• Belarus is the state in the East Europe. The surface of Belarus is flat. There is the system of moraine ridges in the north, changing into the Belarusian ridge (345 m. high); in the south - Belarusian marshy woodlands.

• The head of the state is the President. He is elected by the universal suffrage on 5-years term. The legislature is the two-chamber National Assembly. It consists of the Republic Council (64 seats - 8 deputies are appointed by the President, 56 are elected by the regional representatives of the power) and the House of Representatives (110 seats, it is dissolved according to the decision of referendum in 1996).

• The climate is moderate continental. The average temperature in January is from -4 C in the Southwest and up to -8 C in the Northeast, in July from 17 C up to 19 C in the south. The precipitations are from 500 up to 700 mm annually.

• The Class society has arisen in the 1-st millenium. In the 10th-12th century the feudal princedoms Polotsk, Turovo-Pinskoe and others were formed in the structure of Kiev Russia. In the 13th - 14th its territories became part of the Grand Ducky of Lithuanian, since 1569 it is in the structure of Rech Pospolitaya. In the 16th century the forming of Belarusian nationality was finished. From the end of the 18th century the Belarusian lands are in the structure of the Russian empire. In 1863 - 64 the Belarusians took part in the Polish revolt. In February1918 the most part of the Belarusian grounds were occupied by the German armies. 1.1.1919. Belarus was proclaimed to be the Soviet republic. According to the Riga contract of 1921 the western part of the country was in the structure of Poland. Since 1922 the country is officially the part of the USSR. In 1939 after the signing of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Red Army invaded on the territory of Poland and the Western Belarus was joined to the Belarussian Soviet Socialist Republic. During the World War II the territory of the country was demolished very much, and the republic has lost more than 2,2 million people. Belarus declared its independence in August 1991.The political and economic rapprochement with the Russian Federation began at the end of the 90th years.

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