Datasets:

ali619

/

corpus-dataset-normalized-for-persian-and-english

like 1

like most mario games released around the time the first player played as mario and the second player played as luigi at certain points during gameplay the mario bros are offered advice by their caddies princess toadstool peach and princess daisy another non playable character was mario s old nemesis donkey kong who now works as an accountant securing the prize money for mario and luigi nes open tournament golf is often thought to be nearly identical to the famicom version mario open golf based on the fact that they both feature identical graphics and gameplay however there are many differences between the two games for starters mario open golf featured five playable courses whereas nes open tournament golf only featured three the background music between both games also differed with the exception of a few tracks that were used in both games

the famicom version mario open golf is significantly more difficult than the nes version most of the holes seen in mario open golf are not found in nes open tournament golf though there are a few holes that exist in both versions without any modifications if someone plays mario open golf they will notice a handful of holes that look nearly identical to the holes in nes open tournament golf but with more obstacles it is likely that some of these obstacles were removed from the western release of the game to make it less difficult

this game was released for the disk system on february 21 1987 family computer golf japan course is very similar to the original golf which was released for the famicom in 1984 in this version of the game you can consistently see the bird s eye view of the course on the right side of the screen while the left side of the screen consistently showed a third person view two modes of play are available in the game stroke play and match play though the course designs are similar to those found in nes open tournament golf the controls are slightly different you can choose between three different speeds at which you hit the ball and you can also cycle between golf clubs in this version however the default club will always be a 1w whereas in later games an appropriate club would be pre selected for you the scorecard in this game is nearly identical to the one found in nes open tournament golf

this game came on a blue disk card when most disks at the time were yellow the blue disk indicated that it could be used in machines called a disk fax as part of a contest in japan players high scores were saved on the disk and by using the name entry feature in the game to enter their personal data players could send the data to nintendo using the disk fax the winners of the contest received a golden disk containing a more difficult version of the game

this game was released for the disk system on june 14 1987 family computer golf u s course is similar to the original golf and mario open golf in this version of the game a bird s eye view of the course is shown on the center of the screen while the right side of the screen shows a third person view once you were ready to hit the ball the bird s eye view transitioned to a screen with just the third person view this concept was slightly modified and used in mario open golf which was released in september 1991

mario open golf was one of the first titles released on nintendo s arcade machine the playchoice 10 each machine had a mix of ten different nes games to choose from for each token players would be given a fixed amount of time to play any of the ten games on the playchoice 10 the dual screen cabinet gave instructions on the top screen while the lower screen was used to show the actual game the typical amount of time per token was 300 seconds of which the player could switch in and out of different games if they so desired the arcade machine s main circuit board had the ability to plug in 10 different games similar to the circuit board of an nes cartridge playchoice games varied slightly from their original nes counterparts as additional circuitry was needed to allow the game to run on the arcade machine

mario open golf for the playchoice 10 was most similar to that of nes open tournament golf more so than mario open golf for the famicom there were some differences from nes open tournament golf however such as no tournament mode in mario open golf the playchoice 10 also featured the original golf video game for the nes as one of the games in its library it was also released for the nintendo 3ds virtual console on july 5 2012 and the nintendo switch online service on october 10 2018

graham was known as a welterweight with stylish and subtle moves that made him a difficult target in the ring he fought the legendary kid gavil n commonly spelled kid gavilan four times in the first fight held at madison square garden he beat gavilan by a split decision in the second fight he lost at madison square garden by a medical decision the third fight was for the national boxing association world welterweight title and was again held at madison square garden this time gavilan won by a split decision the final fight was for the world welterweight title in havana cuba at stadium ball park gavilan was again the victor winning in a unanimous decision

frankie carbo the mob s unofficial commissioner for boxing controlled a lot of the welters and middles not every fight was fixed of course but from time to time carbo and his lieutenants like blinky palermo in philadelphia would put the fix in when the kid gavilan johnny saxton fight was won by saxton on a decision in philadelphia in 1954 i was covering it for sports illustrated and wrote a piece at that time saying boxing was a dirty business and must be cleaned up now it was an open secret all the press knew that one and other fights were fixed gavilan was a mob controlled fighter too and when he fought billy graham it was clear graham had been robbed of the title the decision would be bought if it was close the judges would shade it the way they had been told

he studied at the dimitrie cantemir and spiru haret lyceums both in bucharest at spiru haret his math teacher was dan barbilian pen name ion barbu poet and mathematician his debut was in vl starul magazine in 1927 between 1928 and 1931 he attended courses of the university of bucharest s faculty of letters and philosophy where he graduated in 1931 thesis problema lucrului n sine la kant the matter of thing in itself in kant s philosophy here he met as a teacher philosopher nae ionescu

after attending courses in france between 1938 1939 on a french government scholarship he returned to bucharest where in 1940 he earned his doctor s degree in philosophy thesis sketch on the history of how is it that there is anything new published the same year after general ion antonescu installed his dictatorship in collaboration with the iron guard in september 1940 noica served as editor in chief of buna vestire the official newspaper of the iron guard in his articles during the period he extolled the organization and its leader horia sima according to historian zigu ornea his allegiance to the fascist organisation continued after the iron guard was suppressed following their failed rebellion

