Overview

Background

The territory that now composes Belarus was at times part of Lithuania, Poland, and the Russian Empire. In 1922, Belarus became part of the USSR as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). In 1991, the country became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, Belarus has retained closer ties to Russia than any other former Soviet republic has, and attempts to forge a two-state union have occurred periodically since the mid-1990s. The...