The following is the list of cities in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

that underwent a name change in the past. Most formal name changes in Belarus took place when the country was a member of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(1919-1991). A problem with namings of Belarusian cities is their being multiple times translated into several languages officially used on the Belarusian lands:

Old Belarusian Ruthenian ( Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly th ...

(Ruthenian),

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, Modern Belarusian. A significant wave of "automatical" city renamings followed the annexation of Belarus by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in the late 18th century, when the Russian administration transcribed the names of many cities from

Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...

and not from

. Hence, the Russian name of

Hrodna Grodno (russian: Гродно, pl, Grodno; lt, Gardinas) or Hrodna ( be, Гродна ), is a city in western Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, 300 km (186 mi) from Minsk, about 15 km (9 mi) from the Polish b ...

was taken directly from Polish language instead of the ancient Ruthenian name ''Gorodno''/''Horodno'' (Городно). The Polish ''

Brześć Litewski Brest ( be, Брэст / Берасьце, Bieraście, ; russian: Брест, ; uk, Берестя, Berestia; lt, Brasta; pl, Brześć; yi, בריסק, Brisk), formerly Brest-Litovsk (russian: Брест-Литовск, lit=Lithuanian Br ...

'' was translated into ''Brest-Litovsk'' (Брест-Литовск) instead of using the traditional Ruthenian ''Berestye'' (Берестье). Most of the Russian-translated names have been put into Belarusian language by the Soviet language reforms of the 1930s. Besides that, namings of the cities in Modern Belarusian language differ from namings in other languages. *Bieraście → Brześć Litewski → Brest-Litovsk →

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

*Horadnia →

Grodno Grodno (russian: Гродно, pl, Grodno; lt, Gardinas) or Hrodna ( be, Гродна ), is a city in western Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, 300 km (186 mi) from Minsk, about 15 km (9 mi) from the Polish b ...

→ Hrodna *Mieniesk → Miensk → Mińsk Litewski →

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

Soviet city renamings

*Drissa →

Verkhnyadzvinsk Vierchniadzvinsk ( be, Верхнядзві́нск, lt, Drisa, pl, Dryssa) or Verkhnedvinsk (russian: Верхнедви́нск) is a city in Belarus in the northwest of Vitebsk Region; it is the administrative center of the Verkhnyadzvinsk Ra ...

*Kojdanaŭ → Dziarzhynsk *Prapošask → Prapojsk → Slavgorod →

Slawharad Slawharad or Slavgorod ( be, Слаўгарад; russian: Славгород, pl, Sławograd) is a town in the Mogilev Region, Eastern Belarus. It is located in the east of the Region, on the banks of the Sozh River at the confluence with the P ...

*Šaciłavičy →

Svietlahorsk , nickname = Svietly (The Bright), , image_skyline = Svetlahorsk, Homieĺ Voblaść, Belarus.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = In the center of town, with ''16-floor one'' (left) and ''house with a clock'' (rig ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renamed cities in Belarus Belarus geography-related lists Belarus, renamed

Cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

*Renamed

Soviet city renamings

See also

References