7 facts about Belarus

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• published: 16 May 2015
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Considered the last dictatorship in Europe, under the ferm rule of president Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, Belarus is one of the least know European countries, considered by most as a puppet state of Russia. But nations are about people and belarusians are worth discovering. Learn, Share, Subscribe ------------------------------------------------ Watch the entire series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbZJ71IJGFRTa_XMM9a4hDh2Yo9CsZzOR Follow: https://plus.google.com/+blinder00 https://twitter.com/Sebastian2Go ------------------------------------------------ In this brief video you can find seven little known facts about Belarus, a former member of the USSR. Today it remains a country with a heavy soviet atmosphere, a state-controlled economy, censorship and fixed elections. However Minsk, the capital of Belarus, is a cosmopolitan city, elegant and well maintained. Tourists in Minsk can find several attractions and generally don’t feel oppressed in any way. More information about the video content bellow: 1. The longest street in Belarus - Independence Avenue in Minsk is 15 km long. Throughout its history, it not only grew in length and width, but also changed it’s name of 14 times. This is one of the last mainline neoclassical ensembles in the world of architecture, one of the longest street in Europe, and a Bidder for inclusion in the List of World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. 2. Belarus still applies the death penalty. The ultimate punishment has been completely abolished in all European countries, except for Belarus and Kazakhstan. Capital punishment can be issued for crimes that occur against the state or against individuals. 3. The national Library of Belarus is 72.6 meters high and weighs 115 000 tonnes. Total area - 112,600 m². The building has 22 floors, it can seat about 2,000 readers and features a 500-seat conference hall. As of 2009 it is the only structure in Minsk with a public observation deck. 4. Minsk Botanical Garden is the 3rd largest in Europe, after the Royal Botanic Garden Kew in London, and Real Jardin Botanico in Madrid. The Area of the Botanical Garden is 96 hectares. It dates from 1932 and feature some 9,000 different species. 5. Nobody would guess that in 1939 - 1946 Minsk was the jazz capital of the USSR. During these years, Eddie Rosner, a German Jew who came to Minsk after the manifestation of Hitler's attitude toward Jews, worked in Minsk Art. Since 1946, Jazz was banned in the Soviet Union, and Rosner was sent to the Gulag for 10 years. Since jazz was considered an American movement, all traces of it were oppressed by the soviet authorities. 6. Belarus was one of the first nations in Europe to have its own printed Bible (1517). Belarus’ first printer Frantsysk Skorina started his publishing business in Prague where he printed 23 illustrated Bibles. They were published in the old Belarusian language. In the early 1520s he moved to Vilno where he founded a publishing house. It printed the Small Travel Guide and Book of the Apostles. Frantsysk Skorina's works were distinguished by high print quality, unique illustrations and distinctive typefaces. 7. Belarusian is one of the East Slavic languages and shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group. To some extent, Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian are mutually intelligible. Its predecessor stage is known as Old Belarusian (14th to 17th centuries), in turn descended from Old East Slavic (10th to 13th centuries). The question of whether contemporary Belarusian and Russian (as well as Ukrainian and Rusyn) are dialects of a single language or separate languages is not entirely decided by linguistic factors alone, since there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility. More Info: http://mynativebelarus.blogspot.ro/2012/07/interesting-facts-about-belarus.html http://www.insidebelarus.com/article/intesresting_facts_about_minsk http://www.belarus.by/en/about-belarus/did-you-know http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Belarus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Library_of_Belarus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_language Music: Ketsa – A different dimension http://freemusicarchive.org Images: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1739964 http://dima67574.livejournal.com/1365.html http://realt.onliner.by/2012/12/03/fotofakt-cirk-i-prospekt http://urban3p.ru/blogs/29224/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/04/the-ultimate-punishment-a-beginners-guide-to-the-death-penalty/ http://mynativebelarus.blogspot.ro/2012/08/national-library-of-belarus.html http://www.funnybuildings.com/pagegal.php?id=344 http://www.funnybuildings.com/pagegal.php?id=344 http://avemey.com/photos.php?lang=en&page;=22 http://www.dannyboyjazzandblues.com/ http://utahmusicians.org/archives/ http://arthopper.org/looks-good-on-paper-looks-good-in-person/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francysk_Skaryna