in 1949 he was sentenced by the communist authorities to 10 years of forced residence in c mpulung muscel remaining there until 1958 in december of that year after making public the book histoire et utopie by emil cioran who had left for france he was sentenced to 25 years of forced labor in the jilava prison as a political prisoner and all his possessions confiscated he was pardoned after 6 years as part of a general amnesty and released in august 1964

in order to recover the individual senses the sense of existence noica proposes in opposition with the logic of ares the logic of hermes a way of thinking which considers the individual a reflection of the whole the logic of hermes means understanding the whole through the part it means identifying in a single existence the general principles of reality this way of thinking allows one to understand the meaning of the life of a man oppressed by the quick present moment

perceval was born at burton county cork the second son of sir john perceval 3rd baronet and catherine daughter of sir edward dering 2nd baronet his great grandfather was sir philip perceval 1605 1647 who had obtained estates in ireland and england from his father sir richard perceval 1550 1620 through the death of his elder brother walter richard perceval in 1616 had sold a great part 1 200 a year according to lodge of his ancient patrimony and invested the sum realised in purchases and mortgages in county cork thus laying the foundation of the prosperity and property of his family there

any learning experience may include unneeded lessons hidden curriculum often refers to knowledge gained in primary and secondary school settings usually with a negative connotation where the school strives for equal intellectual development as a positive aim in this sense a hidden curriculum reinforces existing social inequalities by educating students according to their class and social status the unequal distribution of cultural capital in a society mirrors a corresponding distribution of knowledge among its students it should be mentioned that the breaktime is an important part of the hidden curriculum

john dewey explored the hidden curriculum of education in his early 20th century works particularly his classic democracy and education dewey saw patterns evolving and trends developing in public schools which lent themselves to his pro democratic perspectives his work was quickly rebutted by educational theorist george counts whose 1929 book dare the school build a new social order challenged the presumptive nature of dewey s works counts claimed that dewey hypothesized a singular path through which all young people travelled in order to become adults but counts emphasized the reactive adaptive and multifaceted nature of learning this nature caused many educators to slant their perspectives practices and assessments of student performance in particular directions which affected their students drastically counts examinations were expanded on by charles a beard and later myles horton as he created what became the highlander folk school in tennessee

the phrase hidden curriculum was reportedly coined by philip w jackson life in classrooms 1968 he argued that we need to understand education as a socialization process shortly after jackson s coinage mit s benson snyder published the hidden curriculum which addresses the question of why students even or especially the most gifted turn away from education snyder advocates the thesis that much of campus conflict and students personal anxiety is caused by a mass of unstated academic and social norms which thwart the students ability to develop independently or think creatively

the hidden curriculum has been further explored by a number of educators starting with pedagogy of the oppressed published in 1972 through the late 1990s brazilian educator paulo freire explored various effects of presumptive teaching on students schools and society as a whole freire s explorations were in sync with those of john holt and ivan illich each of whom were quickly identified as radical educators other theorists who have identified the insidious nature of hidden curricula and hidden agendas include neil postman paul goodman joel spring john taylor gatto and others

in semiconductor manufacturing a low is a material with a small relative dielectric constant kappa relative to silicon dioxide low dielectric material implementation is one of several strategies used to allow continued scaling of microelectronic devices colloquially referred to as extending moore s law in digital circuits insulating dielectrics separate the conducting parts wire interconnects and transistors from one another as components have scaled and transistors have gotten closer together the insulating dielectrics have thinned to the point where charge build up and crosstalk adversely affect the performance of the device replacing the silicon dioxide with a low dielectric of the same thickness reduces parasitic capacitance enabling faster switching speeds and lower heat dissipation

in 1860 the voivodeship of serbia and temes banat was abolished and most of its territory banat and ba ka was incorporated into the habsburg kingdom of hungary although direct hungarian rule began only in 1867 after the austro hungarian compromise unlike banat and ba ka in 1860 syrmia was incorporated into the kingdom of slavonia another separate habsburg crown land kingdom of slavonia subsequently joined with the kingdom of croatia forming new kingdom named croatia slavonia which made a pact with the kingdom of hungary in 1868 hence becoming self governed part of the kingdom of hungary within austria hungary

with the disappointing last place finish of the previous year general manager gord ash once again dug into the wallet to improve the team signing reliever randy myers and slugger jos canseco as free agents though the team improved noticeably thanks to another pitching triple crown and cy young award winning campaign by ace hurler roger clemens and a powerful lineup that featured canseco carlos delgado shawn green and jos cruz jr they could not finish ahead of the new york yankees or the boston red sox who won 114 and 92 games en route to winning the division crown and wild card respectively

