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THREAD You may be thinking - #Belarus? Where? Odd European corner of the post-Soviet community. But many great people were born in what is modern-day Belarus, people who created much of our modern world. Belarus is Europe. It’s America 1/9
Let’s start with Irving Berlin, arguably the greatest songwriter in US history - his songs including “Puttin' on the Ritz", "Cheek to Cheek", "White Christmas" - was in fact born in Talachyn in northeastern Belarus 2/9
In the small town of Liozna in northern Belarus Marc Chagall was born in 1887. He often depicted life in his home towm. “When Matisse dies," Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, "Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is" 3/9
Twenty-three years later further south in Petrovichi, Isaac Asimov was born. A professor of biochemistry he became one of the most important science fiction writers, authoring more more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters 4/9
Further West lies the small village of Slonim where Michał Marks was born. After emigrating to England je joined up with Thomas Spencer to co-founded grocer Marks & Spencer 5/9
Chaim Weizmann was born in Motol on the Yaselda River in Belarus. 130 kilometres and 2 years apart in Ruzhany and Brest two other future Israeli leaders Menachim Begin and Yitzhak Shamir were born. And a few miles away another future Israeli leader, Shimon Peres, was born 6/9
In Movilev, known for its 17th-century town hall built during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Leonid Mandelstam, the scientist who discovered the combinatorial scattering of light, was born in 1879 7/9
Let’s also not forget tennis player Victoria Azarenka who was the year-end No. 1 in 2012, winning 20 WTA singles titles, eight WTA doubles titles, and three mixed-doubles titles, born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus 8/9
I’ve not even included those with Belorussian origins - Kirk Douglas, Scarlet Johansson, Harrison Ford, Ralph Lauren etc. The territory has not always been Belarus - sometimes it was Poland or the USSR. But it’s more connected to us than many know. And it’s people deserve freedom
