Belarus

Belarus is a country in eastern Europe.

It has no seaside. The land is mostly flat. There are big forests and lots of lakes and rivers. The capital city is called Minsk.

Belarus is a country in eastern Europe with no coast. Its neighbors are Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. It is about one-third the size of Ukraine, its neighbor to the south.

Most of Belarus is flat or gently hilly. Long ago, during the last ice age, huge sheets of ice covered the land and left behind low ridges, wide plains and many lakes. Forests cover nearly two-fifths of the country. Its capital, Minsk, is near the middle. About 9.1 million people lived in Belarus in 2025.

Belarus is bordered by Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest, Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south and Poland to the west, and covers about 207,600 km². Until 1991 it was the smallest of the three Slavic republics of the Soviet Union, after Russia and Ukraine.

Its topography was shaped largely by glaciation during the Pleistocene: flat lowlands are separated by low, level-topped morainic ridges from the Valday glaciation, and more than half the land lies below 200 m. Nearly two-fifths is forested. The World Bank estimated 9,085,991 people in 2025; Britannica notes that population declined steadily in the two decades after independence, as birth rates fell and death rates rose, and that about one-fifth of the people live in Minsk.

Minsk is the biggest city in Belarus.

It has wide streets, parks and fountains. Homyel is another big city by a river. Two old castles are World Heritage Sites.

Minsk, the capital, was first written about in 1067. It became the capital of the Belorussian republic in 1919. The city was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War and was rebuilt as a modern city with wide boulevards and parks. Today about one in five people in Belarus lives in Minsk.

Other big cities include Homyel (Gomel) in the southeast, Mahilyow, Vitsyebsk and Hrodna, near the Polish border. Two castles are World Heritage Sites: Mir Castle, begun at the end of the 1400s, and the castle at Nesvizh, built by the Radziwiłł family, which kept it from the 1500s until 1939.

Minsk is first recorded in 1067 and Brest in 1019. Minsk became the capital of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, formed on January 1, 1919, and remained the capital after independence; Britannica describes it as a sprawling modern city almost entirely rebuilt after its near destruction in World War II. Wikidata gives 1,995,091 residents (2026).

UNESCO inscribed Mir Castle in 2000: begun in Gothic style at the end of the 15th century, extended in Renaissance and then Baroque styles, abandoned for nearly a century and badly damaged in the Napoleonic period, then restored at the end of the 19th century with a landscaped park. The Radziwiłł complex at Nesvizh (2005), held by the family from the 16th century until 1939, has a residential castle of ten interconnected buildings around a six-sided courtyard; UNESCO says the family made Nesvizh influential in the sciences, arts, crafts and architecture. Homyel (Gomel), in the southeast, had 499,853 residents in 2026, according to Wikidata.

Belarus is very flat.

Its highest hill is only about 345 meters tall. It has more than 10,000 lakes. In the south there is a huge, wet marsh. In winter, the rivers freeze.

Ice sheets shaped Belarus during the last ice age. They left long, low ridges of glacial material, and between them wide, marshy lowlands with many small lakes. The highest point, Dzyarzhynskaya Hill, is only about 345 meters above sea level. In the south, the Pripet Marshes are among the largest wetlands in Europe.

Belarus has more than 20,000 rivers and streams and more than 10,000 lakes. Most of the country drains into the Dnieper River, which flows south to the Black Sea, while the Western Dvina and the Neman flow to the Baltic Sea. The rivers usually freeze from December to late March. Winters are cold, about −4 to −8 °C in January, and in July the highest temperatures are usually about 18 °C.

Ridges of glacial moraine from the Valday glaciation form the higher ground: the Belarusian Ridge runs northeast from the Polish border, widening into the Minsk Upland, and the Ashmyany Upland lies between Minsk and Vilnius. The highest point, Dzyarzhynskaya Hill, is 345 m (Britannica gives 346 m). South of the ridge, the very flat Central Byarezina Plain merges into the Pripet Marshes (Palyessye), a waterlogged structural trough filled with glacial outwash and, because of its minimal relief, among the largest wetlands in Europe.

