A
NOTE ON GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
When the Soviet Union collapsed
in 1991, the Republic of Belarus gained independence for the second time
in the twentieth century. Belarus, which is situated to the west of the
Russian Federation and borders on Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States,
is closely related to Russia in both language and culture, and continues
to maintain strong political and economic ties with that country. Belarus
is currently in difficult economic straits: In 1995, annual percapita GNP
was U.S.$2,070 and the average monthly income was below U.S.$100.2
In January 1998, the Council of Ministers issued a resolution setting the
minimal monthly salary at 250,000 Belarusian rubles (approximately U.S.$7).3
Belarus boasts record income growth figures, on paper outpacing reform-orientated
Russia in 1997, yet food shortages, ostracism and censure from the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) paint a different picture.4
Most of the ten and a half million people living in Belarus work in the
agricultural sector. Ethnically, Belarus is comprised of 77.9 percent Belarusians,
13.2 percent Russians, 4.1 percent Poles, 2.9 percent Ukrainians with other
non-specified ethnicities making up the remaining 1.9 percent.5
The capital of Belarus is Minsk. Other main urban centers are Brest, Vitebsk,
Mogilev and Gomel. Belarus was the country that was worst of all affected
by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.
2 The
World Bank, World Bank Atlas (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank),
1997.
3 ITAR-TASS
news agency, Moscow, January 3, 1998.
4 Belarus
has been subject to criticism on innumerable occasions from both the World
Bank and the IMF for not carrying out economic reforms to which substantial
financial aid has been pegged. The IMF announced in April 1998 that its
representative office in Minsk is to close at the end of June, citing differing
views on economic reform such as liberalization of the currency market,
price formation, increasing barter trade, and the ineffective use of targeted
loans.
5 Data
taken from the New York Times 1998 Almanac (New York: Penguin, 1997).
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