And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold. Episode 137, a very brief history of Belarus. I want to apologize to my regular listeners have been following me every

week. Been a bit of a gap between the last episode, but I'm starting a new job so just crazy things happening but I think we're going to get back on track I know my next

podcast after this one the encirferment of the Russian peasant is one that's just absolutely fascinating and I think is going to be worth the weight

Looks like fantastic information out there. So let's get on with this one

Last episode we covered the Battle of Borodino Let's

one last episode we covered the Battle of Borodino

which marked the effective end of Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

Today I wanted to go over the history of the country of Belarus, who was part of the Russian and Soviet

empires until gaining its independence in 1991.

This topic was selected by the Facebook community of the Russian rulers podcast.

Thanks to all who participated.

Today, Belarus is an independent country, as I said since 1991

when it broke away from the Soviet Union.

It is a landlocked country that is bordered by Russia to the northeast,

Ukraine, which we know is in the news right now to the south,

Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.

During its history, it has been part of the Principality of Polotsk, Kieven Rus, the Grand Principality of Lithuania, the

Poland-Lithuania grouping, the Russian Empire, Interwar Poland, and the aforementioned Soviet Union.

Many experts believe that Belarus, and in particular the southwestern part is the original homeland of

Slavic speakers and possibly of Indo-Europeans as a whole.

The name Belarus, which literally means white ruse, is shrouded in controversy and conjecture.

One thought is that when it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, it was used to describe the Christianized area as the white, as opposed to the pagan black area, or

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