Last census 1989: 10,151,806 inhabitants. 77,9% Belorussians; 13,2% Russians; 4,1% Poles; 2,9& Ukrainians; 1,1% Jews and Tartars, et. al. – Refugees: end of 1996: 5300 from the former USSR; 5500 from other states.
 
 

January 14-15 - Marks the second convention of representatives of sixty-six Belarusian youth groups in Vilnius, Lithuania, in support of Belarusian „Rebirth"; authorities in Minsk deny permission for the convention to be held in the capital;

January 21 - 40.000 people attend a rally in support of Belarusian Popular Front candidates running in the March 1989 elections to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies;

February 2 - The Society of Belarusian Culture is established in Vilnius, Lithuania;

February 19 - About 45,000 demonstrators at the Dynama Stadium in Minsk support the call of the BPF Organizing Comittee to speed up democratic reforms;

March 26 - In an election to the Congress of People´s Deputies of the USSR (the first multichoice contest permitted since 1917), conservative candidates win a vast majority of seats;

June 19 - Thousands march to Kurapaty, the site of the mass graves of victims executed by the Soviet regime from 1937-1941, to commemorate the dead and demand a full investigation;

June 25 - The Belarusian Popular Front "Rebirth"("Adradzennie") is established as national identity revived under glasnost initiative of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and becomes the main opposition party; among the founding fathers of the new party are well-known personalities, such as the writers Vasil Bykau and Alies Adamovic;

July 26 - A mass rally in Minsk demands the creation of a commission to investigate the Chernobyl coverup;

July 28 - Nikolai Dementei replaces G. S. Tarazevich as chairman of the Supreme Soviet;

September 30 - A rally protesting against the government´s negligence in attending to the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster attracts 30,000 participants;

The first Belarusian Rock Festival „Try kolery" (Three Colors) takes places at Lida;

The first anthology of Belarusian Rock Musicians, written by the Journalists Vitaut Martynenka and Anatol Malhuy cannot be published in Minsk, but in NewYork only, due to obstructions by the authorities;
 
 

January 27 - A Law on Language is adopted which establishes Belarusian as the official state language but allows a transitional period of three to ten years;

March 4 - Elections to the Supreme Soviet are held. 8 candidates from Belarusian Popular Front gain seats;

March 13 – The Belarus Communist Party (BCP) obtains about 86% of the vote in the parliamentary elections;

April 11 - V. Kebich replaces M.Kovalyov as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet´s Council of Ministers (Prime Minister);

May 19 - N. Dementai, the incumbent chairman of the Supreme Soviet, is reappointed to his position, but the BPF candidate Stanislav Shushkevich is elected First Deputy Chairman;

July 27 - A Declaration of Sovereignty adopted by the newly-elected Supreme Soviet creates a "neutral, nuclear-free state";

July - The Democratic Opposition group - consisting of twenty-seven Belarusian Popular Front members and seven other democrats - formalizes itself within the Supreme Coucil ofthe BSSR;

September - The government approves „The National Program on the Development of the Belarusian Language and the Languages of Other Nationalities of the BSSR";

November 7 - During a Revolution Day celebration, 13 nationalists break through a police cordon to wreath a statue of Lenin with Belarusian national symbols;

November 28 - At the Belarusian Communists´ Party Congress, First Secretary of the CPB Jafrem Sakalov warns that „chauvinism, nationalism, and separatism are on the rise". Sakalov´s successor, Anatol Malofeyev, calls for raprochement with the intelligentsia;

December 18 - Belarus and Russia sign a treaty on political noninterference and economic cooperation;

The „Alternative Theatre" led by Vitautas Grygalyaunas moves. The repertoire comprises the most well-known plays of Eugene Ionesco, S. Mrozhak, which are still unknown in Belarus, and critical present-day plays;

Kim Cesakov´s Fourth Symphony „Kuropaty" is dedicated to the reprisals of the Stalin era. Kim Cesakov is among the first composers who deal this issue;
 

February - Gorbachev visits Belarus, including the territories affected by the Chernobyl radiation, and calls for a new Union Treaty;

March 17 - In the all-union referendum on preserving the union, 83 percent of Belarusian voters (83 percent turnout) support the union;

April 8 - strikes and unrest in Minsk are caused by the raising of prices for food;

April 12 - Ten thousands participate in republic-wide strikes and demontrations to protest against the poor economic conditions;

May - International Women's Film Festival in Minsk for the first time is initiated by women's film studio, Tatiana, and the Belarusian Union of Cinematographers; main topics: women's identity at the end of the 20th century, gender and films;

