We all know that the lands of Belorussia were just part of Kievan Rus. They spoke the same language as people in Moscow and Kiev and Chernigov and Suzdal and Novgorod. They spoke Russian.

Then the Lithuanians conquered them after the fall of Kievan Rus and the Mongol invasions. So they picked up a bit of Polish and Lithuanian and what not.

The Russians then RETOOK the land that was historically theirs for centuries. The people didn't complain, either. It was then RUSSIAN LAND for centuries. "Belorussia" never existed as a nation, just as "Ukraine" never existed.

This is in contrast to a large number of states to the West. Lithuania existed as a separate nation. Hungary existed as a separate nation. Bohemia did, too. So did Poland. So did Rumania, and Bulgaria, and Serbia. Belorussia did NOT. Ukraine did NOT. These lands (with the exception of the Western portions of both regions) were historically Russian. They never existed as separate nations until 1991, and then they only existed because of borders that had been drawn on the basis of a combination of historical names for regions and Soviet planning. Eastern Ukraine certainly wasn't even Ukrainian in name until Khrushchev gave away part of Russia itself to Ukraine.

It's funny that you seem incensed with history and reality. Of course, the knee-jerk reaction of people who hated Russia for the sins of the Soviet Union (under which Russians suffered no less, and in many cases more, than other peoples) was to try to support any separatist movement anywhere, no matter how absurd.

And yes, the "Belorussian nationalist movement" is absurd. Belorussians have never been any more distinct from Russians than people living in Marseilles are from Parisians - in fact, they're less distinct than that. Of course, the lunatic fringe has tried to say that they are separate and distinct. It's funny that the less distinct they are, the more passionately they try to prove it. They protest too much.

None of this is to say that Lukashenko is a "good guy". He's a dictator, and a pretty bad one at that. If you try watching Channel One Russian News (a very sanitized program) in Minsk, sections about Belarus are edited out as "too provocative". They do a sloppy job of it at that.

I suspect that when he leaves the scene (probably only through death) the nation will end up just merging with Russia and disappear (rightly so) from the map as a distinct entity.

You make it sound like people were shot for not speaking Russian and slaughtered in droves for trying to bake dranniki. In reality, the people suffered for the same reasons Russians did during the Soviet period, and of course the Nazis killed about 25% of the population.

Based on all your visceral anger and stupid remarks, I'd bet you're Polish. I can't think of any other place where the myth of a separate Belorussian identity has been foisted on people.