opposition to the project also came from many other quarters one of the most prominent critics was the then cardiff west mp rhodri morgan labour who was later to become first minister of the welsh assembly morgan like thatcher said that the scheme would cost too much money it was reported by the daily mirror in march 2000 that the costs of the barrage construction alone had risen to 400 million and there would be additional 12 million a year charge for maintenance and operation morgan said this is far higher than was ever identified to parliament during the passage of the barrage bill

during the development of cardiff bay and of the cardiff bay barrage there was constant tension between the cardiff bay development corporation and cardiff city council later cardiff county council the national assembly s audit committee spoke of a fractured working relationship between the two bodies after the original impoundment of the waters of cardiff bay in november 1999 plans were mooted for a royal inauguration of the barrage that it was envisaged would be held on st david s day 2000 to be attended by the queen and morgan a vociferous opponent of the scheme in the event no such event took place on 1 march 2000 the day scheduled for the ceremony the national assembly of wales announced that there would be no special ceremony held to mark the project

in place of an official royal inauguration of this massive civil engineering scheme the largest of its kind in europe a modest ceremony was arranged by cardiff bay development corporation at which a former lord mayor of cardiff councillor ricky ormonde who had served as lord mayor in 1994 officiated along with alun michael labour and co operative mp for cardiff south and penarth who had always supported the scheme however as cardiff council would not accommodate the installation of a commemorative plaque on their land the ceremony had to be performed and the plaque unveiled on land owned by the adjacent local authority the vale of glamorgan council at the penarth end of the barrage that was also the site chosen for the installation of a 7 foot tall bronze figure of a mermaid which was the logo of cardiff bay development corporation the logo had been designed by cardiff graphics artist roger fickling

the cardiff bay development corporation was wound up on 31 march 2000 handing over control of the completed project to cardiff council soon afterwards the plaque at the penarth end of the barrage was removed and an entirely new plaque erected midway along the barrage the new plaque made no mention of cardiff bay development authority the bronze figure of the cbdc symbol of the mermaid however remained on the roundabout at the entrance to the penarth end of the barrage

one of the major selling points of the proposed development was the opening up of a new pedestrian and cycle route across the barrage this would not only enhance tourism on both sides but provide a pleasant and safe short cut between cardiff and penarth cutting two miles off the journey otherwise taken on the heavy traffic roads further upstream however this benefit took years to materialise due to a lack of agreement between the derelict access land owners associated british ports and cardiff council the unfinished barrage was the cause of much embarrassment to the welsh assembly cardiff harbour authority made significant progress in the creation of the bay edge walkway and have redeveloped a large portion of the previously inaccessible bay periphery and the bay edge walkway was finally completed and open to the public on monday 30 june 2008 allowing public access from mermaid quay to penarth marina the cha has developed a sea angling zone on the outer breakwater arm

typically high purity artificially grown sapphire crystals are used the silicon is usually deposited by the decomposition of silane gas sih4 on heated sapphire substrates the advantage of sapphire is that it is an excellent electrical insulator preventing stray currents caused by radiation from spreading to nearby circuit elements sos faced early challenges in commercial manufacturing because of difficulties in fabricating the very small transistors used in modern high density applications this is because the sos process results in the formation of dislocations twinning and stacking faults from crystal lattice disparities between the sapphire and silicon additionally there is some aluminum a p type dopant contamination from the substrate in the silicon closest to the interface

returning to sussex county layton settled in georgetown and began the practice of medicine his first position in the political sphere was as the secretary of the republican county committee which he held from 1876 to 1888 he was chairman of the union addicks republican party county committee from 1896 to 1901 and also served as one of delaware s ten delegates to the republican national conventions in the years 1896 1900 and 1904 meanwhile from 1897 until 1905 he was editor of the union republican a georgetown newspaper

layton was elected to the u s house of representatives in 1918 defeating incumbent democratic u s representative albert f polk he won election again in 1920 this time defeating democrat james r clements during these terms he served in the republican majority in the 66th and 67th congress seeking reelection in 1922 he lost to democrat william h boyce a retired judge from georgetown layton served two terms from march 4 1919 until march 3 1923 during the administrations of u s presidents woodrow wilson and warren g harding he was voted out of office due to his voting against the dyer anti lynching bill alice dunbar nelson an african american political activist and founder of the anti lynching crusaders assisted 12 000 new voters who supported the bill to register in delaware layton ultimately lost the election by 7000 votes which was equal to the number of black voters who voted for his opponent in protest

farmer giles of ham is a comic medieval fable written by j r r tolkien in 1937 and published in 1949 the story describes the encounters between farmer giles and a wily dragon named chrysophylax and how giles manages to use these to rise from humble beginnings to rival the king of the land it is cheerfully anachronistic and light hearted set in britain in an imaginary period of the dark ages and featuring mythical creatures medieval knights and primitive firearms it is only tangentially connected with the author s middle earth legendarium both were originally intended as essays in english mythology

