Belarus What Everyone Needs to Know®

by R. Marples, David; Laputska, Veronica

• ISBN13: 9780197772966
• ISBN10: 019777296X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2026-02-24
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Recent events have thrust Belarus into the international spotlight, but for years after declaring independence in 1991, Belarus remained a little-known republic in the West, despite its important geostrategic position between Poland and Russia, and as a conduit for Russian energy supplies to central Europe. In the late Soviet period, it was best known as a victim of the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl, which covered its territory in dangerous radionuclides of cesium, strontium, and iodine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; the unprecedented mass demonstrations after President Alexander Lukashenka declared himself the victor in his 2020 presidential race against challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the ensuing mass repression, imprisonment, and torture of civilians thrust the country into international attention.

This book probes the deep background to these tumultuous events even long before the collapse of the Soviet Union and Lukashenka's merciless dictatorship. Belarus: What Everyone Needs to Know® explains Belarus to outsiders, tracing its development, history, and formation of a modern identity. Marples and Laputska look at its place in contemporary Europe and its relations with Russia, Ukraine, China, and other states; and argue that the image of Belarus as a Soviet theme park or offshoot of Putin's Russian World are far-fetched and misguided.

Author Biography

David R. Marples is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Alberta. A leading historian in Belarusian Studies, he has previously published several books on Belarus, including Understanding Ukraine and Belarus: A Memoir (2020), "Our Glorious Past": Lukashenka's Belarus and the Great Patriotic War (2014), Belarus: A Denationalized Nation (1999), and Belarus: From Soviet Rule to Nuclear Catastrophe (1996).

Veronica Laputska is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School for Social Research, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Why Belarus?

Chapter 2: The Land and its People

Chapter 3: The Making of Modern Belarus

Chapter 4: Soviet Belarus (the BSSR)

Chapter 5: The Independence Period

Chapter 6: Belarus and the War in Ukraine

References
Index