Belarus Regions

Belarus is flat, forested and fringed by five neighbours: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Few things in a photo tell you where in it you are, so a round there is mostly a question of which side of the country you have landed on. The region is the first tier of that picture, and there are only seven of them to learn.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Three parts of the country, an unofficial cut
In the game: 7 regions

Start

What you are looking at

The six regions (voblasts, or oblasts in Russian) of Belarus and the capital, Minsk, which has the same rank as a region and is drawn as its own piece. Five of the regions are named for their main city: Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel. The sixth, the Minsk Region, goes round the capital and is not named for a city it contains, since the city of Minsk is not part of it.

The names appear in several spellings, because Belarusian, Russian and the transliterations of each differ. Grodno is Hrodna on many maps, Gomel is Homyel, Mogilev is Mahilyow and Vitebsk is Vitsebsk. The quiz uses the forms that match the districts' names in the other game.

The regions are uneven in shape more than in size. Brest and Grodno are the ones along the western border, Gomel runs down the east and into the Pripyat marshes in the south, and the city of Minsk is a small piece at the centre of the map, almost surrounded by the Minsk Region, and small enough to be given a tap area.

The groups are not an official classification. Belarus has no tier between the region and the country, so the quiz cuts the seven into the west and centre (Brest, Grodno and the Minsk Region), the north and east (Vitebsk, Mogilev and Gomel) and the capital on its own, to let you drill the map a piece at a time. The regions are the Belarus Districts grouped, so the borders of the two maps match exactly.

How to place one

Start with Minsk. The city is the small piece in the middle of the map, and the Minsk Region is the one that wraps around it.
Take the south as two. Brest in the south west and Gomel in the south east are the regions on the Ukrainian border, with the Pripyat river and its marshes running through both.
Follow the western edge. Grodno is the region that reaches Lithuania and Poland, and Brest the one beneath it on the Polish border.
Read the north east as two. Vitebsk is the northern region that touches Latvia and Russia, and Mogilev is the one between it and Gomel on the Russian border.

Every region, by group

West and Centre3 regions: Brest, Grodno, Minsk Region
North and East3 regions: Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk
Minsk1 region: Minsk City

Worked examples

Minsk City

The one that is a city

The capital has region status and is its own piece, even though it is far smaller than any of the others. It sits close to the middle of the country, and on a phone it needs a careful tap.

Minsk Region

The one that goes round it

The Minsk Region surrounds the capital but does not contain it, which makes it the easiest region to place and the easiest to confuse with the city when the quiz asks for Minsk.

Vitebsk

The northern lakes

Vitebsk is the region in the north, on the border with Latvia and Russia, and holds the Braslaw lakes, the lake district of the country.

Frequently asked questions

How many regions does Belarus have?

Six, and the city of Minsk, which has the same rank and is its own piece on the map.

Is Minsk part of the Minsk Region?

No. The city is separate from the region that surrounds it, although it is the region's administrative centre in practice.

Why are the groups not official?

Belarus has no tier between the regions and the country. The groups are a way to drill the map in halves, and each region is its own quiz subject as well.

The tier below this one is Belarus Districts. For another country at this level, see Ukraine Oblasts.