June 4 - The „Law About Culture" is passed;

August 20 - Belarus Communist Party (BCP) is suspended following attempted coup against Gorbachev in Moscow;

August 25 – The Declaration of Independence is adopted hastily after the collapse of the hardline putsch in Moscow;

August 28 - Belarusian Prime Minister Viachelslav Kebich publishes a statement indicating that he and his entire cabinet have „suspended" their Communist Party membership;

August 29 - activity of BCP is temporarely suspended;

August 31 - President Nikolai Dementai resigns;

September 3 - Poland recognizes the independence of Belarus;

September 18 - Stanislav Shushkevich, the deputy speaker of the Supreme Soviet, moderate nationalist, is elected president of parliament;

September - "Law on the Social Protection of the population after Chernobyl" is passed, which regulates compensation payments and medical care for the affected groups;

December - suspended BCP is refounded as "Party of the Communists Belarusia";

December 8 - Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is formed in Minsk. Minsk becomes the administrativ centre;

The Gallery „Brama" (Belorusian for „Gates") an author´s non-commercial conceptual gallery, creates thematic expositions, theatre perfomances, concept programmes, presentations, conferences, festival´s. Art Director of „Brama": Larisa Finkelstein;

The first season of the Theater-Laboratory „Vol´naya Scena" (The Open Stage) in Minsk. The first play to be showed: an absurd-style perfomance based Mikola Arakhoyskiy´s play „Ku-Ku", a portrait of the young generation;

The first „Chagall Days" take place in Vitebsk which are held every year since. A number of Chagall´s works were exhibited through several weeks;
 

January 6 - The popular Front initiates a signature-gathering campaign for a referendum on dissolving the Communist-dominated Supreme Soviet and holding new elections;

February 23 - Several thousand gather in Minsk in support of the Popular Front´s referendum campaign;

April 13 - The Party of Popular Accord, organized by reformist former Communists, holds its founding congress;

May 12 - The Central Election Commission announces that 383,000 signatures have been gathered in the referendum campaign, 33,000 more than required;

May 15 - Shushkevich refuses to sign the CIS collective security pact, despite strong parliamentary support for the agreement;

May 20 - Belarus introduces its own coupons to replace the Sovjet rouble;

June 1 - Belarus definitely leaves the rouble zone;

July - The Historian Arkadiy Podlipskiy opens an extraordinary Chagall-Museum in Vitebsk: The exhibition is limited to a room only of Chagall´s house. The other rooms are used by a family living there since the Vitebsk City Council is not able to offer a substitute;

September 25-26 - Widerspread festivities are held in Minsk and Polacak marking the millenium of Christianity in Belarus;

October 9 - The Popular Movement of Belarus is formed, uniting a number of pro-communist, pro-Russian political groups;

October 29 - Despite the fact that the referendum campaign collected more than the necessary 350,000 signatures, the Supreme Soviet votes 202-35 to reject it;

November 11 - Belarus and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations;

December 31 - Officers and soldiers of Belarus´s armed forces (those with Belarusian citizenship) swear allegiance to the Republic of Belarus;

Well-known Belarusian Author Svetlana Aleksievich published her documentary-styled novel „Chernobyl Prayer". It describes the horrors of World War III, as she calls the Nuclear Power Plant disaster, and provides a psychogram of the early-90´s Soviet society;
 

February 3 - The Communist Party, suspended in August 1991, is officially permitted to resume activity;

February 4 - The Belarusian parliament ratifies the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-I) and approves adherence to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. By the year 2000 Belarus should be free of all nuclear arms;

March 21-25 - For the first time in the history of Soviet Belarus the anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (March 25, 1918) is openly celebrated in Minsk and other cities of the republic;

April 9 - The parliament votes 188-34 to sign the CIS collective security pact, but Shushkevich is against the signing and insists that referendum is held to decide the issue;

June 9-11 - The First World Congress of Belarussian is held in Minsk;

July 1 – A vote of no confidence against President Shushkevich fails;

July 15 - A citizenship law is passed which grants automatic citizenship to all residents of Belarus;

September 11 - The conservative Popular Movement of Belarus sponsors a Congress of the Belarusian People which is attended by 1,300 delegates;

September - „The Belarusian National Culture" is taught at University for the first time;

November 9 - 500 demonstrators gather in front of the Supreme Soviet building to call for the government´s resignation;

November 18 - The Supreme Soviet ratifies the monetary union treaty;

