Belarus
"Мы, беларусы" "My, Biełarusy" (We Belarusians)
"Дзяржаўны гімн Рэспублікі Беларусь" "Dziaržaŭny himn Respubliki Biełaruś" (State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus)

Words by: Mikhas Klimkovich and Uladzimir Karyzna
Music by: Nester Sakalouski
Adopted: 1955 (music), 2002 (lyrics)

Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus kept the anthem it used as a soviet socialist republic since 1955, without the words. (Many SSR's have used an wordless, or instrumental, version of the SSR hymn very soon after achieving independence.) Replacing the work outright with a new song was considered, and suggestions such as "Магутны Божа!" "Mahutny Bozha" (O God Almighty) by Natalla Arsiennieva (which was recommended by the parliamentary education and culture committee in 1995, but was not acted upon) and "Маладая Беларусь" "Maładaja Biełaruś" (Young Belarus) by Janka Kupala (but was never set to music) were put forward, but no change was made.

On July 2, 2002, President Lukashenko set a decree that the Belarus hymn will have lyrics, and ones were adopted in a contest. The lyrics by the contest winner, Uladzimir Karyzna, were similar to the Belarussian SSR anthem lyrics and were based on Klimkovich's original lyrics for the soviet republic's anthem.

Special thanks to: Antoine Vélu and Zach Harden for providing some of this information, to Jaroslaw Wojcik for the sheet music, and Paveł Zinovatny for the lyrics in Latin script.

See also: Belarus (1920- (government in exile)), Belarus (1955-1991).