Editing Belarusians (section)

=== 20th century ===
During World War I and the fall of [[Russian Empire]], a short-lived [[Belarusian Democratic Republic]] was declared in March 1918. Thereafter, modern Belarus' territory was split between the [[Second Polish Republic]] and [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] during the [[Peace of Riga]] in 1921. The latter created the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]], which was reunited with [[Western Belarus]] during [[World War 2]] and lasted until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], which was ended by the [[Belovezh Accords]] in 1991. The modern [[Republic of Belarus]] exists since then.

More than two million people were [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|killed in Belarus]] during the three years of [[German occupation of Belarus during World War II|German occupation]] in 1941–44, around a quarter of the region's population,<ref>{{cite web|year=2005|title=The tragedy of Khatyn - Genocide policy|url=https://www.khatyn.by/en/genocide/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310201916/https://www.khatyn.by/en/genocide/|archive-date=2015-03-10|url-status=live|publisher=SMC Khatyn}}</ref> or even as high as three million killed or thirty percent of the population.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Donovan |first=Jeffrey |date=2005-05-04 |title=World War II -- 60 Years After: Legacy Still Casts Shadow Across Belarus |url=https://www.rferl.org/amp/1058728.html |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=www.rferl.org}}</ref>