The Bolshevik All-Russian council of Soviets declared the creation of the Western Oblast which consisted of the Vilno, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Minsk guberniyas ( or parts unoccupied by German troops ) to administer the Belarusian lands in the pre-front zone.

Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian insurgents were more numerous ( up to 30, 000 men at the peak of uprising ) and a little better armed, but there were 135, 000 Russian troops and 6, 000 Cossacks in Lithuania and another 45, 000 Russian troops in Volhynia.

Because of the composition of his troops, Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz is sometimes referred to as a Belarusian.

Russian is the most widely used language by Belarusians on the Internet, followed by Belarusian, English, and Polish.

In mid-2009 there were more than 22, 300 Belarusian Web sites, of which roughly 13, 500 domain names were registered with the top-level domain name ‘‘. by ’’.

The situation is complex, however, because the relatively free Russian media is allowed to transmit television programming, sell newspapers and conduct journalistic activities in Belarus ( though some Russian journalists have been expelled by the Belarusian government ) thus giving some members of the public, typically those in large cities with many Russian residents, access to an alternative point of view in the Russian language ( nearly all Belarusians understand and most of them speak Russian ).

In Belarusian the replacement by е is a mistake, in Russian, it is possible to use either е and ё in print in place of ё but the former is more common.

The Ruthenian language, corresponding to today's Belarusian and Ukrainian, was then called Russian, and was used as one of the chancellery languages by Lithuanian monarchs.

Today, the standard Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian vodkas are 40 % alcohol by volume ( ABV ) or 80 proof.

In May 2012, a Belarusian production directed by Anastasia Grinenko ( Belarus ), with choreography by Paul Emerson ( USA ) and Dmitry Yakubovich ( Belarus ) opened at the Belarus State Musical Theatre.

Between the 9th and 12th centuries, the Principality of Polotsk ( northern Belarus ) emerged as the dominant center of power on Belarusian territory, with a lesser role played by the Principality of Turaŭ in the south.

Due to military conquest and dynastic marriages the West Ruthenian ( Belarusian ) principalities were acquired by the expanding Lithuania, beginning with the rule of Lithuanian King Mindaugas ( 1240 – 63 ).

The first Belarusian book printed with the first printing press in the Cyrillic alphabet was published in Prague, in 1517, by Francysk Skaryna, a leading representative of the renaissance Belarusian culture.

Afterwards, it was replaced with the Polish language, commonly spoken by the upper classes of Belarusian society.

The last attempt to save the Commonwealth's independence was a Polish – Belarusian – Lithuanian national uprising of 1794 led by Tadeusz Kościuszko, however it was eventually quenched.

Thus a new period in Belarusian history started, with all its lands annexed by the Russian Empire, in a continuing endeavor of Russian tsars of " gathering the Rus lands " started after the liberation from the Tatar yoke by Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia.

German administration allowed schools with Belarusian language, previously banned in Russia ; a number of Belarusian schools were created until 1919 when they were banned again by the Polish military administration.

Some time in 1918 or 1919, Sergiusz Piasecki returned to Belarus, joining Belarusian anti-Soviet units, the " Green Oak " ( in Polish, Zielony Dąb ), led by Ataman Wiaczesław Adamowicz ( pseudonym: J. Dziergacz ).

As part of the Nazis ' effort to combat the enormous Belarusian resistance during World War II, special units of local collaborationists were trained by the SS's Otto Skorzeny to infiltrate the Soviet rear.

The Belarusian economy was completely devastated by the events of the war.

The effects of the Chernobyl accident in Belarus were dramatic: about 50, 000 km² ( or about a quarter of the territory of Belarus ) formerly populated by 2. 2 million people ( or a fifth of the Belarusian population ) now require permanent radioactive monitoring ( after receiving doses over 37 kBq / m² of caesium-137 ).

Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.

According to the 1999 Belarus Census, the Belarusian language is declared as a " language spoken at home " by about 3, 686, 000 Belarusian citizens ( 36. 7 % of the population ) as of 1999.

During the first 10 years of Lukashenko's presidency, most of the Belarusian media outlets ( newspapers, radio, television ) were brought under the control of the state.

Stalin allowed Chiang Ching-kuo to return to China with his Belarusian wife and two children in April 1937 after living in the USSR for 12 years.

Of the 346 deputies to the Belarusian Supreme Soviet elected in 1990, fourteen were still vacant three years later, owing to voter apathy.

In 2003, the Common Fund had been dominated for about 15 years by Nikolai Tarankov of Ukrainian or Belarusian heritage and KGB training.

He is famous for the first printing of the Bible in an East Slavic language ( in Old Belarusian ) in 1517, several decades after the first-ever printed book by Johann Gutenberg and just several years after the first Czech Bible ( 1506 ).

The original idea for the monument came from the Belarusian calligraphy professor Paval Siemchanka, who has been studying Cyrillic scripts for many years.

Łacinka was occasionally used in the Belarusian area mainly in the 19th century and first years of the 20th century.

Though rock music has risen in popularity in recent years, the Belarusian government has attempted to limit the amount of popular music aired on the radio, in favour of traditional Belarussian music.

2006 – An away goals defeat to Belarusian club Dinamo Minsk ends Zagłębie ’ s first UEFA cup appearance in over ten years

An opponent of Alexander Lukashenko's regime and a supporter of the Belarusian People's Front, he lived abroad for several years ( first in Finland, then in Germany and the Czech Republic ), but returned to his homeland just a month before his death.

During this years N. R. M., along with many other Belarusian bands, was unofficially banned from FM station broadcast in Belarus.

Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, ( 7 November 1878 – 24 October 1953 ), popularly known by the name of his magnum opus Chazon Ish, was a Belarusian born Orthodox rabbi who later became one of the leaders of Haredi Judaism in Israel, where his final 20 years, from 1933 to 1953, were spent.

In 1960's several years before his death, he started writing a memoir about the Belarusian soldiers at the Battle of Monte Cassino.

However, the planned uprising gained little support in the Belarusian nation tired by six years of constant war and the Red Army finally gained an upper hand.

Belavia was formed from the Belarusian Association of Civil Aviation, which already had over 60 years of experience in the transportation of people and cargo.

Adopted in 1994, three years after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union, this formal document establishes the framework of the Belarusian state and government and enumerates the rights and freedoms of its citizens.

After visiting Belarus he choreographed a Belarusian " folk " dance Bulba (" Potato "), which over the years indeed became a Belarusian folk dance.

In 1967, he became an employee of Republican radio, where he worked for 13 years as an editor, senior editor, and in the head division of Belarusian music.

Though rock music has risen in popularity in recent years, the Belarusian government has suppressed the development of popular music through various legal and economic mechanisms.

In order to be able to run for office, a candidate must be a Belarusian citizen by birth that is over thirty-five years old.