Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe which borders Russia to the east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk — other major cities include Brest, Grodno, Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk and Bobruisk. One third of the country is forested, and agriculture and manufacturing are pillars of the economy.Until the twentieth century the Belarusian nation lacked the opportunity to form their national polity as the lands of modern-day Belarus belonged to several countries, including the Duchy of Polatsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. After the failure of a short-lived Belarusian People's Republic (1918–1919) Belarus became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Byelorussian SSR.The final unification of the Belarusians lands in the modern borders took place in 1939 when the ethnically Belarusian lands that were a part of interwar Poland were annexed by the USSR and attached to the Soviet Belarus. The territory and its nation were devastated in the Second World War as Belarus lost about 1/3 of its population while the loss of the economy amounting to 35 times the republic's annual GDP but the republic recovered in the post-war years and became one of the founding members of the United Nations. The parliament of the republic declared the sovereignty of Belarus on July 27, 1990 and following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus officially declared independence on August 25, 1991. Belarus is negotiating with Russia to unify into a single state called the Union of Russia and Belarus, although the discussions have stalled for several years.A total of population of approximately 9,849,000 reside in Belarus, mostly in the urban areas surrounding Minsk and other oblast capitals. Over 80% of the population are native Belarusians, with Russians, Ukrainians and Polish making a sizable minority. Since a referendum in 1995, the two official languages spoken in Belarus are Belarusian and Russian. Belarus does not establish an official religion, yet the primary religion in the country is Russian Orthodox.
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