November 24 - The Supreme Soviet makes the Belarusian rouble the sole legal currency in the country in preparation for monetary union with Russia;

December - 18% of the Belarusian gross national product had to be spent on the limitation of damage caused by the Chernobyl disaster;
 

January 3 - Shushkevich signs the CIS collective security pact;

January 15 – US President Bill Clinton visits Belarus and praises Shushkevich for his merits;

January 26 - Because of accusations of government corruption and facing widespread opposition by a pro-Russian parliament, Shushkevich is ousted as parliamentary chairman (and head of state);

January 28 – Miecyslau Hryb, Lieutenant General of the militia and chairman of the parliamentary committee for national security, is elected President of Parliament and Head of State;

March 15 – The parliament (the Sejm) adopts a new Belarusian constitution;

April - The second international Chernobyl congress again directs the attention of the foreign countries on the dramatic consequences of the reactor-disaster of 1986;

June 23 – First free presidential elections;

July 10 – Alexandr Lukashenko is elected as President on an anti-corruption, pro-Russia platform (with an overwhelming majority of 81,7% of the vote);

July 11 - Kebich and his cabinet resign;

November – Lukashenko’s rule becomes increasingly dictatorial;

December 22 - Four major Belarusian newspapers appear with blank space on their pages, following the presidential administration´s ban on publishing a report on corruption in the presidential team;

December 25-30 – Two critically minded independent newspapers are banned from the state printing plant in Minsk and four editors fired by presidential decree;

The first international open-air exhibition in Vitebsk dedicated to Vitebsk-born Marc Chagall;
 

January 6 - Lukashenko and Yeltsin sign a set of agreements on Russian-operated military installations and preparing for the mutual convertibility of the Russian and Belarusian roubles;

February 21-22 - Lukashenko and Yeltsin sign a treaty of friendship, as well as eight other agreements on matters including joint operation of customs service and border patrol;
all military bases of strategic significance let to the Russian army for 25 years. In return for such favours, Lukashenko grants deferment of part of the Belarusian debt in Moscow;

April 11 – Lukashenko speaks in parliament, proposing to call a referendum in order to replace the national symbols – the white-red-white flag and the national crest "Pahonia" – by the old, Soviet symbols (without hammer and sikle) and to pursue economic integration with Russia; members of the BNF party and other parties of the democratic opposition declare a hunger strike;

April 11-12 - Nineteen Popular Movement deputies declare a sit-in hunger strike to protest the May referendum. They are removed at gunpoint from the parliamentary building by special forces troops;

May 14 – the planned referendum and the first parliamentary elections in Belarus since the dissolution of the USSR are held: 82,4% vote for an economic union with Russia and for Russian as second official language; the return of the old Belarusians Soviet insignia including the Soviet Republic flag (without the hammer and sickle); the president being granted more power over the parliament;

May 30 - After two rounds of parliamentary elections only 119 deputies are elected - 55 short of the two-thirds needed for the 260-member parliament to convene. Lukashenko refuses to recognize legitimacy of the old parliament. A constitutional crisis ensues;

September 9 - the chairman of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus resigns due to "illegal interference into the affairs of the National Bank";

September 15 – the Belarusian Air Defense Force shoots down a sport balloon during an international race, which results in the death of two American citizens, despite the May conclusion of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s investigation;

November 29 - December 10 - In the fourth round of paliamentary elections, Belarus´electorate finally suceeds in electing a new parliament. The Party of Communists of Belarus and the Agrarian Party gain the majority of seats; not a single candidate of the Belarusian Popular Front makes it into parliament;

December – Lukashenko gives interview to German newspaper "Handelsblatt" in which he says that not everything connected to Hitler was bad and that his strong force raised Germany from its ruins, which he takes as an model for Belarus;
 

January – the first session of the new parliament takes place: the leader of the Agrarian Party, Semen Sharetsky, elected speaker of parliament;

March 24 - Some 30,000 Belorusians take to the streets to protest against President Lukashenko´s proposed political union with Russia. Riot police is called in to break up the demonstration;

April 2 – Yeltsin and Lukashenko meet in Moscow and sign a Russo-Belarusian Union treaty "On deepening integration and comprehensive drawing together". In Minsk demonstrations take to the streets once more in protest;

April 26 and May 31 – number of rallies and demonstrations (most of them organised by BNF) in protest against the president’s policies, for the country’s independence (April 26 – "The Chernobyl path", the largest meeting since the country‘s independence); the peaceful meetings are dissolved by force; 200 people are arrested and several hospitalised;

April - BNF leader Zyanon Poznyak is forced to leave the country after his speech held on Ukrainian TV; later (on July) he applies for political asylum in the USA (the first case of dissenters from CIS states);

July 5 - Belarus loses its right to vote in the Council of Europe after failing to pay its dues.

