Republic of the Soviet Union
The
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
(
BSSR
, or
Byelorussian SSR
;
[d]
Belarusian
:
Беларуская Савецкая Сацыял?стычная Рэспубл?ка
;
[e]
Russian
:
Белорусская Советская Социалистическая Республика
),
[f]
also known as
Byelorussia
,
Belorussia
,
Belarusian SSR
,
Soviet Belarus
, or simply
Belarus
, was a
republic
of the
Soviet Union
(USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1991 as one of
fifteen constituent republics
of the USSR, with its legislation from 1990 to 1991. The republic was ruled by the
Communist Party of Byelorussia
and was also referred to as Soviet Byelorussia or Soviet Belarus by some historians.
[3]
Other names for Byelorussia included
White Russia
or
White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic
and
Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
.
[4]
To the west it bordered
Poland
. Within the Soviet Union, it bordered the
Lithuanian SSR
and the
Latvian SSR
to the north, the
Russian SFSR
to the east, and the
Ukrainian SSR
to the south.
The
Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia
(SSRB) was declared by the
Bolsheviks
on 1 January 1919 following the declaration of independence by the
Belarusian Democratic Republic
in March 1918.
[
clarification needed
]
In 1922, the BSSR was one of the four founding members of the Soviet Union, together with the
Ukrainian SSR
, the
Transcaucasian SFSR
, and the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
(RSFSR). Byelorussia was one of several Soviet republics occupied by
Nazi Germany
during
World War II
.
Towards the final years of the Soviet Union's existence, the Supreme Soviet of Byelorussian SSR adopted the
Declaration of State Sovereignty
in 1990. On 25 August 1991, the Byelorussian SSR declared independence, and on 19 September it was renamed the
Republic of Belarus
. The Soviet Union was
dissolved
on 26 December 1991.
Terminology
[
edit
]
The term
Byelorussia
(Russian:
Белору?ссия
), derives from the term
Belaya Rus'
, i.e.,
White Rus'
. There are several claims to the origin of the name
White Rus'.
[5]
An ethno-religious theory suggests that the name used to describe the part of old
Ruthenian
lands within the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
that had been populated mostly by early Christianized
Slavs
, as opposed to
Black Ruthenia
, which was predominantly inhabited by pagan Balts.
[6]
The latter part similar but spelled and stressed differently from Росси?я (
Russia
), first rose in the days of the
Russian Empire
, and the Russian Tsar was usually styled "the Tsar of All the Russias", as
Russia
or the
Russian Empire
was formed by three parts of Russia?the
Great
,
Little
, and
White
.
[7]
This asserted that the territories are all Russian and all the peoples are also Russian; in the case of the Belarusians, that they were variants of the Russian people.
[8]
Following the
Bolshevik Revolution
in 1917, the term "White Russia" caused some confusion as it became the name of the so-called
White military force
that opposed the Red Bolsheviks.
[9]
During the period of the Byelorussian SSR, the term
Byelorussia
was embraced as part of a national consciousness. In
western Belarus
, under Polish control until World War II,
Byelorussia
became commonly used in the regions of
Białystok
and
Grodno
.
[10]
Upon the establishment of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1920, the term
Byelorussia
(its names in other languages such as English being based on the Russian form) was only used officially. In 1936, with the proclamation of the
1936 Soviet Constitution
, the republic was renamed to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
On 19 September 1991 the
Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR
renamed the Soviet republic to the Republic of Belarus, with the short form "Belarus". Conservative forces in the newly independent Belarus did not support the name change and opposed its inclusion in the 1991 draft of the
Constitution of Belarus
.
[11]
History
[
edit
]
Beginning
[
edit
]
Prior to the
First World War
, Belarusian lands were a part of the
Russian Empire
, which it gained from the
Partitions of Poland
more than a century earlier. During the War, the
Russian Western Front
's
Great retreat
in August/September 1915 ended with the lands of
Grodno Governorate
and most of
Vilna Governorate
occupied by Germany. The resulting front, passing at 100 kilometres to the west of Minsk remained static towards the end of the conflict, despite Russian attempts to break it at the
Lake Naroch offensive
in late spring 1916 and General
Alexei Evert
's inconclusive thrust around the city of
Baranavichy
in summer of that year, during the
Brusilov offensive
further south, in Western Ukraine.
