Country in the heart of Europe

The Republic of Belarus (the short name is Belarus) was founded on January 1, 1919. It was included in the body of the USSR beginning with December 30 1922. On July 27 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus adopted the Declaration of state sovereignty of the Republic of Belarus. The Declaration clearly defines its goal: to make republic the neutral state and its territory – a non-nuclear zone.

After the World War II Belarus became one of the founders of the United Nations Organization. Now it has economic and political relations with 120 countries in the world.

Belarus is the presidential republic. The state power in the Republic is realized in three structures – legislative, executive and judicial. The President of the Republic of Belarus is the head of the state. The executive body is the Soviet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, headed by the Prime-minister. Local government and self government are carried out through local deputy Soviets, executive and managing bodies, bodies of self-government.

Belarus is situated in the eastern part of the European continent. It covers an area of 207, 600 square kilometers. According to size, Belarus takes the 13-th place in Europe. The distance from North to South is 560 kilometres (350 miles), from East to West – 650 (403 miles). In the North and East it borders on Russia, in the south-East – on the Ukraine, in the West – on Poland and in the North-West—on Latvia and Lithuania. The borders of Belarus are primarily land-borders, only partially they match with rivers: the Boug – on the Polish border, the Dnieper – on the Ukrainian border and the Sozh – on the Russian border.

The capital of Belarus is the city of Minsk. The distance from Minsk to Vilnius is 215 kilometres, to Warsaw is 500 kilometres, to Moscow – 700 kilometres, to Berlin – 1060 kilometres, to Vienna – 1300 kilometres.

Our native land is remarkably beautiful with its blue lakes and ribbons of rivers edged with thick forests, with its endless expanses of fields, meadows and swamp, with its varied flora and fauna. There are about 3000 rivers flowing over the territory of Belarus. All the rivers of our republic belong to two sea-basins of the Black and Baltic Seas. The longest rivers are the Dnieper, the Neman, the Western Boug and the Western Dvina.

The republic has over 10 000 lakes. The largest of them are the Naroch, the Osveyskoye and the Drisvyaty.

About 40 per cent of the territory of Belarus is forest land with predominance of coniferous forest. Picturesque mixed forests of fur, oak, birch and aspen are also common. Marshes constitute 13 per cent of our territory and have very important climatic and hydrologic meaning. We have 4 national parks – among them Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park (founded in 1939 as a reserve. UNESCO recorded it as a world heritage; its area is 957 sq. km.), Braslavskiye Ozyora National Park, Pripyatsky National Park and Narochanski National Park.

At present the fauna of Belarus includes more than 31 thousand species. Among mammals the most numerous are hedgehog, mole, common field mouse, pine marten, red deer, boar, among the birds are chaffinch, tit, oriole and goldfinch; among reptiles – sand lizard and grass snake. Less frequent are such species as lynx, mink, ermine, weasel and bats. The population of brown bear, badger and aurochs reduced. They have been recorded in the Red Book of Belarus.

The nature of Belarus has suffered much from the nuclear disaster that took place in Chernobyl in 1986. 20 per cent of the farmland was affected by radioactive pollution. The radiation has spoiled much of our soil and air, rivers and lakes. Besides, it has badly affected the health of people and the climate. A lot is being done to decrease the consequences of the disaster but still more is to be done.

Our republic is not rich in natural resources. Its area includes deposits of oil (rather small), coal, iron ores, nonferrous metal ores, dolomites, potassium and rock salts. Explored commercial reserves of rock salt at Mozyr, Davydov and Starobin deposits exceed 22 bln tons, i.e. they are practicully inexhaustible.

Huge are the deposits of peat, refractory clay, sand for glass production, different raw materials for construction. A prospective resource of sapropel, reserves of which, according to preliminary data are estimated at 2 bln cu.m.

Belarus also possesses unique reserves of mineral waters for drinking and balneological purposes.

Belarus exports mainly potassium salts and timber.

The climate is moderately continental, wet, the aveage temperature in January –6 degrees C (20F) and in July +18 (64 F).

The overall population of the Republic is 10 million people. The main ethnic groups are: Belarusians _78%, Russians – 13%, Polish – 4%, Ukrainians – 3%, Jews – 1%, other – 1%. Approximately 69% of the population are urban. The average family –3.2 people, the average life expectancy is 71 years (women – 76 years, men – 66 years).

Traditionally, there exist both Christian confessions in Belarus (Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Old Belief, Protestantism) and non-Christian ones (Islam and Judaism).

The state languages are Belarusian and Russian.

Belarus has 6 regions with centres in Minsk(about 2 mln residents), Brest(277, 000), Vitebsk(365, 00), Grodno(278, 000), Mogilev(363, 00) and Gomel(509, 000)

One can count 118 disricts and 102 towns in the republic, including 12 cities with population over 100, 000 people and more.

The most developed industries of the republic are: machine building, metal-processing, chemical and petrochemical industries, wood-processing, manufacturing of glass and porcelain as well as light, food and pharmaceutic industries.

Today Belarus produces motors, tractors, bicycles, trucks, chemical fibres, TV-sets, electrical instruments, automatic production lines, watches, household refrigerators.

The medical and microbiological industry of the country is represented by enterprises producing diagnostic and veterinary drugs, as well as ferments for food processing and protein forage additives to cattle breeding.

The light industry production embraces a wide range of items: flax, fiber, cotton fabrics, woolen and silk fabrics, carpets, knitted products, fur and fur items, leather footwear, etc. 84 big companies are incorporated into the structure of the Belarusian concern Bellegprom, engaged in manufacturing and marketing light industry goods. Commodities are exported to such countries as Germany, Italy, USA, Holland, Great Britain, Lithuania.