August 21 – Lukashenko intends to hold another referendum to introduce his own constitution giving him almost unlimited powers; as reaction seven leading political parties (among them BNF) harshly condemn the president’s unconstitutional actions which seek to lead the country into dictatorship; the president refuses to take part in the discussions;

September 1 - Radio 101.2, an independent Belarusian language radio station, is closed with 24 hours´ notice;

September 11 – chairman of parliament, Semen Sharetsky, accuses the president of "preparing the ground for a fascist state";

October 5 – the President calls for the reintroduction of „ideological education", without which, he claims, students were more disposed to participate in „nationalist riots";

November 4 - the Constitutional Court rules that the referendum will not be legally binding. Lukashenko says the results will be binding and that any state body interfering will be suspended;

November 9 - Polling stations open for "early voting" - before the draft constitution becomes available to read. A four-day holiday is arranged by the president, during which the voting sheet is regulary screened on television indicating with red ticks the boxes that back the president. The opposition is denied media access.

November 11 - Electoral Commission head, Viktor Ganchar, calls the referendum a "national disgrace". He is dismissed three days later;

November 24 - Lukashenko declares himself referendum victor, which allows him to change the constitution and extend his presidency at least until 2001. Parliament, who had begun impeachment proceedings, complains of vote-rigging;

November 28 - The President signs his new constitutions. No European diplomats attend. Deputies collect their belongings from parliament; the Constitutional Court is closed for "redecoration". Both are then terminated by a new loyal House of Representatives;

November - film director Khashchevatsky completes a documentary film entitled „An Ordinary President", which is openly criticising the Belarusian President. The film drew international acclaim and, in 1997, was awarded a prize from the Berlin Film Festival and the prestigious Russian Sakharov Prize;

December 28 - 60 members of the old parliament refuse to recognise the new parliament and found the Citizens‘ "Committee for the Protection of the Constitution" (S.Sharetsky elected chairman); the opposition sets up a shadow cabinet;
 

January 14 - National Bank head, Tamara Vinnikova, is arrested and imprisoned;

February 25 - The World Bank, IMF and EU each make criticisms of the government, halting credits;

March 1 – The Russian-Belarusian Parliamentary Assembly says there is "no alternative to unification". Western economists say that union will be a tough task;

March 16 - Peter Byrne, director of the Soros Foundation in Belarus, is refused re-entry to the country. He is accused of supporting the opposition;

April 2 - An agreement on further Russian-Belarusian integration is signed, toned down by more liberal Russian MPs.
In Minsk, 300 are hurt and another 300 detained in the last six month´s most violent clashes (anti-government pro-democracy demonstrations). Demonstrators call for the ousting of President Lukashenko. The President's security forces, for the first time, conduct the "screening" operation, the same as fascists used against partisans in forest during World War II. They "screen" entire districts of downtown Minsk;

April 3 - Foreign jornalists demonstrate outside the Foreign Ministry in Minsk calling for the government to honor freedom of the press. Belarusian Foreign Minister; Ivan Antonovich, announces the new rules could outlaw Belarusian citizens from working as correspondents for foreign agencies;

April 4 - The European Union calls the human situation in Belarus "inadmissible" and criticizes Belarus for its failure to uphold freedom of the press and the right of citizens to demonstrate freely;

April 9 - Lukashenko says:"We do not need lessons in democracy. Marches are allowed where they are authorized";

April 10 - The Strasbourg-based European Parliament complains that Belarusian President has adopted an increasingly "dictorial style of government", which raises serious questions about future EU relations with Belarus;

April 21 - 38 death sentences in Belarus last year;

April 23 - Belarusian democrats (including Yury Khodyko, Nikolai Statkevich, Alexander Bukhvostov) appeal to Russian President Boris Yeltsin about President Lukashenko's totalitarian policies;

April 29 - The Soros Foundation is accused of violating its charitable organisation status. Having provided US $ 13 million to Belarusian hospitals, schools and libraries, it is now ordered to pay US $ 3 million in fines;

May 29 - The US Ambassador, Kenneth Yalowitz, returns to Minsk one month after being recalled to protest human rights abuses in the country; Yalowitz is carrying a "strong message" that the US continues to have serious reservations about human rights in Belarus;