The abdication of
Tsar Nicholas II
in light of the
February Revolution
in Russia in February 1917, activated a rather dormant political life in Belarus. As central authority waned, different political and ethnic groups strived for greater self-determination and even secession from the increasingly ineffective
Russian Provisional Government
. The momentum picked up after the incompetent actions of the 10th Army during the ill-fated
Kerensky offensive
during the summer. Representatives of Belarusian regions and of different (mostly left-wing) newly established political powers, including the
Belarusian Socialist Assembly
, the
Christian democratic movement
and the
General Jewish Labour Bund
, formed a Belarusian Central Council.
Towards the autumn political stability continued to shake, and countering the rising nationalist tendencies were the Bolshevik
Soviets
, when the
October Revolution
hit Russia, that same day, on 25 October (7 November) 1917, the Minsk
Soviet
of workers and soldiers deputies took over the administration of the city. The
Bolshevik
All-Russian council of Soviets declared the creation of the
Western Oblast
which unified the Vilna,
Vitebsk
,
Mogilev
and
Minsk
governorates that were not occupied by the German army, to administer the Belarusian lands in the frontal zone. On 26 November (6 December), the executive committee of workers, peasants and soldiers deputies for the Western Oblast was merged with the Western front's executive committee, creating a single
Obliskomzap
. During the autumn 1917/winter of 1918, the Western Oblast was headed by
Aleksandr Myasnikyan
as head of the Western Oblast's
Military Revolutionary Committee
, who passed this duty on to
K?rlis Landers
. Myasnikyan took over as chair of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
's (RSDRP(b)) committee for Western Oblast and
Moses Kalmanovich
[
ru
]
as chair of the Obliskomzap.
Countering this the Belarusian Central Council reorganised itself as a Belarusian National Council (Rada), started working on establishing governmental institutions, and discarded the Obliskomzap as a military formation, rather than governmental. As a result, on 7th (20th) of December, when the first All-Belarusian congress convened, the Bolsheviks forcibly disbanded it.
German involvement
[
edit
]
The Russo-German front in Belarus remained static since 1915 and formal negotiations began only on 19 November (2 December N.S.), when the Soviet delegation traveled to the German-occupied Belarusian city of
Brest-Litovsk
. A cease-fire was quickly agreed and proper peace negotiations began in December.
However, the German party soon went back on its word and took full advantage of the situation, and the Bolsheviks' demand of a treaty "without annexations or indemnities" was unacceptable to the
Central Powers
, and on 18 February hostilities resumed. The German
Operation Faustschlag
was of immediate success and within 11 days, they were able to make a serious advance eastward, taking over Ukraine, the Baltic states and occupying Eastern Belarus. This forced the Obliskomzap to evacuate to
Smolensk
. The
Smolensk Governorate
was passed to the Western Oblast.
Faced with the German demands, the Bolsheviks accepted their terms at the final
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
, which was signed on 3 March 1918. For the German Empire, Operation Faustschlag achieved one of their strategic plans for World War I, to create a German-centered hegemony of
buffer states
, called
Mitteleuropa
. Support of local nationalist groups alienated by Bolsheviks was key, thus, when four days after Minsk was occupied by the German Army, the disbanded Belarusian National Council declared itself as the sole authority in Belarus, the Germans stood by, and recognised the declared
Belarusian Democratic Republic
on 25 March.
Creation
[
edit
]
After Germany was defeated in the First World War, it announced its evacuation from the occupied territories of Belarus and Ukraine. As the Germans were preparing to depart, the Bolsheviks were keen to enter the territory to re-claim Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltics to realise Soviet premier
Vladimir Lenin
's advocacy to seize the territories of the former Russian Empire and advance the
world revolution
.
On 11 September 1918, the
Revolutionary Military Council
ordered the creation of the Western Defence region in the Western Oblast out of
Curtain forces
which were stationed there. Simultaneously the Council reorganised the Western Oblast as a
Western Commune
. On 13 November, Moscow annulled the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
. Two days later it transformed the Defence region into a
Western army
. It began an initially
bloodless advance westward
on the 17th. The Belarusian National Republic barely resisted, evacuating Minsk on 3 December. The Soviets maintained a distance of about 10?15 kilometres (6.2?9.3 mi) between the two armies,
[12]
and took Minsk on the 10th.
Encouraged by their success, in Smolensk on 30?31 December 1918, the Sixth Western Oblast Party conference met and announced its split from the Russian Communist Party, proclaiming itself as the first congress of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (CPB(b)). The next day, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia was proclaimed in Smolensk, terminating the Western Commune, and on 7 January it was moved to Minsk.
Aleksandr Myasnikyan
emerged as head of the All-Byelorussian Central Executive Committee and
Zmicier Zhylunovich
as head of the provisional government.
