Belarus

History of the name

Historically, the country was referred to in English as "White Russia", although this is not exactly correct, the correct translation is "White Ruthenia"; the practice continues to this day in other languages. The first known use of "White Russia" to refer to Belarus was in the late 16th Century by European Jerome Horsey. He used the term to describe the areas of Ivan the Terrible's empire. During the 17th century the Russian tsars used "White Ruthenia", asserting that they were trying to recapture their heritage from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the Commonwealth broke up, the lands that now make up Belarus were officially referred to as "Belarus" and "Belarusi", instead of the then-banned terms of "Litwa" and "Licwiny."{{ref|name}}

Related Topics:
English - Ruthenia - White Russia - 16th Century - Jerome Horsey - Ivan the Terrible - 17th century - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The spellings Belorussia and Byelorussia are transliterations of the name of the country in Russian. Belarus was named "Byelorussia" in the days of Imperial Russia, and the Russian tsar was usually styled "Emperor of All the Russias ? Great, Minor, and White". This practice continued throughout the Soviet era, with the country taking the official name of the "Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic". Some Belarusians object to the name "Byelorussia", as it is an unwelcome reminder of the days under Russian and Soviet rule.

Related Topics:
Russian - Imperial Russia - Tsar - Soviet era - Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2002, an informal survey was conducted by the website pravapis.org to see which version of the name was used on a majority of websites. By using Google, the website looked up various terms and it found that "Belarus", the official short form of the name, was used on 93% of websites checked. Different spellings of Byelorussia, such as "Belorussia" and "Bielorussia", came in second and third, respectively.{{ref|spellings}} There are some languages today that still refer Belarus as White Russia, such as Weißrussland in German , ?????????? in Greek , Valkovenäjä in Finnish, Hviterussland in Norwegian and ???? (? as in white, ???as in Russia) in Chinese.

Related Topics:
2002 - German - Greek - Finnish - Chinese

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~