY CODE: BYR
ENGLISH NAME: Belarus
INDEPENDENCE: 1991
POPULATION COMPOSITION: Belarusians 78%, Russians 13%, Poles 4%, Ukrainians 3%, others 2%
GDP PER residents: 1900 $ (2007)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men 63 years, women 74 years (2007)
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, HDI: 0.794
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, POSITION: 67
INTERNET DOMAIN NAME: .town
Belarus is a Republic of Eastern Europe between Poland and Russia. Until 1991, the country was a republic of the Soviet Union, and ties with Russia remain close. The landscape is predominantly lowland with large wetlands.
Belarus was hit very hard by the fighting and the German occupation during World War II, approximately 200 towns were laid in ruins and thousands of villages were burned. Most of the cities, including the capital Minsk, are therefore newly built. Belarus was the country most severely affected by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Find two-letter abbreviation for each independent country and territory, such as BY which stands for Belarus.
Belarus (Religion)
The Belarusian Orthodox Church is part of the Russian Orthodox Church as an exarchate (see exarch) under the Moscow Patriarchate; it is headed by the “Metropolitan of Minsk and Grodno, Exarch for the whole of Belarus”. Most traditionally belong to this church. In the western areas, however, some belong to the Roman Catholic Church and to the Roman Orthodox Church (cf. United Churches). Judaism is also represented. Baptists and other Protestants form minority groups. Check youremailverifier for Belarus social condition facts.
Belarus – Constitution
Constitution of the Republic is from November 1996. It was adopted after a referendum, in which the term of office of the incumbent President was also extended from 1999 to 2001; in 2004, the constitution was amended to allow the president to be elected for a third term in september 2006.
The President appoints half of the 12 members of the Constitutional Court as well as eight of the 64 members of the Council of Republic, viz. The upper house of the new parliament with two chambers. The president must approve the other candidates elected by indirect election at regional council meetings for four years. The House of Representatives, the House of Representatives, has 110 members to be elected for four years by universal suffrage. Its members can not abstain, but are forced to vote yes or no to bills.
The government, headed by a prime minister, consists in addition to appointed ministers of all the chairmen of the state committees, the head of the presidential administration, and the chairman of the state control committee.
Belarus (Military)
The Armed Forces is (2006) at 72,940. The army is at 29,600, the air force at 18,170 and common parts, ground-to-ground missile units, at 25,170. The period of service for conscripts is 9-12 months. The reserve is approximately 289,500. The forces are equipped with newer Soviet-produced equipment. The army is dominated by armored units organized for mobile operations in plains. Following on from the military cooperation agreement with Russia, the goal is to carry out a complete reintegration of the Belarusian air defense forces into the Russian air defense system. The security and border forces total 110,000. As Belarus is an inland state, it has no navy.
Belarus – mass media
Before glasnost only official media existed, all under party control, but after Belarus’s independence, the number of print media increased to approximately 580 (1992), of which 140 in Belarusian.
The censorship ceased, which meant that foreign radio could be received. However, state control of the media was restored after the election of Alexander Lukashenko as president in 1994, and since then several independent radio stations and newspapers have been shut down.
Russian has once again become all-dominating in the media, and Russian radio and television programs are being broadcast. State radio has two, TV one own program.
Belarus – music
Belarusian folk music is closely related to Russia and Ukraine. The oldest songs, which have pronounced diatonic melodies of poor tonal range, were often associated with the rhythms of working life; the folk song has included a wealth of genres with texts about the course of the year and life in the peasant society.
From the 1880’s, under the influence of Russian folk music, a polyphonic style was formed. The most common folk musical instrument was, as in Hungary and Romania, chopping boards, which were often used to accompany other instruments such as accordion, violin, scale and flute.
Under the influence of Polish church music, a polyphonic church song was introduced from the middle of the 1600’s, and from the same time the oldest known hymn melody of Belarusian origin originates. Not until the mid-1800’s. a real musical life arose in cities like Minsk, Grodno and Vitebsk.
After the formation of the Byelorussian Soviet Republic, music schools were opened in the main major cities. In Minsk, the Belarusian Opera and Ballet Theater was formed in 1933, and as early as 1924, a radio orchestra operated.
A Belarusian music conservatory was founded in 1932. Belarusian composers have written music in all genres, but it is not known outside the country’s borders.