The new Soviet republic initially consisted of seven districts:
Baranavichy
,
Vitebsk
,
Gomel
,
Grodno
,
Mogilev
and
Smolensk
. On 30 January, the republic announced its separation from the
Russian SFSR
and renaming as the
Soviet Socialist
Republic of Byelorussia (SSRB). This was conferred by the First Congress of deputies, composed of workers, soldiers and Red Army men, which met on 2?3 February 1919, to adopt a new Socialist constitution. The Red Army continued its westward advance, capturing the city of Grodno on New Year's Day 1919,
Pinsk
on 21 January, and Baranovichi on 6 February 1919, thereby enlarging the SSRB.
Litbel
[
edit
]
The
western winter offensive
described above was not limited to Byelorussia; Soviet forces similarly moved to the north into
Lithuania
. On 16 December the
Lithuanian Socialist Soviet Republic
(LSSR) was proclaimed in
Vilnius
.
The
Lithuanian operation
and continuing conquest of Byelorussia were threatened by the rise of the
Second Polish Republic
after the withdrawal of German forces. However the
conflict with Poland
did not break out and the Soviet High Command's 12 January directive was to cease advance on the
Neman
-
Bug
rivers. However, the region to the east of those lines was historically mixed among a population of Belarusians, Poles and Lithuanians, with a sizeable Jewish minority. The local communities of each respective group wanted to be part of the respective states that were establishing themselves.
In the
Kresy
("Borderland") areas of Lithuania, Belarus and western Ukraine, self-organized militias, the
Samoobrona Litwy i Białorusi
numbering approximately 2,000 soldiers under General Wejtko, began to fight against the local communist and advancing Bolshevik forces. Each side was trying to secure the territories for its own government. The newly formed Polish Army began sending its organised units to reinforce the militias. On 14 February, the
first clash
between regular armies took place and a front emerged.
Eager to win support, the Bolshevik government decided to restore the
Great Duchy of Lithuania
by merging the Lithuanian and Byelorussian republics into the
Lithuanian?Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
, or
Litbel
on 28 February 1919. Its capital was proclaimed as
Vilnius
, with five
guberniyas
:
Vilno
,
Grodno
,
Kovno
,
Suwalki
and
Minsk
. The Vitebsk and Mogilev guberniyas were transferred to the Russian SFSR, and were soon joined by the
Gomel Governorate
, which was created on 26 April.
The operations in Lithuania brought the front close to
East Prussia
, and the German units that had withdrawn there began to assist the Lithuanian forces to defeat the Soviets; they repelled the Red offensive against
Kaunas
in February 1919.
In March 1919, Polish units opened an offensive: forces under General
Stanisław Szeptycki
captured the city of
Slonim
(2 March) and crossed the Neman, whilst Lithuanian advances forced the Soviets out of
Panev??ys
. A final Soviet counter-offensive retook
Panev??ys
and
Grodno
in early April, but the Western Army was too thinly spread to fight both the Polish and Lithuanian troops, and the German units assisting them. The Polish offensive quickly gained momentum, and
Vilna offensive
in April 1919, forced Litbel to evacuate the capital first to
Dvinsk
(28 April), then to Minsk (28 April), then to
Bobruysk
(19 May). As the Litbel lost territory, its powers were quickly stripped by Moscow. For example, on 1 June
Vtsik
's decree put all of Litbel's armed forces under the command of the Red Army. On 17 July, the Defence Soviet was liquidated, and its function was passed to Minsk's
Milrevcom
. When on 8 August Polish forces
captured Minsk
, that same day the capital was evacuated to
Smolensk
. On 28 August Lithuanian forces took
Zarasai
(the last Lithuanian town held by Litbel) and the same day
Bobruysk
fell to the Poles.
By late summer of 1919, the Polish advance was also exhausted. The defeat of the Red Army allowed the outbreak of another historic disagreement over territory between Poland and Lithuania; their competition to control the city of Vilnius soon erupted into a
military conflict
, with Poland winning. Facing Denikin and Kolchak, Soviet Russia could not spare men for the western front. A stalemate with localised skirmishes developed between Poland and Lithuania.
Pawn on a chessboard
[
edit
]
The stalemate and the occasional (though fruitless) negotiations gave Russia a much needed pause to concentrate on other regions. During the latter half of 1919 the Red Army successfully defeated Denikin in the South, taking over the Don, North Caucasus and Eastern Ukraine, pushed Kolchak from the Volga, beyond the Ural mountains into
Siberia
. In autumn of 1919,
Nikolai Yudenich
's advance on
Petrograd
was checked, whilst in the far north the
Evgeny Miller
's army was pushed into the Arctic. On the diplomatic front, on 11 September 1919, the
People's Commissar
of Foreign Affairs of Soviet Russia,
Georgy Chicherin
, sent a note to Lithuania with a proposal for a
peace treaty
. It was a
de facto
recognition of the Lithuanian state.
