Belarus once was the lung of Soviet Union for its endless forests. Today it is more popular as Europe`s last dictator- ship. Since its indenpendance in 1991, president Aleksander Lukaschenko is getting elected every time in occasionally shady circumstances.
His affirmation within the country especially in rural areas is still big despite his autocratic way of governance.The main reasons are the completely governmental controlled medias and the shattered oppositional movements which suffer furthermore from severe backlashes. 

The large country is basically a whole lowlands – its highest elevation is not even 400 meters. 

The disaster in the ukrainian atomic power plant of Chernobyl happened on april 26th in 1986 in close distance to the inner Soviet border with the Belarussian SSR. Its effects brought massive harms to especially the south-eastern parts of Belarus, particularly in Gomel Region. 

Many districts were strongly hit by the radioactive particles brought by a radioactive cloud after the explosion of the reactor. This regions won´t be inhabited by humans for
many generations. A huge number of civilians had to leave their homes, many had to stay living in in less contaminated areas. In the course of the time, many people died of the outcomes of the incidence.

The photos were taken by me, Harald, Michael and others in 2005 in the capital Minsk and some rural areas in southeast of Belarus around the town of Karma. Some pictures are showing contaminated ghost towns like the small town of Strumen whose newly constructed school – among all the other buildings – is gradually taken back by nature within the past decades.