Belarus-Preface

At the end of 1991, the formal liquidation of the Soviet Union was the surprisingly swift result of partially hidden decrepitude and centrifugal forces within that empire. Of the fifteen "new" states that emerged from the process, many had been independent political entities at some time in the past. Aside from their coverage in the 1991 Soviet Union: A Country Study, none had received individual treatment in this series, however. Belarus and Moldova: Country Studies is the second in a new subseries describing the fifteen post-Soviet republics, both as they existed before and during the Soviet era and as they have developed since 1991. This volume covers Belarus and Moldova, two nations on the western border of what was once the Soviet Union.

The marked relaxation of information restrictions, which began in the late 1980s and accelerated after 1991, allows the reporting of extensive data on every aspect of life in the two countries. Scholarly articles and periodical reports have been especially helpful in accounting for the years of independence in the 1990s. The authors have described the historical, political, and social backgrounds of the countries as the background for their current portraits. However, in general, both Belarus and Moldova (especially the former) have been written about to a lesser extent than other former Soviet republics. In each case, the authors' goal in this book was to provide a compact, accessible, and objective treatment of five main topics: historical setting, the society and its environment, the economy, government and politics, and national security.

In the case of Belarus, providing a definitive spelling of a personal name or place-name has been a challenge. All names have been transliterated according to the transliteration schemes devised by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN); which is widely used by the United States government, although not by the Library of Congress or in most scholarly works. According to the BGN system, most Cyrillic letters are transliterated similarly from both Belarusian and Russian. But some letters are transliterated from the two languages differently (for example, "e," which remains "e" in transliterated Russian but becomes "ye" in transliterated Belarusian), and some letters exist in Belarusian but not in Russian.

Because Belarusian names often differ from the Russian versions that have been used predominantly by the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the world in general, the Russian version is given in parentheses at the first occurrence of a name. Otherwise, the Belarusian names have been used throughout. The few exceptions to this are well-known names (Moscow) and words (perestroika) that have acquired a standardized spelling in English usage.

Another problem in writing about Belarus is what to call it and when. In its early history, the region was known as "Belaya Rus'," "Belorussia," "White Ruthenia," or "White Rus'." (A number of explanations have been proffered for the term "white.") As if this were not confusing enough, the terms "Rus'" and "Russia" have often been confused, sometimes deliberately. The original Rus' was Kievan Rus', which existed for centuries before Muscovy (which would later become Russia) gained significance. Russia later claimed to be the sole successor to Kievan Rus' and often blurred the line between the two. In the Russian language, both "russkiy" and "rossiyskiy" mean "Russian."

During the time when Belarus was part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, it was commonly known as Belorussia, and the language was known as Belorussian. Occasionally, nationalist groups would form and take a name that included the word "Belarusian," but this use of the word was the exception. It was only after the Supreme Soviet declared the country independent that the name was changed from the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic to the Republic of Belarus, despite the title of the earlier Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. The policy in this volume has been to use "Belarus/Belarusian" in the earliest historical times; "Belorussia/Belorussian" while it was a part of either the Grand Duchy, Poland, the Russian Empire, or the Soviet Union; and "Belarus/Belarusian" after the country declared independence in August 1991. The exceptions are names in which "Belarus/Belarusian" was deliberately chosen over "Belorussia/Belorussian" by the groups themselves.

For Moldova, the problem of personal names and place-names is somewhat different. When Moldovan, a dialect of Romanian written in the Latin alphabet, was designated the official language of Moldova in 1989, the Cyrillic alphabet (imposed by Joseph V. Stalin) was dropped, thus obviating the need for transliteration. However, the Moldovan names appearing in the text of this volume are missing most of the diacritics used by the language. In this case, it is a matter of lagging technology: the typesetting software being used simply cannot produce the necessary diacritics in the text (although they appear on the maps). For this the authors apologize and hope that by the time this country study is updated, missing diacritics will no longer be the norm.