[13]
Similar negotiations with
Estonia
and
Latvia
, gave way for a peace treaty with the former on 2 February 1920 and a cease-fire agreement with the latter a day earlier.
Having secured several frontiers and breaking the "Ring of Fronts" the Soviet government began building up its forces for the massive offensive westwards, bringing the
World Revolution
to Europe. However the Polish role of preventing this and creating a "buffer zone" at the expense of Belarus was not its sole goal. The new leader
Jozef Piłsudski
rallied the Poles under a nationalist rhetoric to re-create the historic
Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth
, the
Mi?dzymorze
, which would include Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and push the eastern border as far as possible into Russia.
War continues
[
edit
]
In April 1920, Poland initiated its
major offensive
. However the Soviet Red Army was much more organised than it was a year earlier, and though Polish troops managed to make several gains in Ukraine, notably the capture of
Kiev
, in Byelorussia, both of its offensives towards
Zhlobin
and
Orsha
were thrown back in May.
In June, the RSFSR was finally ready to open its major Western advance. To preserve the neutrality of Lithuania (though the peace treaty was still being negotiated), on 6 June the exiled government of Litbel was disbanded. Within a few days, the 3rd Cavalry Corps under command of
Hayk Bzhishkyan
broke the Polish front, causing a collapse and a retreat. On 11 July Minsk was re-taken, and on 31 July 1920 once again the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belorussia was re-established in Minsk.
As the front moved west, and more Belarusian lands were adjoined to the new republic, the first administrative decrees were issued. The entity was divided into seven
uyezds
:
Bobruysk
,
Borisov
,
Igumen
, Minsk,
Mozyr
and
Slutsk
. (Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev remained part of the RSFSR.) This time the leaders were
Aleksandr Chervyakov
(head of Minsk's milrevcom) and
Wilhelm Knorin
(as chairmen of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Communist Party). The SSRB sought to join further territories, as the Red Army crossed into Poland, but the decisive Polish victory at the
Battle of Warsaw
in August ended these ambitions. Once again, the Red Army found itself on the defensive in Belorussia. The Poles were able to successfully break the Russian lines at the
Battle of the Niemen River
in September 1920. As a result, the Soviets were not only forced to abandon their
World Revolution
targets, but
Western Belarus
too. However early autumn rains halted the Polish advance, which exhausted itself by October. A cease-fire agreed on 12 October, came into effect on 18 October.
Slutsk uprising
[
edit
]
As the negotiations between the Polish Republic and the Russian Bolshevik government took place in
Riga
, the Soviet side saw the armistice as only a temporary setback in its western advance. Seeing the failure of overcoming the Polish nationalist rhetoric with Communist propaganda, the Soviet government chose a different tactic, by appealing to the minorities of the Polish state, creating a
fifth column
element out of
Belarusians
and
Ukrainians
. During the negotiations, RSFSR offered all of BSSR to Poland in return for concessions in Ukraine, which were rejected by the Polish side. Eventually a compromising armistice line was agreed, which would see the Belarusian city of
Slutsk
handed over to the Bolsheviks.
News of Belarus' upcoming permanent division angered the population, and using the town's Polish occupation, the local population began self-organising into a militia and associating itself with the
Belarusian Democratic Republic
. On 24 November the Polish units left the town, and for nearly a month the Slutsk partisans resisted Soviet attempts to re-gain control of the area. Eventually the Red Army had to mobilise two divisions to overcome the resistance, when the last units of Slutsk militia crossed the Moroch River and interned by the Polish border guards.
Early Soviet years
[
edit
]
In February 1921, the delegations of the Second Polish Republic and the Russian SFSR finally signed the
Treaty of Riga
putting an end of hostilities in Europe, and Belarus in particular. Six years of war had left the land neglected and looted, and the endless change of occupying regimes, each worse than the previous, left their mark on the Belarusian people, who were now divided. Almost half (
Western Belarus
) now belonged to Poland. Eastern Belarus (Gomel, Vitebsk and parts of Smolensk guberniyas) were administered by the RSFSR. The rest was the SSRB, a republic with 52,400 square kilometres and a population of a mere 1.544 million people.