farmer giles gidius ahenobarbus julius agricola de hammo giles redbeard julius farmer of ham is not a hero he is fat and red bearded and enjoys a slow comfortable life but a rather deaf and short sighted giant blunders on to his land and giles manages to ward him away with a blunderbuss shot in his general direction the people of the village cheer farmer giles has become a hero his reputation spreads across the kingdom and he is rewarded by the king with a sword named caudimordax tailbiter which turns out to be a powerful weapon against dragons

the story parodies the great dragon slaying traditions the knights sent by the king to pursue the dragon are useless fops more intent on precedence and etiquette than on the huge dragon footprints littering the landscape the only part of a dragon they know is the annual celebratory dragon tail cake giles by contrast clearly recognises the danger and resents being sent with them to face it but hapless farmers can be forced to become heroes and giles shrewdly makes the best of the situation

tolkien by profession a philologist sprinkled several philological jokes into the tale including a variety of ingeniously fake etymologies almost all the place names are supposed to occur relatively close to oxford along the thames or along the route to london at the end of the story giles is made lord of tame and count of worminghall the village of oakley burnt to the ground by the dragon early in the story may also be named after oakley buckinghamshire near to thame

however farmer giles s blunderbuss had a wide mouth that opened like a horn and it did not fire balls or slugs but anything that he could spare to stuff in and it did not do execution because he seldom loaded it and never let it off the sight of it was usually enough for his purpose and this country was not yet civilised for the blunderbuss was not superseded it was indeed the only kind of gun that there was and rare at that

ward was an overseas member of the conservative monday club and found himself the center of a minor sensation on 26 july 1977 when immigration officials at heathrow airport held him for seven hours before they formally refused him permission to enter britain and placed him aboard another plane to munich he was due to address a meeting of the africa committee of the monday club at the house of lords organized by the former conservative party mp harold soref on the 29th and visit family in gloucestershire on being asked why entry had never been refused on previous journeys to britain by ward a home office spokesman said i don t know it may have been a mistake or oversight formal protests were made to the home office by tory members of parliament mps john biggs davison sir patrick wall and teddy taylor

when the bridge was completed in the morning of 20 june christian s baggage started to cross the river tilly planned to force christian s troops back to the h chst walls and the main isolating the two thousand troops in sossenheim hence christian ordered his troops to withdraw over the pontoon bridge towards kelsterbach but under the catholic artillery fire the withdrawal turned into a headlong flight the bridge broke after only 3 000 men had crossed and many of christian s soldiers and horses drowned in the main

the 1945 united kingdom general election was a national election held on 5 july 1945 but polling in some constituencies was delayed by some days and the counting of votes was delayed until 26 july to provide time for overseas votes to be brought to britain the governing conservative party sought to maintain its position in parliament but faced challenges from public opinion about the future of the united kingdom in the post war period british prime minister winston churchill proposed to call for a general election in parliament which passed with a majority vote less than two months after the conclusion of the second world war in europe

the election s campaigning was focused on leadership of the country and its future churchill sought to use his wartime popularity as part of his campaign to keep the conservatives in power after a wartime coalition had been in place since 1940 with the other political parties but he faced questions from public opinion surrounding the conservatives actions in the 1930s and his ability to handle domestic issues unrelated to warfare clement attlee who led the labour party was seen as a more competent leader by voters particularly those who feared a return to the levels of unemployment in the 1930s and sought a strong figurehead in british politics to lead the postwar rebuilding of the country opinion polls when the election was called showed strong approval ratings for churchill but labour had gradually gained support for months prior to the war s conclusion

the final result of the election showed labour to have won a landslide victory making a net gain of 239 seats and winning 47 7 thus allowing attlee to be appointed prime minister this election marked the first time that the labour party had won an outright majority in parliament and allowed attlee to begin implementing the party s post war reforms for the country for the conservatives the labour victory was a shock as they suffered a net loss of 189 seats although they won 36 2 of the vote and had campaigned on the mistaken belief that churchill would win as people praised his progression of the war of the other two major parties the liberal party faced a serious blow after taking a net loss of nine seats with a vote share of 9 0 many within urban areas and including the seat held by its leader sir archibald sinclair the national liberal party fared significantly worse enduring a net loss of 22 seats with a vote share of 2 9 with its leader ernest brown losing his seat

the 10 7 swing from the conservatives to an opposition party is the largest since the acts of union 1800 the conservative loss of the vote exceeded that of the 1906 liberal landslide ousting of a conservative administration churchill remained actively involved in politics and returned as prime minister after leading his party into the 1951 general election for the national liberals the election was their last as they merged with the conservatives in 1947 brown resigned from politics in the aftermath of the election

the labour manifesto let us face the future included promises of nationalisation economic planning full employment a national health service and a system of social security the conservative manifesto mr churchill s declaration to the voters on the other hand included progressive ideas on key social issues but was relatively vague on the idea of postwar economic control and the party was associated with high levels of unemployment in the 1930s it failed to convince voters that it could effectively deal with unemployment in a postwar britain in may 1945 when the war in europe ended churchill s approval ratings stood at 83 but the labour party had held an 18 poll lead as of february 1945