May 30 - The Belarusian Popular Front strongly demands the release of all political prisoners;

June 9 - The Council of Europe suspends Belarus' guest status and criticizes the changes to the country constitution;

June 27- Chagall exhibition in Minsk: Belarus, culturally inpoverished after centuries of Russian domination, has a rare chance to back in national pride as masterpieces of its long-forgotten native, Marc Chagall, go on display for the first time here;

September 16 - Belarus' Police confiscates property belonging to the Belarusian Soros Foundation's office in Minsk. Belarus' government officially shuts down the Soros Foundation in Belarus;

November 7 - starting of Charter-97, a popular opposition political movement with the goal of obstructing the dictatorship in peaceful means;

November 25 - Belarusian authorities close the nation's main opposition newspaper Svaboda, marking one of the harshest crackdowns by President Lukashenko on political opposition; big protests follow;

December 5 - Belarusian government restricts public assembly;

December 17 - Belarusian Popular Front starts collecting signatures to remove President Lukashenko;

December 18 - Belarusian Parliament tightens the country's already repressive press law;
 

January 21-24 - Events in Hrodna honoring Belarusian and Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz whose 200th birth day will be celebrated in 1998; UNESCO has declared 1998 the year of A. Mickiewicz who was born in the village of Zaosye in Belarus;

January 27 - Amnesty International sets Belarus on the international list of the countries where people are persecuted for their political views;

February 9 - Belarus holds two tons of weapons-grade nuclear material officially demolished as of November 1996, according to President Lukashenko;

February 16 - Belarusians use Valentine's Day to protest Lukashenko's policies. Around 1,000 young people marched through central Minsk to protest against authoritarian Belarus President and demand the release of two prisoners of conscience, Vadim Labkovich, 16, and Alexei Shidlovsky, 19, leaders of the youth wing of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front, have been jailed since August 1997 on charges of writing graffiti on walls and throwing paint on two Soviet-era statues;

March 6 - Proclaiming that "the future belongs to large collective farms", President Lukashenko says that private ownership of land in Belarus is impossible;

March 11 - Belarusian Trade Unions organizes a meeting in the city of Grodno. They appeal to the government to increase the minimum wage to $200 per month, and minimum pension - to $100. It is emphasized that most people earn $6 to $30 per month. However, to live a normal life, a Belarusian needs at least $200;

March 15 - Delegations of Communist parties from Russia, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and Greece are in Minsk for a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the first congress of the Soviet Communist Party. Oleg Shenin, chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - the Soviet Communist Party, calls Belarus "an isle for the revival of Communism";

March 17 - Sharp devaluation in Belarusian rouble; Russian government says that Moscow may provide financial aid to prevent the collapse of the Belarusian rouble;

March 18 - Almost 50% of the children in Belarus live below the poverty level (so called "surviving minimum" established by the government); parents of most students of the Belarusian elementary schools can not afford to give their children allowances to buy school lunches. Children literally starve. Administration of several village schools of Klimovitsky area of Mogilev region has found s "solution". Children have been given their own small pieces of land next to the school buildings so they can grown their own vegetables;

March 20 - The Belarusian government orders all companies to reduce prices on all goods to March 1 levels in an effort to stave off an economic crisis; Belarus' former and current prisoners of conscience inform about creation of the Belarusian Association of Prisoners of Conscience and protest political repressions in Belarus;

March 25 - The devaluation of Belarusian rouble continues. It fell to 69,000 per $1 from around 40,000 per $1 in the beginning of the month;

April 3 - More arrests and beatings in Belarus. The Belarusian Popular Front, the main opposition force in Belarus, staged an unauthorized demonstration to protest official festivities marking the first anniversary of the union between Belarus and Russia. While the authorities celebrate the national holiday with concerts and street fairs, several hundred oppositionists shout slogans such as "Belarus Lives!" and "Independence!", and burn the Russian flag. The police arrest some 50 protesters;

April 8 - The opposition calls on religious believers not to obey President Lukashenko's decree last month cancelling the Catholic and Orthodox Easter and All Saints' Day as public holidays;

April 21 - Food is again being rationed in Belarus. A directive issued by the Minsk Executive Committee says the decision was made "to stop the unorganized and unauthorized export of goods outside the borders of the republic." Individuals are allowed to buy no more than 2 kg of meat and poultry, 0.4 kg of cheese, and 2 kg of bread at any one given time;