An interesting paradox arose in the status of SSRB within the future Bolshevik state. On one hand its small geographic, population and almost negligent economic indicators did not warrant it much political weight on Soviet affairs. In fact the leader of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (Bolshevik),
Alexander Chervyakov
would represent Byelorussian communists at seven party congresses in Moscow, but not once be elected into the party's
Central Committee
. Moreover, the weak national sentiment of the Belarusian people would easily have allowed SSRB to be disbanded and annexed to the RSFSR, unlike for example Ukraine.
On the other hand, the region's strategic role decided its fate, as a full
Union republic
within the negotiations upon forming the future state. For one
Leon Trotsky
and his supporters within the Soviet leadership still supported its
World Revolution
concept, and as said above, viewed the Treaty of Riga as only a temporary setback to the process, and a future advance would require a prepared bridgehead. This justified giving the SSRB the status of a full union republic within the
Treaty on the Creation of the USSR
that was signed on 30 December 1922. SSR Byelorussia became a founding member of the Soviet Union in 1922 and became known as BSSR.
[g]
However the politics in Moscow took a different course of events, and eventually the accession of
Joseph Stalin
saw a new policy adopted:
Socialism in One Country
. In accordance with which, expansionist and irredentist claims were removed from Soviet ideology, which instead would focus on making regions economically viable. Thus in March 1924, by decree of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee
, Russia returned most of territories that made up the Vitebsk and Mogilev Governorates, as well as parts of Smolensk. The passing of land that largely survived the destruction of war not only doubled the SSRB's area to 110,600 square kilometres, but also raised the population to 4.2 million people.
SSRB in the mid-1920s
[
edit
]
According to its entry in the
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
,
[14]
in 1925 SSRB was a largely rural country. Out of the 4,342,800 people that inhabited it, only 14.5% lived in urban areas. Administratively it was split into ten
okrugs
:
Bobruysk
,
Borisov
,
Vitebsk
,
Kalinin
,
Minsk
,
Mogilev
,
Mozyr
,
Orsha
,
Polotsk
and
Slutsk
; all of which contained a total of 100
raions
and 1,229
selsoviets
. Only 25 towns and cities and an additional 49 urban settlements.
Trotsky's plan for the SSRB to act as a future magnet for the minorities in the
Second Polish Republic
is clearly evidenced in the national policies. The republic initially had four official languages:
Belarusian
, Russian,
Yiddish
, and
Polish
, despite the fact that the
Russians
and the
Poles
made up only around 2% of the total population (most of the latter lived next to the state border in the Minsk and Borisov districts). The most important minority was the
Jewish population of Belarus
, which had a long history of targeted oppression under the Tsars, and in 1925 made up almost 44% of the urban population and began to be aided by
affirmative action
programmes. In 1924 the government created a committee ?
Belkomzet
? to allocate land to Jewish families, in 1926 a total of 32,700 hectares were given for 6,860 Jewish families. Jews would continue to play a major role in Byelorussian politics, society and economy right up to the
Second World War
; in fact, between 1928 and 1930, the first secretary of the
Communist Party of Byelorussia
,
Yakov Gamarnik
, was a Jew.
Yet, the titular nation of the SSRB were the
Belarusians
, which made up 82% of the rural population, but less than half of the urban one (40.1%). The Belarusian national sentiment was a lot weaker than that of neighbouring Ukraine, this was greatly exploited by the Bolshevik-Polish power struggle in the
Polish?Soviet War
. (In fact to avoid being annexed to Poland, at the census of 1920, many chose to be label themselves as
Russians
.
[14]
). To appeal to the
Belarusians
of
Western Belarus
and also to prevent the nationalist element of the exiled
Belarusian Democratic Republic
from having any influence on the population (i.e. to avoid another Slutsk uprising), a policy of
Korenizatsiya
was widely implemented. Belarusian language, folklore and culture was put at front of everything else. This went on par with the Soviet policy of liquidation of illiteracy (
likbez
).
Economically the republic remained largely self-centred, and most of the effort was put into restoring and repairing the war-damaged industry (if in 1923 there was only 226 different fabrics and factories, then by 1926 the number climbed to 246. However, the employed manpower jumped from 14 thousand to 21.3 thousand workers). The majority was food industry followed by metal and wood working combines. A lot more was centred in local and private sector, as allowed by the
New Economic Policy
of the USSR, in 1925 these number 38.5 thousand who employed almost 50 thousand people. Most being textile workshops and lumber yards and blacksmiths.