the beveridge report published in 1942 proposed the creation of a welfare state it called for a dramatic turn in british social policy with provision for nationalised healthcare expansion of state funded education national insurance and a new housing policy the report was extremely popular and copies of its findings were widely purchased turning it into a best seller the labour party adopted the report eagerly but the conservatives accepted many of the principles of the report churchill did not regard the reforms as socialist but claimed that they were not affordable labour offered a new comprehensive welfare policy reflecting a consensus that social changes were needed the conservatives were not willing to make the same changes that labour proposed and appeared out of step with public opinion

labour played to the concept of winning the peace that would follow the war possibly for that reason there was especially strong support for labour in the armed services which feared the unemployment and homelessness to which the soldiers of the first world war had returned it has been claimed that the left wing bias of teachers in the armed services was a contributing factor but that argument has generally not carried much weight and the failure of the conservative governments in the 1920s to deliver a land fit for heroes was likely more important

the role of propaganda films produced during the war which were shown to both military and civilian audiences is also seen as a contributory factor because of their general optimism about the future which meshed with the labour party s campaigning in 1945 better than with that of the conservatives the writer and soldier anthony burgess remarked that churchill who then often wore a colonel s uniform was not nearly as popular with soldiers at the front as with officers and civilians burgess noted that churchill often smoked cigars in front of soldiers who had not had a decent cigarette in days

labour had also been given during the war the opportunity to display to the electorate its domestic competence in government under men such as attlee as deputy prime minister herbert morrison at the home office and ernest bevin at the ministry of labour the differing wartime strategies of the two parties likewise gave labour an advantage labour continued to attack prewar conservative governments for their inactivity in tackling hitler reviving the economy and rearming britain but churchill was less interested in furthering his party much to the chagrin of many of its members and mps

though voters respected and liked churchill s wartime record they were more distrustful of the conservative party s domestic and foreign policy record in the late 1930s churchill and the conservatives are also generally considered to have run a poor campaign in comparison to labour as churchill s personal popularity remained high the conservatives were confident of victory and based much of their election campaign on that rather than proposing new programmes however people distinguished between churchill and his party a contrast that labour repeatedly emphasised throughout the campaign voters also harboured doubts over churchill s ability to lead the country on the domestic front

in addition to the poor conservative general election strategy churchill went so far as to accuse attlee of seeking to behave as a dictator despite attlee s service as part of churchill s war cabinet in the most famous incident of the campaign churchill s first election broadcast on 4 june backfired dramatically and memorably denouncing his former coalition partners he declared that labour would have to fall back on some form of a gestapo to impose socialism on britain attlee responded the next night by ironically thanking the prime minister for demonstrating to people the difference between churchill the great wartime leader and churchill the peacetime politician and argued the case for public control of industry

another blow to the conservative campaign was the memory of the 1930s policy of appeasement which had been conducted by churchill s conservative predecessors neville chamberlain and stanley baldwin but had been widely discredited for allowing adolf hitler s germany to become too powerful labour had strongly advocated appeasement until 1938 but the interwar period had been dominated by conservatives with the exception of two brief minority labour governments in 1924 and 1929 1931 the conservatives had been in power for all of the interwar period as a result the conservatives were generally blamed for the era s mistakes appeasement and the inflation and the unemployment of the great depression many voters felt that although the first world war had been won the peace that followed had been lost

as president riesco was faced with crippling parliamentary divisions he was forced to appoint no fewer than 17 different governments each lasting an average of just three and a half months even though he had been elected with the support of the liberal alliance he was deserted by them and had to seek the support of the conservative coalition his former opponents in the end he had to switch back and forth between both groups in order to complete his term the result was that since he lacked a congressional majority of his own he was forced to name caretaker ministers lacking efficacy or permanence

as a former member of the judiciary his principal efforts were channeled towards legal reforms he managed to establish a new code of civil procedure 1902 which is still in force today and a code of penal procedure 1906 which lasted almost 100 years in 1905 he began construction of the new building for the supreme court that was finished in 1911 he concluded several important public works such as the sewers for the city of santiago and the new network of electrical trams he greatly expanded the secondary education specially for women and doubled the number of normal schools for the preparation of new teachers

belarus officially the republic of belarus is a landlocked country in eastern europe it is bordered by russia to the east and northeast ukraine to the south poland to the west and lithuania and latvia to the northwest covering an area of and with a population of 9 4 million belarus is the thirteenth largest and the twentieth most populous country in europe the country is administratively divided into seven regions and is one of the world s most urbanized with over 40 of its total land area forested minsk is the country s capital and largest city

until the 20th century different states at various times controlled the lands of modern day belarus including kievan rus the principality of polotsk the grand duchy of lithuania the polish lithuanian commonwealth and the russian empire in the aftermath of the russian revolution in 1917 different states arose competing for legitimacy amidst the civil war ultimately ending in the rise of the byelorussian ssr which became a founding constituent republic of the soviet union in 1922 after the polish soviet war belarus lost almost half of its territory to poland much of the borders of belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some lands of the second polish republic were reintegrated into it after the soviet invasion of poland and were finalized after world war ii during wwii military operations devastated belarus which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources the republic was redeveloped in the post war years in 1945 the byelorussian ssr became a founding member of the united nations along with the soviet union