April 27 - Beginning of the "diplomatic war" between Belarus and the West: Belarus tells 22 nations, including the United States, Italy, France, Poland and states from the middle east and the former Soviet Union, their diplomats will have to leave their embassy buildings for technical reasons (break of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by violating the ambassador's residence, which is considered foreign territory);

May 19 - European Union - U.S. Democracy and Civil Society Awards have been given to the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the Charter-97 group, and former constitutional judge Mikhail Pastukhou in acknowledgment of their efforts to expand democracy and protect human rights in Belarus. Belarusian Helsinki Committee Chairwoman, Tatyana Protska, receivs the award in London from U.S. President Bill Clinton and European Commission head Jacques Santer;

June 12 - Diplomats from 14 countries who face eviction from their residences at the Drozdy compound, near Minsk, deliver a formal letter of protest to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry;

June 22 - Western countries, including the United States, recall their ambassadors from Belarus, and send Belarusian ambassadors back home; Belarus responds: President Lukashenko calls diplomatic exodus 'provocation';

June - Belarusian legend-writer, Vasil Bykau, emigrates to Finland.

July 13 - 15 European Union countries, the United States, and more than a dozen other Western countries issue a list of 131 Belarusian government officials banning them from entering these countries; Belarus responds: President Lukashenko calls Western visa ban 'blackmail', and thanks Russia for backing Belarus over the diplomatic war;

October 15 - Belarus offers political, economic, and military assistance to Yugoslavia in its confrontation with the West over Kosovo;

November 2 - Russia and Belarus decide to create a joint parliament to legislate a union treaty between the two countries. Members of the Russian and Belarusian parliaments meet in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, opening their session with the Soviet anthem;

November 7 - President Lukashenko congratulates his countrymen on the occasion of the 1917 Soviet revolution, stressing that "October 1917 marked a turning point in the development of humankind." Belarus continues to celebrate Revolution Day as a national holiday.

December 25 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko sign a 'historic' agreement on Christmas Day toward the total merger of the two countries. The presidents say they would move early next year to introduce a single currency and harmonize taxes, without waiting for popular approval for the merger. Many politicians in both nations believe the main motive behind Lukashenko's drive for union is his ambition to run for the Russian presidency in 2000;

About 20 activists from opposition and human rights movements try to block a road in central Minsk to protest the merger. Police beats protesters and detains all of them.
 

January 17 - Five European ambassadors return to Belarus, seven months after diplomatic war started in June 1998. U.S. ambassador to Belarus is not among the returning diplomats;

January 21 - Belarusian Ministry of Statistics reports 181.7% inflation in 1998;

January 28 - Around 12,000 workers take part in a rally in Minsk, capital of Belarus, organized by the Belarusian Trade Union Federation, to protest low living standards and demand President Alexander Lukashenko's resignation;

February 14 - Around 6,000 Belarusians mark St. Valentine's Day with a simultaneous Guinness record kiss;

February 22 - The Belarusian opposition forms a Consultative and Coordination Council of Democratic Forces to unify all democratic opposition organizations;

February 23 - The European Union drops a seven-month visa ban against Belarusian officials. However, the United States has so far neither sent its ambassador back to Minsk, nor lifted the visa ban on Belarusian officials;

March 17 - The Belarusian Justice Ministry warns two leading opposition parties, the Belarusian Popular Front and the United Civic Party, as well as a human rights group, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, against taking part in the presidential election campaign;

March 29 - Several thousand people hold a rally in Minsk to celebrate the Independence Day in Belarus and creation of the Belarusian Democratic Republic on March 25, 1918, and to protest President Alexander Lukashenko's policies;

April 2 - Belarus halts all cooperation with NATO and all military contacts with the U.S. and other NATO members;

April 20 - Belarusian gays protest first time ever their persecution by the authorities and the church;

April 24 - For the first time in history President Lukashenko has more opponents than supporters in Belarus;

May 18-20 - Presidential elections in Belarus; There is no winner in the elections. However, some 'unofficial data' show Zyanon Paznyak, the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front, came first;

July 16-17 - Basovishcha '99 - 10th Festival of Belarusian Rock Music taking place in Poland because of the suppression of alternative rock music in Belarus by the Belarusian authorities: perfoming of Belarusian bands has symbolic significance in addition to the cultural one;

July 22 - About 5,000 people gather in the Belarusian capital to demand an end to what they call Lukashenko's illegitimate rule. Police use tear gas and clubs against the protesters when they tried to assemble near Lukoshenko's residence;

[O.S.]