3. Why Belarusians are(not) European Most Belarusians(67%) consider themselves a European nation. This view is grounded in the belief that Belarus is located in the center of Europe, as well as in a shared culture and history. At the same time, for Belarusians, the“core” of Europeanness still lies further west: Germans and French are seen as more European because they are EU members and are perceived as more democratic, tolerant, and individualistic than Belarusians. The state’s political isolation also distances Belarusians from E urope. The exception is the Conscious, who see Belarusians as no less European than the nations of the“core”. In the Belarusians’ eyes, the center of Europeanness lies far west of Europe’s geographic center Although the center of Europeanness is shifted in Belarusians’ perception, its outer boundary largely coincides with the geographic one. Fewer than 20% of Belarusians consider Although, according to official Belarusian sources, the nations living beyond Europe’s geographic borders— such as geographic center of Europe is located in Polotsk, Belarus, Israelis and Syrians— to be European. Belarusians see Germany and France as the center of the European world. These are the nations that an overwhelming majority of Belarusians most readily identify as European, and the farther a nation lies from this core, the less Belarusians’ perceived map of Europe differs considerably from a geographic one % of Belarusian urban residents who consider a nation European Figure 6 European it appears to Belarusians (Figure 6).  Besides Germans and the French, the“unambiguously European” nations also include Poles, Czechs, Swedes, and Italians. More than 80% of Belarusians consider them European.  The group of“predominantly European” nations consists mainly of countries located south or east of the core— Romanians, Finns, the Balkan peoples, the Baltic states, and Belarusians themselves.  Belarusians assess the Europeanness of Ukrainians, Russians, and Moldovans inconsistently: around half of urban residents consider them European. They therefore fall into the category of“debatabl y European” nations. Why Belarusians are(not) European To what extent, in your view, are the following nations European? The figure shows the combined share selecting rather European and completely European. Each respondent saw 18 randomly selected nations from the list. Number of responses for each nation, n ≈ 400. 13