As was also the case with Belarus, Moldova and the Moldovans are referred to in different ways depending on the period of history. Until the creation of the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast (outside the traditional boundaries of Moldova) by Moscow in 1924, "Moldova" and "Moldovan" were the terms for the region and the language. From 1924 until the parliament changed the country's name officially in 1990, the terms used were "Moldavia" and "Moldavian." As with Belarus, the policy in this volume has been to adhere to these different names during their respective periods of usage, with the exceptions of names in which "Moldova/Moldovan" was deliberately chosen over "Moldavia/Moldavian" by the groups themselves.

Measurements are given in the metric system; a conversion table is provided in Appendix A. A Chronology is provided at the beginning of each chapter. To amplify points in the text of the chapters, tables in Appendix A provide statistics on aspects of the societies and the economies of the countries. A Glossary provides information on certain terms in order to explain their background without creating distractions in the text. The Bibliography lists recently published sources thought to be particularly helpful to the reader.

The body of the text reflects information available as of May 1995. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated. The Introduction discusses significant events and trends that have occurred since the completion of research; the Country Profiles include updated information as available; and the Bibliography lists recently published sources thought to be particularly helpful to the reader.

Data as of June 1995

• Belarus-Welfare
  
• Belarus-Transportation and Telecommunications
  
• Belarus-The Commonwealth of Independent States
  
• Belarus-Ground Forces
  
• Belarus-Air Force
  
• Belarus-World War and Revolution
  
• Belarus-Latvia
  
• Belarus-Culture
  
• Belarus-Environmental Concerns
  
• Belarus-COUNTRY Country Profile
  
• Belarus-Independent Belarus
  
• Belarus-Belorussian Territory under Poland
  
• Belarus-NATIONAL SECURITY
  
• Belarus-World War II
  
• Belarus-Expenditures
  
• Belarus-Government Structure
  
• Belarus-Early History
  
• Belarus-Introduction
  
• Belarus-Early Belorussian Nationalism
  
• Belarus-Labor Force
  
• Belarus-United States
  
• Belarus-Problems of Democratization
  
• Belarus-Chapter 1 - Belarus
  
• Belarus-Chronology of Important Events
  
• Belarus-Foreign Economic Relations
  
• Belarus-Government Policy
  
• Belarus-The Defense Industry
  
• Belarus-The Media
  
• Belarus-GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
  
• Belarus-Privatization
  
• Belarus-Ethnic Composition
  
• Belarus-Education EDUCATION, HEALTH, AND WELFARE
  
• Belarus-Manpower, Education, and Training
  
• Belarus-Poland
  
• Belarus-Joint Ventures
  
• Belarus-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
  
• Belarus-Preface
  
• Belarus-Climate
  
• Belarus-Religion
  
• Belarus-Belorussia, Poland, and Catholicism
  
• Belarus-GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
  
• Belarus-Local Government
  
• Belarus-Topography and Drainage PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
  
• Belarus-Mining
  
• Belarus-Prelude to Independence
  
• Belarus-Population Characteristics POPULATION AND ETHNIC COMPOSITION
  
• Belarus-SOCIETY
  
• Belarus-Internal Security
  
• Belarus-Exports
  
• Belarus
  
• Belarus-Language LANGUAGE, RELIGION, AND CULTURE
  
• Belarus-Political Parties
  
• Belarus-National Government
  
• Belarus-Energy
  
• Belarus
  
• Belarus-Industry
  
• Belarus-BELARUS
  
• Belarus-Lithuania
  
• Belarus
  
• Belarus-NATIONAL SECURITY
  
• Belarus-TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
  
• Belarus
  
• Belarus-GEOGRAPHY
  
• Belarus-Russian Troops
  
• Belarus-Russia
  
• Belarus-FOREIGN RELATIONS
  
• Belarus-ECONOMY
  
• Belarus-Acknowledgments
  
• Belarus
  
• Belarus-Health
  
• Belarus-Nuclear Weapons
  
• Belarus
  
• Belarus-Imports
  
• Belarus-Agriculture
  
• Belarus-Ukraine
  
• Belarus-Housing
  
• Belarus-Stalin and Russification
  
• Belarus-The Partitions of Poland
  
• Belarus-Perestroika