BELARUS (White Russia). — One of the 16 federated Republics constituting the U.S.S.R.
Declared autonomous in 1918 and adopting the Soviet regime in 1920, it was recognized by the new Russian government on 16 January 1921; it then became part of the U.S.S.R. as a federated State on 30 December 1922. Its territory, which originally comprised only that part of the former government of Minsk not annexed to Poland (59.6 thousand sq. km. with 1.6 million inhabitants), was expanded eastward in 1924–26 with the addition of the former governments of Vitebsk (except for Latgale, which passed to Latvia) and Mogilev. On the eve of the Second World War, Belarus extended over 126.6 thousand sq. km. and had 5.6 million inhabitants. Following the collapse of Poland in September 1939, Belarus incorporated the territories north of the Pripet, except for the Vilna area ceded to Lithuania, thus becoming a State of 226 thousand sq. km. with 10 million inhabitants. In July 1941, invaded by the Germans, it was incorporated into the Commissariat of Ostland; liberated by the Soviets in the summer of 1944, it was reconstituted within the borders of 1939, except for the cession of the Białystok–Suwałki sector (11 thousand sq. km. with about 600 thousand inhabitants) to the new Polish Republic.
At present, Belarus extends over 215 thousand sq. km. and has 9.4 million inhabitants.
In 1926, the Belarusians (who, like the Ukrainians and Great Russians, belong to the Slavo-Russian family) made up 81% of the population (compared with only 8% of Great Russians).
Their name derives from the prevalence of white (bielo) in their traditional dress; their distinctiveness is expressed in a physical type more slender and delicate than other Russian peoples, and in a language sufficiently differentiated within the Eastern Slavic domain. Since the recent war, the number of Jews (8.2% in 1926) living in Belarusian cities has declined, and the same is likely true of other Jewish minorities (Poles). The urban population percentage had grown only slightly in the pre-war period (from 17% to 25% between 1926 and 1939), while there remained a significant flow of Belarusians toward the northern regions of the U.S.S.R. and Siberia. Illiteracy, however, fell from 47% to 21% in the same period.
Minsk (in Belarusian Mensk), situated on a tributary of the Berezina, is the capital of Belarus; it had 239 thousand inhabitants in 1939 (of whom two-fifths were Jewish). Vitebsk (167 thousand), Gomel (144), and Mogilev (99) are, after the capital, the only population centers exceeding or approaching 100 thousand inhabitants. The considerable westward shift of the European border of the U.S.S.R. has somewhat altered the strategic and commercial position of these centers, without, however, substantially changing the role of Belarus, which remains one of the most delicate marginal zones of the entire Soviet system.
For ecclesiastical history, V. RUSSIA.