More than 20,000 streams, about 90,600 km in total, and more than 10,000 lakes (the largest Narach, Osveyskoye and Drysvyaty) drain mainly to the Dnieper and the Black Sea, with the Western Dvina, Neman and Bug flowing to the Baltic; a ship canal linking the Mukhavyets and Pripet joins the two sea basins. The climate is cool continental, moderated by the Atlantic: January means of about −4 °C in the southwest to −8 °C in the northeast, July maxima near 18 °C and 530–700 mm of precipitation. Mixed forest has pine and spruce in the north and more oak and hornbeam in the south, with birch everywhere.

Big European bison live in Belarus.

They live in an old forest. Beavers live along the rivers. Elk, deer, wild pigs and foxes live in the woods too.

The Belovezhskaya Forest, on the border with Poland, is one of the largest pieces of ancient mixed forest left in Europe. Trees there have grown very tall. It is the main home of the European bison, or wisent. After the First World War there were none left in the wild, but bison bred in captivity were returned to the forest.

Elk, deer and wild boars live in this and other forests of Belarus, along with hares, squirrels, foxes, badgers and martens. Beavers live along the rivers. Birds include grouse, partridges, woodcocks, snipes and ducks, and many rivers are full of fish.

The Belovezhskaya (Białowieża) Forest straddles the Polish border; Britannica calls it one of the largest surviving areas of primeval mixed forest in Europe, covering more than 1,200 km² on both sides, preserved for centuries as a royal and then imperial hunting forest. UNESCO's transboundary World Heritage property covers 141,885 ha on the Baltic-Black Sea watershed and holds the largest population of the European bison (Bison bonasus), which had become extinct in the wild after World War I and was reintroduced through captive breeding. Britannica dates the Belarusian portion's inscription to 1992.

Elk, deer and boars live there and in other forests, with hares, squirrels, foxes, badgers, martens and, along rivers, beavers; birds include grouse, partridge, woodcock, snipe and ducks. Britannica also records that the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine in April 1986 left most of its fallout in Belarus, and that in the early 21st century about one-fifth of the land was still radioactively contaminated.

About 9.1 million people live in Belarus.

People speak Belarusian and Russian. Potatoes go into many meals. Potato pancakes and potato dumplings are favorites.

About 9.1 million people lived in Belarus in 2025, and more than three in four live in towns and cities. Belarusian and Russian are both official languages. Belarusian is a Slavic language written in the Cyrillic alphabet and related to Russian and Ukrainian. About four in five people are Belarusians; Russians, Poles and Ukrainians are the largest other groups.

Potatoes are in almost everything: potato dumplings, potato pancakes and baked potato pie are popular, often served with rye bread. Other dishes include borsch, a beet soup, and pastries filled with meat or cabbage. One of the best-known festivals is the Slavic Bazaar in Vitsyebsk, an international festival of the arts.

The World Bank estimated 9,085,991 people in 2025. Britannica gives ethnic Belarusians as about four-fifths of the population and Russians as roughly one-tenth, with most of the rest Poles and Ukrainians and smaller Jewish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Tatar communities. Belarusian and Russian are official. Belarusian, central to national identity, is an East Slavic language written in Cyrillic, with dialects transitional to Russian and Ukrainian and loanwords from Polish and Russian; an older form was the official language of the grand duchy of Lithuania. About half of people consider themselves nonreligious; roughly two-fifths are Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholics, strongest around Hrodna, are the largest minority.

The urban share rose from about a fifth in 1940 to more than two-thirds by the mid-1990s and more than three-fourths in the early 21st century. Cuisine uses local crops: potatoes in dumplings, pancakes and baked potato pie, with rye bread, borsch, pork stew and meat- or cabbage-filled pastries. Flax has long been an important crop. Festivals include the Slavic Bazaar in Vitsyebsk and the Spring International Music Festival in Minsk.