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| Anthem | "My Biełarusy" | |||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Minsk | |||||
| Language | Belorussian; Russian; Polish; Ukrainian; Yiddish | |||||
| Government | All-Byelorussian Congress of Soviets | |||||
| Head of State | ||||||
| Head of Government | ||||||
| Area | 207,595 km² | |||||
| Population | 9,491,800 | |||||
| Established | July 31, 1920 | |||||
| Currency | Ruble | |||||
| Time Zone | (UTC+3) | |||||
| Abbreviations | BSSR | |||||
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Belorussian: Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка Biełaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika), and commonly referred to as the Byelorussian SSR, is a sovereign Soviet socialist state and one of the seventeen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk.
The name Byelorussia (Russian: Белоруссия; Belorussian: Беларуся) is derived from the term "Belaya Rus'" (White Rus'), which meant "White Russia". This asserted that in the case of the Byelorussians, they are viewed as variants of the Russian people. Similar case can also be applied with the regions of the Pridneprovian Rus' which can be referred as Malorussia (Russian: Малороссия; Malorussian: Маларусия, "Little Russia") and of the Prichernomorian Rus' as Novorussia (Russian: Новорoссия; Novorussian: Новaро́сія, "New Russia").
Geographically, the Byelorussian SSR is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe and internationally bordered by Poland on the west and Lithuania on the northwest. Within the Soviet Union, the Byelorussian SSR is bordered by the Latvian SSR on the north, the Russian SFSR on the east and the Ukrainian SSR and the Malorussian SSR on the south. Like the Malorussian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR is a founding member of the United Nations, although it is legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union.