On 6 December 1926, the SSRB was once again enlarged, in order to make the republic prosperous and continue the
creating of well-defined national territorial units
. This time, parts of RSFSR's
Gomel Governorate
were added, including the cities of
Gomel
and
Rechytsa
. This increased the area to 126,300 square kilometres and the
1926 Soviet census
that was held at the same time reported a population of 4,982,623. Of the latter 83% was rural, and Belarusians made up 80.6% (though only 39.2% of urban, yet 89% of rural).
On 11 April 1927, the republic adopted its new
Constitution
, bringing its laws in tie with those of the USSR and changing the name from the
Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia
to the
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
[
citation needed
]
The head of government (chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissars) was by now then newly appointed
Nikolay Goloded
, whilst
Vilhelm Knorin
remained the first secretary of the Communist Party.
Stalinist years
[
edit
]
The 1930s marked the peak of
Soviet repressions in Belarus
. According to incomplete calculations, about 600,000 people fell victim to Soviet repressions in Belarus between 1917 and 1953.
[15]
[16]
Other estimates put the number at higher than 1.4 million persons.,
[17]
of which 250,000 were sentenced by judicial or executed by extrajudicial bodies (
dvoikas
,
troikas
, special commissions of the
OGPU
,
NKVD
,
MGB
). Excluding those sentenced in the 1920s?1930s, over 250,000 Belarusians were deported as
kulaks
or kulak family members to regions outside the Belarusian Soviet Republic. The scale of Soviet terror in Belarus was higher than in Russia or Ukraine which resulted in a much stronger extent of
Russification
in the republic.
[
citation needed
]
A
Polish Autonomous District
was founded in 1932 and disbanded in 1935.
In September 1939, the Soviet Union, following the
Molotov?Ribbentrop Pact
with
Nazi Germany
, occupied eastern Poland after the
1939 invasion of Poland
. The former Polish territories referred to as
West Belarus
were incorporated into the Belarusian SSR, with an exception of the city of
Vilnius
and its surroundings that were transferred to
Lithuania
. The annexation was internationally recognized after the end of World War II.
Nazi German occupation
[
edit
]
In the summer of 1941, Belarus was occupied by Nazi Germany. A large part of the territory of Belarus became the
General District Belarus
within the
Reichskommissariat Ostland
.
Nazi Germany
imposed a brutal regime, deporting some 380,000 people for
slave labour
, and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians more. 800,000
Belarusian Jews
(about 90 percent of the Jewish population) were killed during
the Holocaust
.
[18]
At least 5,295 Belarusian settlements were destroyed by the Germans and some or all their inhabitants killed (out of 9,200 settlements that were burned or otherwise destroyed in Belarus during
World War II
).
[19]
More than 600 villages like
Khatyn
were totally annihilated.
[19]
Altogether, over 2,000,000 people were killed in Belarus during the three years of
German occupation
, almost a quarter of the region's population.
[20]
[21]
After World War II, the Byelorussian SSR was given a seat in the United Nations
General Assembly
together with the Soviet Union and Ukrainian SSR, becoming one of the founding members of the UN. This was part of a deal with the United States to ensure a degree of balance in the
General Assembly
, which, the USSR opined, was unbalanced in favor of the Western Bloc.
[
citation needed
]
A Byelorussian, G.G. Chernushchenko, served as
President of the United Nations Security Council
from January?February 1975.
Dissolution
[
edit
]
In its last years during
perestroika
under
Mikhail Gorbachev
, the Supreme Soviet of Byelorussian SSR declared sovereignty on 27 July 1990 over Soviet laws.
On 25 August 1991, after the
failure of the coup in Moscow
, the republic proclaimed its political and economic independence from the Soviet Union,
[22]
however, continued to consider herself part of the USSR.
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
On 19 September the republic was renamed the
Republic of Belarus
.
[27]
On 8 December 1991 it was a signatory, along with Russia and
Ukraine
, of the
Belovezha Accords
, which replaced the Soviet Union with the
Commonwealth of Independent States
. Belarus received independence on 25 December 1991. A day later the Soviet Union ceased to exist. However, the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Republic of Belarus of 1978, was retained after independence.
Politics and government
[
edit
]
Until 1990, Byelorussia was a
one-party
socialist republic
, governed by the
Communist Party of Byelorussia
, a branch within the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU/KPSS).
[28]
Like all other Soviet republics, it was one of the 15 constituent republics composing the Soviet Union from its entry into the union in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991.
Executive power
was exercised by the Byelorussian Communist Party authorities, at its top sits the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
Legislative power
was vested in the unicameral parliament, the
Supreme Soviet of Byelorussia
, also dominated by the Communist Party.
