Belarus

Belarus - the official name is the Republic of Belarus - a state in Eastern Europe. The population as of January 1, 2021 is 9,349,645 people, the territory is 207,595 km2. It ranks 94th in terms of population and 84th in terms of territory in the world.
The name of the state comes from the phrase "White Russia", known since the middle of the XIII century and used in relation to various regions of Russia. Until the end of the XV century, most references to "White Russia" (Alba Russia) originated from Western Europe and belonged to the territory of the Novgorod Republic. In relation to a part of the modern territory of Belarus, namely the Podvinsk land (modern Vitebsk region), the name "White Russia" was first used since the end of the XIV century. In the XV-XVIII centuries, the term also referred to the Moscow Principality.
Since the 1620s, the term began to be assigned to the eastern (Podvinsk-Dnieper) lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. During this period, the term "Belarusians" was used to designate the inhabitants of White Russia; at the same time, the politonym "Litvins" and the ethnonym "Rusyns" continued to be used.
In the XIX century, when the Belarusian lands were part of the Russian Empire, with the development of the Russian-language education system among the local population spread