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During the Soviet era, Belarusians were referred to asByelorussians orBelorussians (fromByelorussia, derived from Russian "Белоруссия"). Before, they were typically known asWhite Russians orWhite Ruthenians (from White Russia or White Ruthenia, based on "Белая Русь"). Upon Belarusian independence in 1991, they became known asBelarusians (fromBelarus, derived from "Беларусь"), sometimes spelled asBelarusans,[32]Belarussians[33] orBelorusians.[33]
The termWhite Rus' (Белая Русь,Bielaja Ruś), also known asWhite Ruthenia orWhite Russia (as the termRus' is often conflated with its Latin formsRussia andRuthenia), was first used in theMiddle Ages to refer to the area ofPolotsk.[33][34] The nameRus' itself is derived from theRus' people which gave the name to the territories ofKievan Rus'.[35] The chronicles ofJan of Czarnków mention the imprisonment of Lithuanian grand dukeJogaila and his mother at "Albae Russiae, Poloczk dicto" in 1381.[36] During the 17th century, the Russiantsars used the term to describe the lands added from theGrand Duchy of Lithuania.[37] However, during theRussian Civil War, the termWhite Russian became associated with theWhite movement.[33]
Belarusians are an East Slavic ethnic group, who constitute the majority of Belarus' population.[33] Belarusian minority populations live in countries neighboring Belarus: Ukraine, Poland (especially in thePodlaskie Voivodeship), the Russian Federation and Lithuania.[33] At the beginning of the 20th century, Belarusians constituted a minority in the regions around the city ofSmolensk in Russia.
Significant numbers of Belarusians emigrated to the United States, Brazil and Canada in the early 20th century. During Soviet times (1917–1991), many Belarusians weredeported or migrated to various regions of the USSR, includingSiberia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.[38]
Since the 1991 breakup of theUSSR, several hundred thousand Belarusians have emigrated to theBaltic states, the United States, Canada, Russia, andEU countries.[39]
The two official languages of Belarus areBelarusian andRussian. Russian was made co-official with Belarusian after the1995 Belarusian referendum, which also established that theflag (with thehammer and sickle removed),anthem, andcoat of arms would be those of theBSSR. TheOSCE Parliamentary Assembly stated that the referendum violated international standards. Members of the opposition claimed that the organization of the referendum involved several serious violations of legislation, including a violation of the constitution.[40]
Balts have historically inhabited most of the territory of present-day Belarus, particularly The upperDnieper River basin,Sozh,Berezina,Pripyat, andWestern Dvina river regions. Many ancient place names in Belarus are of Baltic origin. These names predate Slavic settlement, showing that Balts lived in these areas before the arrival of Slavs which began around the 6th–7th centuries AD. In Belarus, Balts gradually assimilated intoSlavic tribes, especially during the 1st millennium AD.[44]
According to Russian archaeologistValentin Sedov [ru], it was intensive contacts with the Balts that contributed to the distinctiveness of the Belarusian tribes from the otherEastern Slavs.[45]
The Baltic population graduallybecame Slavic, undergoing assimilation, a process that for eastern and central Belarus ended around the 12th century.[45] Most of present-day Belarusian lands in the 8th-9th centuries were inhabited by 3 tribal unions: theKrivichs,Dregoviches andRadimichs. Of these, the Krivichs played the most important role;Polotsk, founded by them, was the most important cultural and political center during this period. The principalities formed at that time on the territory of Belarus were part ofKievan Rus'. The process of the beginning of the East Slavic linguistic community and the separation of Belarusian dialects slowly took place.[45]
A fragment of an 18th-century map by Nicolas de Fer featuringSamogitia (Samogitie),Lithuania proper (Vraye Lithuanie) and the Belarusian territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Russie Blanche ou Lituanique)
The lands of modern-day Belarus played a central role in the history and development of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania. Over time, East Slavic populations — today broadly identified as Belarusians — came to comprise a substantial portion of the Grand Duchy's population, territory, and administrative structure.[46][47] Beginning with the reigns ofGrand DukesMindaugas andGediminas, the Duchy expanded rapidly eastward and southward. By the mid-14th century, most of the territories of modern Belarus — includingPolotsk,Vitebsk,Minsk,Turov, andPinsk — had been incorporated into the Lithuanian state.[48] These regions were historically part of the Kievan Rus' cultural and political sphere and retained strongOrthodox Christian and East Slavic traditions. Their elites, while politically integrated into the Lithuanian state, continued to identify with the Rus' legacy and maintained local self-governance to varying degrees.[49] The nobility of Belarusian territories often referred to asRuthenian szlachta were full participants in the political life of the Grand Duchy. Many of them were bilingual or trilingual, speakingRuthenian, Polish, and Latin, and later came under increasing Polish cultural influence, especially after the Union of Lublin in 1569 and the Union of Brest in 1596, which created theGreek Catholic (Uniate) Church.[50] While a modern Belarusian national identity did not yet exist, the Ruthenian-speaking population of the GDL played a key role in shaping the Duchy’s culture, legal traditions, and demographic landscape. These populations are widely recognized by scholars as the cultural and linguistic ancestors of modern Belarusians.[51] Over the next two centuries, Belarusian lands experienced growingPolonization and religious shifts, although Ruthenian continued to be used in some official contexts until the late 17th century, when it was replaced by Polish.[52]
After the Partitions of the Commonwealth in the late 18th century, most Belarusian territories were annexed by theRussian Empire, where a new phase of identity development, repression, and cultural shifts began.[53]
More than two million people werekilled in Belarus during the three years ofGerman occupation in 1941–44, around a quarter of the region's population,[56] or even as high as three million killed or thirty percent of the population.[57]
^V.V Sedov. "About origins of Belarusian".{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
^The similarity of individual elements of material culture, the layer of Belarusianisms in theLithuanian language, as well as the layer of Lithuanianisms in theBelarusian, testify to long-standing ethnocultural ties.
^Rowell, S. C. Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire Within East-Central Europe, 1295–1345. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
^Kiaupa, Zigmantas et al. The History of Lithuania Before 1795. Lithuanian Institute of History, 2000.
^Koneczny, Feliks. Dzieje Polski za Jagiellonów. Kraków, 1903.
^Plokhy, Serhii. The Origins of the Slavic Nations. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
^Magocsi, Paul Robert. A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples. University of Toronto Press, 2010.
^Zaprudnik, Jan. Belarus: At a Crossroads in History. Westview Press, 1993.
^Kamuntavičius, Rūstis et al. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The State of the Nobility. Vilnius: Aidai, 2007.
^Weeks, Theodore R. Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia: Nationalism and Russification on the Western Frontier, 1863–1914. Northern Illinois University Press, 1996.
Pankowicz, Andrzej (2004). "Spór o genezę narodu białoruskiego. Perspektywa historyczna" [The dispute over the genesis of the Belarusian nation. A historical perspective].Krakowskie Studia Międzynarodowe (in Polish).4:89–106.
Savchenko, Andrew (2009).Belarus - A Perpetual Borderland. Leiden-Boston: Brill.
Shved, Viachaslau; Grzybowski, Jerzy (2020).Historia Białorusi. Od czasów najdawniejszych do roku 1991 [History of Belarus. From the earliest times to 1991] (in Polish). Warsaw: WUW.
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