Belarus is the legal successor of the Byelorussian SSR and in its
Constitution
it states, "Laws, decrees and other acts which were applied in the territory of the Republic of Belarus prior to the entry into force of the present Constitution shall apply in the particular parts thereof that are not contrary to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus."
[29]
Foreign relations
[
edit
]
On the international stage, Byelorussia (along with Ukraine) was one of only two
republics of the Soviet Union
to be separate members of the United Nations. Both republics and the
Soviet Union
joined the UN when the organization was founded with the other 50 states on 24 October 1945. In effect, this provided the Soviet Union (a permanent
Security Council
member with veto powers) with another 2 votes in the
General Assembly
.
Apart from the UN, the Byelorussian SSR was a member of the
UN Economic and Social Council
,
UNICEF
,
International Labour Organization
,
Universal Postal Union
,
World Health Organization
,
UNESCO
,
International Telecommunication Union
,
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
,
World Intellectual Property Organization
and the
International Atomic Energy Agency
. Byelorussia was excluded separately from the
Warsaw Pact
,
Comecon
, the
World Federation of Trade Unions
and the
World Federation of Democratic Youth
. In 1949, it joined the
International Olympic Committee
as a Union Republic.
Demographics
[
edit
]
According to the
1959 Soviet Census
, the population of the republic were made up as follows:
Ethnicities (1959):
The largest cities were:
Culture
[
edit
]
Cuisine
[
edit
]
Whilst part of the Union, the
cuisine of Byelorussia
consisted mainly of vegetables, meat (particularly pork), and bread. Foods are usually either slowly cooked or
stewed
. Typically, Byelorussians eat a light breakfast and two hearty meals, with dinner being the largest meal of the day. Wheat and
rye
breads are consumed in Belarus, but rye is more plentiful because conditions are too harsh for growing wheat. Many of the cuisines within Byelorussia also shared its cuisine with
Russia
and
Poland
.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Historical names:
- 1920?1936: Byelorussian Socialist Soviet Republic (
Belarusian
:
Беларуская Сацыял?стычная Савецкая Рэспубл?ка
;
Russian
:
Белорусская Социалистическая Советская Республика
)
- ^
In interwar Soviet Belarus, between 1924 and 1938, four languages were official, namely, Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Yiddish.
[1]
- ^
Some parts, e.g.,
?ven?ionys
,
?al?ininkai
,
Dieveni?k?s
,
Aduti?kis
,
Druskininkai
, were annexed in 1939 from Poland to Byelorussia, but passed to
Lithuania
in 1940
- ^
Belarusian
:
Беларуская ССР
,
romanized
:
Byelaruskaya SSR
;
Russian:
Белорусская ССР
,
romanized:
Belorusskaya SSR
- ^
romanized
:
Byelaruskaya Savyetskaya Satsyyalistychnaya Respublika
- ^
romanized
:
Belorusskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika
- ^
In
Soviet historiography
the term "SSRB" was suppressed, but there is documentary evidence of the usage of the term SSRB rather than BSSR, see, e.g.,
A 1992 cancellation of a 1921 SSRB laws
[
permanent dead link
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Кожинова, Алла Андреевна (2017).
"Языки и графические системы Беларуси в период от Октябрьской революции до Второй мировой войны"
.
Studi Slavistici
.
14
: 133?156.
doi
:
10.13128/Studi_Slavis-21942
.
- ^
28 July 1990 from Art. 6 of the Constitution of the Byelorussian SSR, the provision on the monopoly of the Communist Party of Byelorussia on power was excluded
- ^
L. N. Droba? (1971).
Art of Soviet Byelorussia
. Avrora.
- ^
Webster's (1978).
Webster's Encyclopedia of Dictionaries New American Edition
. Webster's.
- ^
Zaprudnik, Jan (1993).
Belarus: At A Crossroads In History
.
Westview Press
. p. 2.
ISBN
0-8133-1794-0
.
- ^
Язэп Юхо (Joseph Juho) (1956)
Аб паходжанн? назва? Белая ? Чорная Русь
(
About the Origins of the Names of White and Black Ruthenia
).
- ^
Philip G. Roeder (15 December 2011).
Where Nation-States Come From: Institutional Change in the Age of Nationalism
.
ISBN
978-0-691-13467-3
.
- ^
Fishman, Joshua; Garcia, Ofelia (2011).
Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts
.
ISBN
978-0-19-983799-1
.
- ^
Richmond, Yale (1995).
