
I'm going to Minsk.
What?
Minsk. It's in Russia.
What?
Minsk. It's in Russia.
—The writers of Friends get it wrong. Perhaps they were thinking of Murmansk?
What am I, from Minsk-a-Pinsk?
Belarus (Belarusian: Беларусь), officially known as the Republic of Belarus (Belarusian: Рэспубліка Беларусь), is a largish, landlocked Eastern European country just to the left of Russia and to the right of Poland (and that's only meant trouble for them). Its name literally translates as "White Russia." Its capital is Minsk.
Although the Belarusian people (sometimes called "Litvins", "White Russians" or "White Ruthenians" in older historical sources) have been around the area some time, there was no state of Belarus until the end of World War I. In fact, while the name of White Ruthenia existed back in Kievan Rus', the region was actually known as Lithuania for most of the Late Medieval/Early Modern period.
There's an explanation for this but it can get pretty confusing. In short, in modern times we have the nation-states of Lithuania and Belarus. However for centuries both lands were united, and were known as "The Grand Duchy of Lithuania." What's more, while it was founded by ethnic Lithuanians, this Lithuania was not primarily Baltic in culture, but Slavic. For one, the official language of the Grand Duchy was Ruthenian (the ancestor to Belarusian), not Lithuanian. Also the upper class became highly assimilated into Slavic culture and Orthodox Christian religion. Later the Slavic portion of Lithuania was detached by Russia and renamed "Belarus," leaving only the remnant which we would recognize as "Lithuania." However this presented a problem: with Belarus detached from Lithuania and renamed, the entire history of "Lithuania" became associated solely with the modern state of that name. Thus it is the modern state of Lithuania which lays claim as the successor to the Grand Duchy, while Belarus was left basically without a history. This was exploited by the Soviet Union, for whom it was quite convenient to paint in terms of "poor Slavic peasants versus foreign feudal oppressors." Since independence the idea that it is Belarus which is the heir to the Grand Duchy has steadily grown in popularity, particularly among nationalists and those who wish to distance Belarus from Russia (whether they'll grant that Lithuania can also lay claim depends on just how nationalist they are). note
In the havoc of the Russian Civil War, Germany backed a Belarusian National Republic (actually called the People's Republic but idiomatically translated here as it was decidedly un-Bolshevik) flying a new white-red-white flag. When Germany left, the BNR found itself with about as much credibility as their German backers, and lasted only as long as it took the Red Army to arrive. The republic was carved up between the USSR (who commified it) and Poland (who denied its existence, considering it to be Poland, but swampier). Wars were fought between the USSR and Poland (no, not that one), which brought the Byelorussian SSR as it was called closer to its modern geographic divisions.
The Belarusians were not happy and as in Ukraine and the Baltic nations (and indeed Russia) some nationalists briefly co-operated with the Nazis before they realised that the whole "Slavic untermensch" thing hadn't just been a campaign promise

- Grodno (Russian) / Hrodna (Belarusian)
- Gomel (Russian) / Homyel' (Belarusian) / Homiel (Belarusian gov.)
- Mogilev (Russian) / Mahilyow (Belarusian) / Mahilioǔ (Belarusian gov.)
- Vitebsk (Russian) / Vitsyebsk (Belarusian) / Viciebsk (Belarusian gov.)
- The name of the president: Aleksandrnote Grigoryevich Lukashenko (Russian) / Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka (Belarusian) / Alâksandr Rygoravič Lukašènka (Belarusian gov.)
- Isaac Asimov, the famous, groundbreaking American science fiction author. He was born in 1920 in the village of Petrovichi in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was later absorbed by Russia.
- Victoria Azarenka, currently the World No. 1 tennis player (in women's tennis). She won the 2012 Australian Open singles title, becoming the first Belarusian player to win a Grand Slam in singles.
- Andrei Gromyko (Andrej Hramyka in Belarusian), Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs, a member of Brezhnev's inner circle and the face of Soviet diplomacy for nearly thirty years. His obstinate negotiating style earned him the nickname "Comrade Nyet" in the West.
- Pavel Sukhoi (Pavieł Suchi), Soviet aircraft constructor and designer and the founder of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. All Soviet planes whose names start with "Su" (e.g. Su-17 and Su-24) were designed by his bureau.
- Vladimir Mulyavin (Uładzimir Muliavin), Russian-Belarusian rock musician and founder of the folk-rock band Pesniary, one of the most popular bands in the Soviet Union. They were even given permission to tour the US in 1976.
- Zhores Alferov (Žares Ałfioraŭ), Belarusian-Russian Nobel Prize winning physicist, inventor of the heterotransistor and one of the most prominent Communist politicians in modern Russia.