the parliament of the republic proclaimed the sovereignty of belarus on 1990 and during the dissolution of the soviet union belarus declared independence on 1991 following the adoption of a new constitution in 1994 alexander lukashenko was elected belarus s first president in the country s first and only free election post independence serving as president ever since lukashenko s government is widely considered to be authoritarian and human rights groups consider human rights in the country to be poor belarus is the only country in europe officially using the death penalty lukashenko continued a number of soviet era policies such as state ownership of large sections of the economy in 2000 belarus and russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation forming the union state

the name belarus is closely related with the term belaya rus i e white rus there are several claims to the origin of the name white rus an ethno religious theory suggests that the name used to describe the part of old ruthenian lands within the grand duchy of lithuania that had been populated mostly by slavs who had been christianized early as opposed to black ruthenia which was predominantly inhabited by pagan balts an alternative explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local slavic population a third theory suggests that the old rus lands that were not conquered by the tatars i e polotsk vitebsk and mogilev had been referred to as white rus

the name rus is often conflated with its latin forms russia and ruthenia thus belarus is often referred to as white russia or white ruthenia the name first appeared in german and latin medieval literature the chronicles of jan of czarnk w mention the imprisonment of lithuanian grand duke jogaila and his mother at in 1381 the first known use of white russia to refer to belarus was in the late 16th century by englishman sir jerome horsey who was known for his close contacts with the russian royal court during the 17th century the russian tsars used white rus to describe the lands added from the grand duchy of lithuania

the term belorussia the latter part similar but spelled and stressed differently from russia first rose in the days of the russian empire and the russian tsar was usually styled the tsar of all the russias as russia or the russian empire was formed by three parts of russia the great little and white this asserted that the territories are all russian and all the peoples are also russian in the case of the belarusians they were variants of the russian people

in the 9th century the territory of modern belarus became part of kievan rus a vast east slavic state ruled by the rurikid dynasty upon the death of kievan rus ruler yaroslav i the wise the state split into independent principalities many early rus principalities were virtually razed or severely affected by a major mongol invasion in the 13th century but the lands of modern belarus avoided the brunt of the invasion and eventually joined the grand duchy of lithuania there are no sources of military seizure but the annals affirm the alliance and united foreign policy of polotsk and lithuania for decades trying to avoid the tatar yoke the principality of minsk sought protection from lithuanian princes further north and in 1242 minsk became a part of the expanding grand duchy of lithuania

incorporation into the grand duchy of lithuania resulted in an economic political and ethno cultural unification of belarusian lands of the principalities held by the duchy nine of them were settled by a population that would eventually become belarusian people during this time the duchy was involved in several military campaigns including fighting on the side of poland against the teutonic knights at the battle of grunwald in 1410 the joint victory allowed the duchy to control the northwestern borderlands of eastern europe

the third article of the statute establishes that all lands of the grand duchy of lithuania will be eternally in the grand duchy of lithuania and never enter as a part of other states it allowed the right to own land within the grand duchy of lithuania to only its own families anyone from outside the duchy gaining rights to a property would actually own it only after swearing allegiance to the grand duke of lithuania these articles were aimed to defend the rights of the nobility of the grand duchy of lithuania nobility against polish prussian and other aristocracy of polish lithuanian commonwealth

in the years following the union the process of gradual polonization of both lithuanians and ruthenians gained steady momentum in culture and social life both the polish language and catholicism became dominant and in 1696 polish replaced ruthenian as the official language with the ruthenian language being banned from administrative use however the ruthenian peasants continued to speak their own language and remained faithful to the belarusian greek catholic church statutes were initially issued in the ruthenian language alone and later also in polish around 1840 the statutes were banned by the russian tsar following the november uprising modern ukrainian lands used it until 1860s

in a russification drive in the 1840s nicholas i prohibited use of the belarusian language in public schools campaigned against belarusian publications and tried to pressure those who had converted to catholicism under the poles to reconvert to the orthodox faith in 1863 economic and cultural pressure exploded in a revolt led by konstanty kalinowski also known as kastus after the failed revolt the russian government reintroduced the use of cyrillic to belarusian in 1864 and no documents in belarusian were permitted by the russian government until 1905

the belarusian people s republic was the first attempt to create an independent belarusian state under name belarus despite significant efforts the state ceased to exist primarily because the territory was continually dominated by the german imperial army and the imperial russian army in world war i and then the bolshevik red army it existed from only 1918 to 1919 but created prerequisites for the formation of the state idea around the name belarus the choice of the name was probably based on the fact that the educated core of the newly formed government was educated in the tsardom universities with a corresponding education around the ideology of west russianism

