Text 1. Territory and Population

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The Republic of Belarus occupies an advantageous geopolitical situation in the centre of Europe between East and West. In the East it borders on the Russian Federation, in the West on Poland, in the North on Lithuania and Latvia and in the South on Ukrain.

By its territoty (207,600 sq.km) it ranks 13^th in Europe. The length of its borders is 2,969 km.

A greater part of the territory of Belarus represents lowland whereas a quater of its territory is hills. The highest elevation above the sea level is the Mount of Dzerzhinskaya (345 m). The Republic has favourable natural conditions for human activities: the temperate continental climate with soft winter and warm summer. The average annual air temperature varies from 7.4 degrees C in the southwest to 4.4 C in the northeast. Winter lasts about 120 days. The average temperature in January is -6 C, that of July +18 C. The annual precipitation constitutes about 550-700 mm.

Marshes occupying 13% of the entire territory of the republic represent an inalianable part of the Belarusian landscape. Few bogs have been preserved in their natural state, part of them have the status of territories under protection.

Woods and forests occupy two-fifth of the Belarusian area. The largest natural forest with the area of 876 sq. km called the Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belaya Vezha virgin forest) was declared a national park and included into the list of the World heritage of mankind. Belarusian forests are represented by pine and fir forests with intermitten oak and birch groves and copses. The forest complex combines coniferous woods of the East-European type and broad-leaved woods of the west-European type.

The Republic includes 20,800 rivers and brooks and about 11 thousand lakes. The largest rivers with the length over 500 km are the Dnepr, the Western Dvina, The Pripet, and the Neman. The total area of lakes is almost 2,000 sq. km. The largest lake is the Naroch Lake (80 sq. km).

The animal world of Belarus is represented by more than 31 thousand species: 72 species of mammals, 300 species of birds, 58 species of fish, about 30 thousand of insects. The biggest representative of the Belarusian fauna is the European bison, a relic mammal that has become the symbol of the Republic.

The population of the Republic of Belarus constitutes about 10,045,000 people with more than 100 nationality groups. According to the 1999 census of the population Belarusians constituted 81.2%, Russians 11.4%, Poles 3.9%, Ukranians 2.4%, Jews 0.3% and other nationalities 0.8% of the entire population of the Republic. Other nationalities are represented by less than 1 thousand persons. Despite multinational composition of the population, there have been no any conflicts on the interethnic grounds over the last decades. The density of population in Belarus is comparatively low, 48 persons per square kilometer. About 3 million Belarusians and their descendants live outside Belarus, mostly in Russia, Ukraine, the USA, Poland, Latvia, Canada, Lithuania, Argentina, and Australia.