In accordance with the Soviet-Polish Treaty, 17 districts of Belostok and 3 districts of Brest Regions were transferred to Poland in August 1945. By the end of 1970s, agrarian Belarus turned into the developed industrial and agrarian republic.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986 resulted in radionuclide contamination of large areas in Gomel and Mogilev, partially in Grodno, Brest and Minsk Regions.

On July 27th 1990, the BSSR Supreme Council adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Belarus. It was given the constitutional law status in August 1991. On September 19th 1991, the BSSR was renamed into the Republic of Belarus. In December 1991, the Heads of states and governments of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Act on Denunciation of the Union Treaty of 1992 in Viskuly (Belovezhskaya Pushcha). The USSR seized to exist. The Republic of Belarus became an independent sovereign state.

On March 15th 1994, the Supreme Council of the Belarusian Republic adopted the new Constitution in which Belarus was proclaimed a unitary democratic legal state.

On July 10th 1994, Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko was elected the first President of the Republic of Belarus.

The Constitution of 1994 was adopted in the new wording with addenda and amendments following the referendum held 24 November 1996.

The agreement on forming the union between the Republic of Belarus and Russian Federation was signed on April 2nd 1997. The Presidents of the Russian Federation and Republic of Belarus signed the Agreement on Establishing the Union State 8 December 1999.

The national holiday of the Republic of Belarus is the Independence Day (3 July).

V. Novitsky.

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