{"id":122735,"date":"2025-01-21T22:33:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T19:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"wikipedia-russia-renames-byelorussia-to-belarus","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>January 21, <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Wikipedia editors have renamed &#8220;Byelorussia&#8221; &#8220;Belarus&#8221; as the name of the country on the platform&#8217;s Russian version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The naming has long sparked debate on the internet, with Kremlin backers tending to support the former and Belarusian independence supporters, the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2012, a Wikipedia debate concluded that both names could be used equally in open sources. However, the new arbitration has found that &#8220;the balance of names in Russian-language sources has begun to shift towards the more modern name &#8216;Belarus,'&#8221; making it more encyclopedic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The editors note that Byelorussia is still used by Russian state media, such as <em>TASS<\/em>, <em>RIA Novosti<\/em> and <em>Rossiyskaya Gazeta<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Republic of Belarus replaced the Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia in 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/photo_2023-11-14_14-01-31-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/photo_2023-11-14_14-01-31-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/photo_2023-11-14_14-01-31-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/photo_2023-11-14_14-01-31-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/photo_2023-11-14_14-01-31.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> Politics<\/label>\n\n                            <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> Society<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">Politics, Society<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">Cichano\u016dskaja, Wikipedia co-founder discuss website&#039;s Belarusian section<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">November 14, Pozirk. Belarusian opposition leader \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales have discussed the free online encyclopedia&#039;s Belarusian section on the sidelines of Web Summit in Lisbon. Cichano\u016dskaja&#039;s press office said she told Wales about the politically motivated &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/49171\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read the article<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January 21, Pozirk. Wikipedia editors have renamed &#8220;Byelorussia&#8221; &#8220;Belarus&#8221; as the name of the country on the platform&#8217;s Russian version. The naming has long sparked debate on the internet, with Kremlin backers tending to support the former and Belarusian independence supporters, the latter. In 2012, a Wikipedia debate concluded that both names could be used [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":122716,"template":"","rubric":[13],"class_list":["post-122735","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 21, Pozirk. Wikipedia editors have renamed &quot;Byelorussia&quot; &quot;Belarus&quot; as the name of the country on the platform&#039;s Russian version. The naming has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January 21, Pozirk. Wikipedia editors have renamed &quot;Byelorussia&quot; &quot;Belarus&quot; as the name of the country on the platform&#039;s Russian version. The naming has\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"655\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"433\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/\"},\"headline\":\"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-21T19:33:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/\"},\"wordCount\":123,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/\",\"name\":\"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-21T19:33:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"January 21, Pozirk. Wikipedia editors have renamed \\\"Byelorussia\\\" \\\"Belarus\\\" as the name of the country on the platform's Russian version. The naming has\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg\",\"width\":655,\"height\":433},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus | Pozirk","description":"January 21, Pozirk. Wikipedia editors have renamed \"Byelorussia\" \"Belarus\" as the name of the country on the platform's Russian version. The naming has","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus | Pozirk","og_description":"January 21, Pozirk. Wikipedia editors have renamed \"Byelorussia\" \"Belarus\" as the name of the country on the platform's Russian version. The naming has","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":655,"height":433,"url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/"},"headline":"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus","datePublished":"2025-01-21T19:33:39+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/"},"wordCount":123,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/","name":"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg","datePublished":"2025-01-21T19:33:39+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00","description":"January 21, Pozirk. Wikipedia editors have renamed \"Byelorussia\" \"Belarus\" as the name of the country on the platform's Russian version. The naming has","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bchb_kupit-flag_ru.jpg","width":655,"height":433},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/122735\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wikipedia Russia renames Byelorussia Belarus"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/122735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=122735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}