National atlas of Belarus – a synthesis of knowledge about the contemporary country

Summary

Iryna Barodzich reviews the development of the National Atlas of Belarus, concentrating on its second edition, prepared by Belkartografia in 2024. She traces its background through the 1956 Atlas of the BSSR, the 1999 presidential decree commissioning a national atlas, and the first edition of 2002. More than 400 specialists and about 50 bodies and organizations participated in the second edition, with an editorial board coordinating the work. Updating proceeded from the 2002 atlas, retaining its 47.5 × 37 cm format, principal scale of 1:1,250,000, and presentation from Belarus’s global position to regional characteristics. The article reports 20 sections, 348 pages, and 704 maps and diagrams, including 243 maps not previously published in the atlas. Official statistics, registers, cadastres, new scientific research, and geographic information technologies supported the revisions; demographic mapping combines the 2019 census and current statistics with earlier censuses to show change. Barodzich surveys revisions across the atlas: history moves to the opening section, with new archaeological evidence and maps of statehood and wartime occupation; a new section covers Belarusian dialects and settlement names. Environmental additions address climate change, soils and land resources, invasive species, forest damage, ecological networks, and projected radioactive contamination. Updated social and economic mapping covers population, industry, agriculture, transport and logistics, healthcare, communications, science, cultural heritage, tourism, and sport. The author presents the atlas as an official reference work supporting national and state-oriented consciousness, stresses its treatment of wartime memory and national unity, and identifies a state atlas information system as the next task for cartographers.