- Alexander Rybak (Aliaksandar Rybak), Belarusian-Norwegian musician and the record-breaking winner of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
- Marc Chagall (Mark Šahał), modernist Belarusian-French artist and a member of the once sizeable Belarusian Jewish community that is now almost entirely gone, thanks to the Holocaust and emigration.
- Chiang Fang-liang (born Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva), the first lady of Taiwan from 1978 to 1988, as wife of President Chiang Ching-kuo (the two met in the Ural Machine Plant in the USSR).
- Evgeny Morozov, writer, scholar and blogger. Born in Belarus, his experiences prior to settling down in America has influenced his opinions on various topics, including a skepticism of technology's potential.
- Svetlana Boguinskaya (Svyatlana Baginskaya), artistic gymnast and three-time Olympian (for the Soviet Union in 1988, Unified Team in 1992, and Belarus in 1996). She was called "the goddess of gymnastics" and "the Belarussian Swan" for her balletic, flowing style and dominance in the sport.
- Meyer Lansky, born Meyer Suchowljansky (in then-Grodno-now-Belarus), immigrated to the U.S. in 1911. The "Mob's Accountant," friend and partner of Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and Bugsy Siegel, largely responsible for the "organized" part of "organized crime."
- An episode of The Unit is set in Belarus.
- The Third World War has Minsk get nuked by the US and UK in response to the Soviet Union nuking the British city of Birmingham. It doesn't feature at all in the rest of the two books.
- The Moe Anthropomorphism of Belarus in Axis Powers Hetalia is an Elegant Gothic Lolita girl named Nathalia Arlovskaya, who wants VERY badly to become one with Russia. Russia is much less enthusiastic about the prospect (not to mention terrified of her - and y'know, she's also his SISTER.)
- Come and See, a 1985 film by the Russian director Elem Klimov. Probably the most famous war film set in Belarus, it averts Do Not Do This Cool Thing so hard that some see it as less of a war movie and more of a psychological horror movie. Notable for being one of the few Soviet films to not just mention, but to actually show the Nazis massacring an entire village, as well as one of the first Soviet films to seriously deal with the topics of collaboration with the occupiers and cruelty coming from both sides.
- Defiance, a 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick, details the actions of the Bielski Brothers and their attempts to save Jews from extermination at the hands of the German occupation. It's notable in that it's an American film set in Belarus, though it tends to make the same assumptions of most US films about Russia—'Byelorussia' is only mentioned less than a half-dozen times. It also doesn't mention the historical anomaly that non-Jewish Belarusian partisans were willing to work with Jews, and lacked their own strong nationalist partisan group, instead rallying to the remains of the Red Army and taking on a distinct pro-Soviet stance (very much unlike their neighbors) as the Bielski Brothers did.
- The Brest Fortress, also known as Fortress of War, is a 2010 joint Russian/Belarusian film about the defense and surrender of the Fortress of Brest immediately after the German Invasion, with several well-known Russian actors, including Pavel Derevyanko.
- Minsk is the terminus of a young girl's strange, erotic journey in Rochelle, Rochelle, the fictional movie (later a stage musical, starring Bette Midler) within the Seinfeld universe.
- The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Eye Spy" takes place in Belarus.
- In the Star Trek 'verse, the Klingon orphan Worf is adopted by Starfleet Chief Petty Officer Sergei Rozhenko and his wife Helena, who raise him in Minsk. Minsk is thus Worf's adopted Earth hometown, as firmly established in the finale of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- The opening of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation takes place in Minsk.
- Also features in the Sherlock episode "The Great Game", where an English murderer is about to be hung. Sorry, hanged.
- In The Hitman's Bodyguard, Gary Oldman stars as Vladislav Dukhovich, Belarus' brutal but now deposed dictator who's on trial before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Since neither Russia nor Belarus were particularly happy with this scenario, their respective dubs turned him into a Bosnian instead.
- OVA 2 of Code Geass: Akito the Exiled has its big battle take place in the town of Slonim.
The Belarusian flag

Reflecting the Lukashenko government's past aspirations for a union with Russia, Belarus reuses its old Soviet flag (sans the hammer and sickle, of course). While the original Soviet version had no symbolism, the current government attributes to red and green the meanings of the sacrifices of the past and hopes for the future, respectively. To the hoist is a traditional pattern in Belarusian embroidery. This flag replaced the first post-Soviet flag — a white field with a crimson stripe — ostensibly because it was also used by the Nazi puppet government, though it still finds favor with dissidents and expatriates (while not outright banned, flying it in public is still frowned upon by authorities).