the republic of central lithuania was a short lived political entity which was the last attempt to restore lithuania in the historical confederacy state it was also supposed to create lithuania upper and lithuania lower the republic was created in 1920 following the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st lithuanian belarusian division of the polish army under lucjan eligowski centered on the historical capital of the grand duchy of lithuania vilna for 18 months the entity served as a buffer state between poland upon which it depended and lithuania which claimed the area after a variety of delays a disputed election took place on 8 january 1922 and the territory was annexed to poland eligowski later in his memoir which was published in london in 1943 condemned the annexation of the republic by poland as well as the policy of closing belarusian schools and general disregard of marshal j zef pi sudski s confederation plans by polish ally years earlier interrogation report of 19 year old revolutionary pilsudski of 10 march 1887 indicated that he called himself a belarusian nobleman

in 1919 a part of belarus under russian rule emerged as the byelorussian soviet socialist republic byelorussian ssr soon thereafter it merged to form the lithuanian byelorussian ssr the contested lands were divided between poland and the soviet union after the war ended in 1921 and the byelorussian ssr became a founding member of the union of soviet socialist republics in 1922 in the 1920s and 1930s soviet agricultural and economic policies including collectivization and five year plans for the national economy led to famine and political repression

the western part of modern belarus remained part of the second polish republic after an early period of liberalization tensions between increasingly nationalistic polish government and various increasingly separatist ethnic minorities started to grow and the belarusian minority was no exception the polonization drive was inspired and influenced by the polish national democracy led by roman dmowski who advocated refusing belarusians and ukrainians the right for a free national development a belarusian organization the belarusian peasants and workers union was banned in 1927 and opposition to polish government was met with state repressions nonetheless compared to the larger ukrainian minority belarusians were much less politically aware and active and thus suffered fewer repressions than the ukrainians in 1935 after the death of j zef pi sudski a new wave of repressions was released upon the minorities with many orthodox churches and belarusian schools being closed use of the belarusian language was discouraged belarusian leadership was sent to bereza kartuska prison

in 1939 nazi germany and the soviet union invaded and occupied poland marking the beginning of world war ii the soviets invaded and annexed much of eastern poland which had been part of the country since the peace of riga two decades earlier much of the northern section of this area was added to the byelorussian ssr and now constitutes west belarus the soviet controlled byelorussian people s council officially took control of the territories whose populations consisted of a mixture of poles ukrainians belarusians and jews on 28 october 1939 in bia ystok nazi germany invaded the soviet union in 1941 the defense of brest fortress was the first major battle of operation barbarossa

statistically the byelorussian ssr was the hardest hit soviet republic in world war ii it remained in nazi hands until 1944 during that time germany destroyed 209 out of 290 cities in the republic 85 of the republic s industry and more than one million buildings the german called for the extermination expulsion or enslavement of most or all belarusians for the purpose of providing more living space in the east for germans most of western belarus became part of the reichskommissariat ostland in 1941 but in 1943 the german authorities allowed local collaborators to set up a client state the belarusian central rada

after the war belarus was among the 51 founding member states of the united nations charter and as such it was allowed an additional vote at the un on top of the soviet union s vote vigorous postwar reconstruction promptly followed the end of the war and the byelorussian ssr became a major center of manufacturing in the western ussr creating jobs and attracting ethnic russians the borders of the byelorussian ssr and poland were redrawn in accord with the 1919 proposed curzon line

a national constitution was adopted in march 1994 in which the functions of prime minister were given to the president of belarus two round elections for the presidency on 1994 and 1994 catapulted the formerly unknown alexander lukashenko into national prominence he garnered 45 of the vote in the first round and 80 in the second defeating vyacheslav kebich who received 14 of the vote lukashenko was re elected in 2001 in 2006 in 2010 and again in 2015 western governments amnesty international and human rights watch have criticized lukashenko s authoritarian style of government

since 2014 following years of embrace of russian influence in the country lukashenko has pressed a revival of belarusian identity for the first time he delivered a speech in belarusian rather than russian which most belarusians speak as their primary language in which he said we are not russian we are belarusians and later encouraged the use of belarusian trade disputes a border dispute and a much relaxed official attitude to dissident voices are all part of a weakening of the longtime warm relationship with russia

in 2019 lukashenko had bilateral talks in sochi with russian president vladimir putin and declared that their two countries could unite tomorrow no problem an idea backed by putin for years observers have labeled the potential plan a scheme by putin to remain in power beyond 2024 however political scientist mikhail vinogradov explained that lukashenko will play tough to the public while trying to look weak in front of putin and the carnegie moscow center s artyom shraibman suggested that moscow will most likely fail to find its base among belarusians

mass protests erupted across the country following the disputed 2020 belarusian presidential election in which lukashenko sought a sixth term in office russian and eu leaders warned of any external interference in belarus s internal affairs the polish government has allotted a residence for main opposition candidate sviatlana tsikhanouskaya and other members of the belarusian opposition in warsaw poland following the disputed election lukashenko is not recognized by the european union and united states as the legitimate president of belarus the european union and the united states recently imposed sanctions against belarus because of the rigged election and political oppression during to the ongoing protests in the country

