The Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus trace their formal establishment to 1992, when Belarus constituted its own military following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the division of the Western Military District's assets among the successor states. This coin marks the centennial by counting from 1918, when the Belarusian People's Republic — a short-lived state that never achieved full sovereignty — established its own military structures, a lineage the modern Belarusian state has chosen to claim despite the ideological awkwardness of citing a non-Soviet predecessor.
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus trace their formal establishment to 1992, when Belarus constituted its own military following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the division of the Western Military District's assets among the successor states. This coin marks the centennial by counting from 1918, when the Belarusian People's Republic — a short-lived state that never achieved full sovereignty — established its own military structures, a lineage the modern Belarusian state has chosen to claim despite the ideological awkwardness of citing a non-Soviet predecessor.