Belarus

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Belarus is 207.600 km² with 9,49 million inhabitants. Its major economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire.

In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian People's Republic, which was conquered by Soviet Russia. The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Byelorussian SSR). Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921. Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939, when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland, and were finalized after World War II. During WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. In 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR.

Belarus declared independence from the Soviet Union on 25 August 1991. Alexander Lukashenko has served as the country's first president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled "Europe's last dictatorship" by some Western journalists, on account of Lukashenko's self-described authoritarian style of government. In 2000, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, forming the Union State. Belarus is a member of the United Nations since its founding, the Commonwealth of Independent States, CSTO, EEU, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Belarus has shown no aspirations for joining the European Union but nevertheless maintains a bilateral relationship with the organization, and likewise participates in two EU projects: the Eastern Partnership and the Baku Initiative.

During the Briefmarken-Messe in Essen in May 2017 I left stamped envelopes at almost every foreign postal administration hoping they would send them back when they arrived home. The stamp I chose was presented to me by the Belarus post staff as a definitive stamp. In was issued in 2014 in a series of five stamps with wild animals and shows the European pine marter (Martes martes). The value P is for the air mail tariff of a letter up to 20 grams abroad (link). It was postmarked in Minsk with a normal machine cancellation. Belpost put their company stamp on the envelope as the sender.

Belarus stamps can be found on the website of the stamp issuing state company Belpost: belpost.by/philately.

Date sent: 12 May 2017

Date postmark: 23 May 2017

Date received: 27 May 2017

Number of days: 15

Envelope in collection: 120