the highest point is dzyarzhynskaya hara dzyarzhynsk hill at and the lowest point is on the neman river at the average elevation of belarus is above sea level the climate features mild to cold winters with january minimum temperatures ranging from in southwest brest to in northeast vitebsk and cool and moist summers with an average temperature of belarus has an average annual rainfall of the country is in the transitional zone between continental climates and maritime climates

natural resources include peat deposits small quantities of oil and natural gas granite dolomite limestone marl chalk sand gravel and clay about 70 of the radiation from neighboring ukraine s 1986 chernobyl nuclear disaster entered belarusian territory and about a fifth of belarusian land principally farmland and forests in the southeastern regions was affected by radiation fallout the united nations and other agencies have aimed to reduce the level of radiation in affected areas especially through the use of caesium binders and rapeseed cultivation which are meant to decrease soil levels of caesium 137

belarus is a presidential republic governed by a president and the national assembly the term for each presidency is five years under the 1994 constitution the president could serve for only two terms as president but a change in the constitution in 2004 eliminated term limits alexander lukashenko has been the president of belarus since 1994 in 1996 lukashenko called for a controversial vote to extend the presidential term from five to seven years and as a result the election that was supposed to occur in 1999 was pushed back to 2001 the referendum on the extension was denounced as a fantastic fake by the chief electoral officer viktar hanchar who was removed from the office for official matters only during the campaign the national assembly is a bicameral parliament comprising the 110 member house of representatives the lower house and the 64 member council of the republic the upper house

the house of representatives has the power to appoint the prime minister make constitutional amendments call for a vote of confidence on the prime minister and make suggestions on foreign and domestic policy the council of the republic has the power to select various government officials conduct an impeachment trial of the president and accept or reject the bills passed by the house of representatives each chamber has the ability to veto any law passed by local officials if it is contrary to the constitution

the government includes a council of ministers headed by the prime minister and five deputy prime ministers the members of this council need not be members of the legislature and are appointed by the president the judiciary comprises the supreme court and specialized courts such as the constitutional court which deals with specific issues related to constitutional and business law the judges of national courts are appointed by the president and confirmed by the council of the republic for criminal cases the highest court of appeal is the supreme court the belarusian constitution forbids the use of special extrajudicial courts

belarus has often been described as europe s last dictatorship by some media outlets politicians and authors due to its authoritarian government lukashenko has described himself as having an authoritarian ruling style the council of europe removed belarus from its observer status since 1997 as a response for election irregularities in the november 1996 constitutional referendum and parliament by elections re admission of the country into the council is dependent on the completion of benchmarks set by the council including the improvement of human rights rule of law and democracy

after the december completion of the 2010 presidential election lukashenko was elected to a fourth straight term with nearly 80 of the vote in elections the runner up opposition leader andrei sannikov received less than 3 of the vote independent observers criticized the election as fraudulent when opposition protesters took to the streets in minsk many people including most rival presidential candidates were beaten and arrested by the state militia many of the candidates including sannikov were sentenced to prison or house arrest for terms which are mainly and typically over four years six months later amid an unprecedented economic crisis activists utilized social networking to initiate a fresh round of protests characterized by wordless hand clapping

the union of russia and belarus a supranational confederation was established in a 1996 99 series of treaties that called for monetary union equal rights single citizenship and a common foreign and defense policy however the future of the union has been placed in doubt because of belarus s repeated delays of monetary union the lack of a referendum date for the draft constitution and a dispute over the petroleum trade belarus was a founding member of the commonwealth of independent states cis belarus has trade agreements with several european union member states despite other member states travel ban on lukashenko and top officials including neighboring latvia lithuania and poland travel bans imposed by the european union have been lifted in the past in order to allow lukashenko to attend diplomatic meetings and also to engage his government and opposition groups in dialogue

sino belarusian relations have improved strengthened by the visit of president lukashenko to china in october 2005 belarus also has strong ties with syria considered a key partner in the middle east in addition to the cis belarus is a member of the eurasian economic community the collective security treaty organisation the international non aligned movement since 1998 and the organization on security and cooperation in europe osce as an osce member state belarus s international commitments are subject to monitoring under the mandate of the u s helsinki commission belarus is included in the european union s european neighbourhood policy enp which aims at bringing the eu and its neighbours closer in economic and geopolitical terms

belarus has not expressed a desire to join nato but has participated in the individual partnership program since 1997 and belarus provides refueling and airspace support for the isaf mission in afghanistan belarus first began to cooperate with nato upon signing documents to participate in their partnership for peace program in 1995 however belarus cannot join nato because it is a member of the collective security treaty organisation tensions between nato and belarus peaked after the march 2006 presidential election in belarus

in 2014 the share of manufacturing in gdp was 37 more than two thirds of this amount falls on manufacturing industries the number of people employed in industry is 32 7 of the working population the growth rate is much lower than for the economy as a whole about 1 9 in 2014 at the time of the dissolution of the soviet union in 1991 belarus was one of the world s most industrially developed states by percentage of gdp as well as the richest cis member state