Revolution or Evolution OK, let us get the history lesson over and done with. Belarus is one of the oldest ‘countries’ in Europe. However, its lands have been part of several different ‘real’ countries in the likes of Poland, Lithuania, Kievan Rus, Russian empire and more. It was among the hardest hit countries during the German invasion in 1941. In essence, as everything eastern Europe, we have a rather big territory inhabited by several different nationalities and with borders which have moved around dramatically during the last 500 years. All of that has caused the usual upheaval in defining a country – just like Ukraine. However, with the dissolution of the Soviet state in 1991, Belarus declared its independence. 1994 saw the adaption of the first constitution. Belarus is a landlocked country and is dependent on its bigger sibling Russia for trade and nearly everything else. In comes CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). This is in essence the gathering of the ‘new’ independent eastern European states after the Soviet empire. There are a few notable members of CIS: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. These are the typical Russian states, sharing religion (East orthodox), borders, language and so on. And then the typical Muslim states (Ka-
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