Bobruisk (Belarus) According to The Religion FAQs, Bobruisk is located 110 km southwest of Mogilev. The first mention of Bobruisk dates back to 1387. In the 16th century, the famous Bobruisk Castle was built in Bobruisk, rebuilt at the beginning of the 19th century, which did not succumb even to Napoleon’s army. Exiled Decembrists were serving their sentences in Bobruisk. In the 19th century it was one of the spiritual…
Read MoreLogoisk, Minsk Region (Belarus)
The city of Logoisk is located 40 km north of Minsk. Its surroundings are called “Belarusian Switzerland” for picturesque hills covered with forests. The history of Logoisk has been going on since the 11th century. In the city and its environs, the remains of a citadel of the 11th – 13th centuries, two ancient settlements, the remains of earthen ramparts and ditches, a park and the Church of St. Nicholas…
Read MoreEastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. For a long time, the definition has been the countries that were subject to the Warsaw Pact, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the enlargement of the EU, the border has moved further east. Today, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova will typically be characterized as Eastern European countries. The eastern border of Eastern Europe is at the Ural Mountains,…
Read MoreBelarus Overview
Belarus is located in Eastern Europe and was formerly part of the Soviet Union as the Belarusian SSR. The country has been an independent republic since 1991 and is divided into 6 provinces. Belarus borders Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Capital: Minsk Biggest city: Minsk State: republic Language: Belarusian, Russian Religion: Christian orthodoxy, Catholicism Surface: 207 600 km² Population: 9.5 million (2013) Population density: 46 inhabitants per km² Expectancy:…
Read MoreBelarus Population and Language
More than four in five people identify themselves as Belarusians (Belarusians). Of the minority groups, the Russians are the most; almost every tenth resident is of Russian descent. However, the boundary between Belarusians and Russians is vague and the Russian language is used more than the Belarussian. Many Russians were forcibly recommended to Belarus (Belarus) during the 1940s and 1950s, when there was a shortage of manpower as a result…
Read MoreArt in Belarus
Architecture The earliest buildings in Belarus were erected in wood and are not preserved for posterity. In the 1100s and 1200s, churches were erected in a distinctive Belarusian Romanesque style, inspired by Byzantine and East Slavic models. The large Byzantine domed, five-ship Cathedral of St. Sofia in Polatsk, built in the 11th century, shows kinship with similar cathedrals in Kiev and Novgorod, as well as the Church of the Annunciation…
Read MoreBelarus Knowledge and Culture
Belarusian culture has evolved in the span between a national cultural heritage with strong roots in the rural culture of the countryside, and external influences, especially in the form of an urbanized classic cultural heritage that has been communicated through regional centers of power such as Warsaw and Moscow. In the last century, Russian and Soviet influence in particular has been strong. A central figure in Belarusian cultural history was…
Read MoreBelarus History
The country’s central location in Eastern Europe means that the history of Belarus is characterized by changing political alliances. In the Middle Ages river transport played a major role and made the north-south axis important, from the fifteenth century the areas have been influenced by changing political centers of gravity in the west and east. During the Kiev Empire (c. 850-1240), Polatsk and Turaw grew to become the two most…
Read More