During the period of the Byelorussian SSR, the term Byelorussia was embraced as part of a national consciousness. ДЄfter the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the term White Russia caused some confusion, as it was also the name of the military force that opposed the red Bolsheviks. This asserted that the territories are all Russian and all the peoples are also Russian in the case of the Belarusians, they were variants of the Russian people. The term Belorussia (Russian: Р‘РµР»РѕСЂСѓМЃСЃСЃРёСЏ, the latter part similar but spelled and stressed differently from Р РѕСЃСЃРёМЃСЏ, Russia) first rose in the days of the Russian Empire, and the Russian Tsar was usually styled 'the Tsar of All the Russias', as Russia or the Russian Empire was formed by three parts of Russia-the Great, Little, and White. During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the late-16th century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey, who was known for his close contacts with the Russian Royal Court.

The name first appeared in German and Latin medieval literature the chronicles of Jan of CzarnkГіw mention the imprisonment of Lithuanian grand duke Jogaila and his mother at ' Albae Russiae, Poloczk dicto' in 1381. The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, thus Belarus is often referred to as White Russia or White Ruthenia. Belarus suspended its participation in the latter on 28 June 2021, after the EU imposed more sanctions against the country. It has shown no aspirations of joining the European Union but nevertheless maintains a bilateral relationship with the bloc and also participates in two EU projects, the Baku Initiative and the Eastern Partnership. It has been a member of the United Nations since its founding and has joined the CIS, the CSTO, the EAEU, the OSCE, and the Non-Aligned Movement. In 2000, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, forming the Union State.Д«elarus is a developing country, ranking 53rd in the Human Development Index. Belarus is the only country in Europe officially using the death penalty. Lukashenko has continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Lukashenko's government is authoritarian with a poor human rights record due to widespread human rights abuses. Following the adoption of a new constitution in 1994, Alexander Lukashenko was elected Belarus's first president in the country's first and only free election post-independence, serving as president ever since. The parliament of the republic proclaimed the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990, and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus declared independence on 25 August 1991. In 1945, the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. During World War II, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources.

Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939, when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland, and were finalized after World WarВ II. After the Polish-Soviet War, Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland.

In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917, different states arose competing for legitimacy amidst the Civil War, ultimately ending in the rise of the Byelorussian SSR, which became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the PolishвЂ“Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. The country is administratively divided into seven regions. Covering an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200В sqВ mi) and with a population of 9.3 million, Belarus is the 13th-largest and the 20th-most populous country in Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Retrieved 16 February 2013.Д«elarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, and historically Byelorussia, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. Archived from the original on 26 January 2012.

^ 'FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture'.

^ Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of 1994 Section 1, Article 17.

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