Agriculture of Belarus is known for its dairy and beef farming, pig raising, growing potatoes, wheat, rye, barley, flax, sugarbeets, vegetables and fruit.

Today the structure of the cultivated area in the Republic of Belarus is changing in view of the developing market supply and demand for appropriate types of foodstuff.

The cattle breeding facilities – the main branch of agriculture – are well developed and based on industrial technologies.

The territorial distribution of dairy – meat forms and store cattle facilities are more or less uniform in the Republic of Belarus.

The poultry industry due to the introduction of industrial technologies, is not inferior to that in advanced countries.

The food-processing industry is one of the major branches of the national economy and includes over 20 sub-industries.

Belarus has a developed transport infrastructure including railways, motorways, waterways (as well as oil and gas pipelines). Its territory is crossed by major roads connecting the former USSR states with European countries.

Our state possesses a network of airports with air-lines to more than 100 cities and towns of the CIS; the international airport Minsk-2 operates regular flights to cities and towns of Europe and North America.

The first place belongs to railway transport –90% of freight and 57% of passengers is transported by rail.

Belarusians are one of the most peace-loving nations in the world, toleration, industry and hospitality are their inalienable qualities. However, due to its geographical position Belarus was the arena where stronger neighbours sorted their relations out; tiffs of feudal lords, forced introduction of Christianity, raids of crusaders, Mongols and Tatars, alternative inclusion into the Great Lithuanian Pricipality, Rzecz-Pospolita and Russian empire – Belarusian land remembers thousands of bloody battles, fierce fights and wars. The wars remained in history, - castles and palaces remind us about the stormy past of Belarus.

At the beginning of the 20^th century in Belarus there were a lot of beautiful parks, county estates, castles, churches and cathedrals closely linked with Belarusian history. Nowadays their reconstruction has started. It has a great significance for the revival of national self-consciousness of Belarusians. Nesvizh, Mir and Lida Castles are among them. Not visiting worldwide famous Nesvizh Castle (XVI century) when staying in Belarus will be a regret. It combines medieval architectural features, styles of late Renaissance, the Baroque and original stylish research of local masters. Nesvizh Castle was founded on a hill on the right bank of the Usha river with water level risen by means of a dam. Being circled with water the castle was in fact an island as the only road to it led through a long wooden bridge which could be easily disassembled in case of danger.

Mir Castle (situated 30 km away from Nesvizh) built in the first quarter of XVI century is called “the most fascinating medieval flower”, - it is the combination of late Renaissance and Gothic styles. A lot of tourists visit these castles as well as those situated in Zaslavl, Snov, Polotsk, Grodno, Pinsk and the bigger cities of the republic.

People say a castle cannot be built on sand. However, it was sand that Lida Castle was built on. In spite of its insteady base the castle has been standing for 7 centuries. The castle protected its hosts throughout dangerous medieval epoch of intestine fights, resisted assaults of crusaders and raids of Tatars. Even after having been destroyed by the Swedes during North War the castle sheltered rebels headed by Tadeusz Koscuszka.

We are proud of the famous people who made up the glory of our country: T. Kostiushko, F. Skaryna, Evfrosinia Polotskaya, V.Bykov, P.Masherov, M.Savitskiy, Z.Shemelyov, Z.Azgur, - the list is far from being complete.

1. Read the text and get ready to speak about Ignat Dameika:

It is a well-known fact that in the 19^th century a lot of outstanding people of Belarus had to leave their native land because of the political situation. One of them was Ignat Dameika, a member of the philamat’s secret society and a participant of the revolt of 1830. This son of Belarusian land made a great contribution to different branches of human knowledge: mineralogy, physics, chemistry, metallurgy, geography, botany, geology, pedagogy, ethnography and zoology.

He discovered rich deposits of silver and copper. He wrote 130 scientific works which were translated into French, Russian, German, English and other languages.

UNESCO announced 2002 the year of Ignat Dameika.

Ignat Dameika was born in 1802 in Medvedka village not far from Mir (now it is Karelitsky region). In 1816 he graduated from Shchuchin college and entered the University of Vilno. Here he made friends with Yan Chachot, Tomash Zanam and Adam Mitskevich.

He took an active part in the revolt of 1830 but when it was put down Adam Mitskevich and Ignat Dameika had to go to Paris. In 1836 Ignat Dameika finished Gon’s school and he was invited to Chile to teach chemistry and mineralogy in Kokimba. Later on he became a professor at the University of Chile.

The government of Chile asked Dameika to work out the school reform. Due to his efforts education in Chile became more democratic and accessible.

Ignat Dameika was the founder of mineralogy in Chile. He introduced the metric system of measuring, wrote a textbook on physics and mineralogy, opened a local museum of ethnography. He had lived in Chile for 46 years. He missed his Motherland greatly and only in 1884 Dameika had a chance to visit his native land.

Ignat Dameika died in 1889 in Santiago.

Dameika was declared a national hero by the government of Chile. They also instituted a medal in his honour. In Santiago you can see Dameika’s museum.

2. Answer the questions:

1) What was Ignat Dameika?

2) What was Dameika’s contribution to the world of science?

3) What year is announced the year of Dameica?

4) Where and when was he born?

5) What did Dameika do in Kokimba?

6) How long did he live in Chile?

7) Did he manage to visit his Motherland?

3. Note-taking and discussion.

Choose one of the most famous writers, painters or musicians in your country and write some notes about him/her.

Discuss your notes with a partner.