Беларуская Савецкая
Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка

(In Detail) (In Detail)
State motto: Пралетарыі ўсіх краін, яднайцеся!
Official language	None. (According to the constitution, all languages were equal. However, Russian was supposed to be the language of international communication, thus putting Belarusian at a disadvantage.)
Capital	Minsk
Chairman of the Supreme Council	Stanislav Shushkevich (at independence)
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 6th in former Soviet Union 207,600 km² --
Population  - Total (1989)  - Density	Ranked 5th in the former Soviet Union 10,151,806 48,9/km²
Currency	Ruble (рубель)
Time zone	UTC + 3
Anthem	Anthem of Byelorussian SSR

The Byelorussian SSR (Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic; Russian Белору́сская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респу́блика, Belarusian Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка) was one of the four original founding members of the U.S.S.R. in 1922, together with Ukrainian SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian SFSR.

The republic was in the west part of the USSR and its capital was Minsk. The Byelorussian SSR was created on January 1 1919.

Area: 207,6 km²
Population: 8,897,000 (1969)
Nationality (1959):

• Belarusians - 81%
• Russians - 8,2%
• Poles - 6,7%
• Jews - 1,9%
• Ukrainians - 1,7%
• other

Other larger cities:

• Brest
• Homel (Gomel)
• Hrodna (Grodno)
• Mahilyow (Mahileu, Mogilev)
• Vitsebsk (Vitebsk)

After the Second World War Belarus was given a seat in the United Nations General Assembly together with the U.S.S.R. and Ukraine, so Belarus became one of the founding members of the UN. The republic became independent in 1991 as the Republic of Belarus.