From Da to Yes: Understanding the East Europeans
. Intercultural Press. p. 260.
ISBN
1-877864-30-7
.
- ^
Ioffe, Grigory (25 February 2008).
Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign Policy Misses the Mark
. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 41.
ISBN
978-0-7425-5558-7
.
- ^
Andrew Ryder (1998).
Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, Volume 4
. Routledge. p. 183.
ISBN
1-85743-058-1
.
- ^
?ep?nas, Pranas
(1986).
Nauj?j? laik? Lietuvos istorija
(in Lithuanian). Vol. II. Chicago: Dr. Griniaus fondas. p. 315.
ISBN
5-89957-012-1
.
- ^
?ep?nas, Pranas
(1986).
Nauj?j? laik? Lietuvos istorija
(in Lithuanian). Vol. II. Chicago: Dr. Griniaus fondas. pp. 355?359.
ISBN
5-89957-012-1
.
- ^
a
b
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
1st edition, Volume 5, p.378-413, 1927
- ^
В. Ф. Кушнер.
Грамадска-пал?тычнае жыццё ? БССР у 1920?1930?я гг.
Г?сторыя Беларус? (у кантэксьце сусьветных цыв?л?зацыя?) p. 370.
- ^
600 000 ахвяра? ? прыбл?зная л?чба
Archived
11 March 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
: з ?. Кузьняцовым гутарыць Руслан Равяка // Наша Н?ва, 3 кастрычн?ка 1999.
- ^
?гар Кузьняцо?.
Рэпрэс?? супраць беларускай iнтэлiгенцыi ? сялянства ? 1930?1940 гады. Лекцыя 2.
Archived
3 October 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
// ≪Беларуск? Калег?юм≫, 15 чэрвеня 2008.
- ^
"Belarus"
.
European Jewish Congress
. Retrieved
17 February
2022
.
- ^
a
b
(in English)
"Genocide policy"
.
Khatyn.by
. SMC "Khatyn". 2005. Archived from
the original
on 26 December 2018
. Retrieved
10 February
2020
.
- ^
Vitali Silitski (May 2005).
"Belarus: A Partisan Reality Show"
(PDF)
.
Transitions Online
: 5. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 13 October 2006.
- ^
"The tragedy of Khatyn ? Genocide policy"
. SMC Khatyn. 2005. Archived from
the original
on 25 February 2020
. Retrieved
10 February
2020
.
- ^
a
b
ПОСТАНОВЛЕНИЕ ВЕРХОВНОГО СОВЕТА БЕЛОРУССКОЙ ССР от 25 августа 1991 г. № 1019-XII ≪Об обеспечении политической и экономической самостоятельности Белорусской ССР≫
- ^
ЗАКОН БЕЛОРУССКОЙ ССР от 25 августа 1991 г. N 1018-XII ≪О внесении изменений и дополнений в Конституцию (Основной Закон) Белорусской ССР≫
- ^
Постановление Верховного Совета Республики Беларусь от 18 сентября 1991 г. № 1078-XII ≪О делегировании народных депутатов БССР и народных депутатов СССР в состав Совета Республик Верховного Совета СССР от Белорусской ССР≫
- ^
Постановление Верховного Совета Республики Беларусь от 19 сентября 1991 г. № 1087-XII ≪О делегировании народных депутатов СССР в состав Совета Союза Верховного Совета СССР от Республики Беларусь≫
- ^
Постановление Верховного Совета Республики Беларусь от 20 сентября 1991 г. № 1101-XII ≪О таможенной службе Республики Беларусь≫
- ^
Закон Республики Беларусь № 1085-XII от 19 сентября 1991 года № 1085-XII ≪О названии Белорусской Советской Социалистической Республики и внесении изменений в Декларацию Верховного Совета Белорусской Советской Социалистической Республики о государственном суверенитете Белорусской Советской Социалистической Республики и Конституцию (Основной Закон) Белорусской ССР≫
- ^
Закон Белорусской ССР от 28 июля 1990 г. №212-XII "Об изменениях и дополнениях Конституции (Основного Закона Белорусской ССР)"
- ^
Constitution of Belarus
, Art. 142.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Baranova, Olga (2008). "Nationalism, anti-Bolshevism or the will to survive? Collaboration in Belarus under the Nazi occupation of 1941?1944".
European Review of History
.
15
(2): 113?128.
doi
:
10.1080/13507480801931044
.
S2CID
144785016
.
- Bekus, Nelly.
Struggle over Identity: The Official and the Alternative "Belarussianness"
(Budapest: Central European University Press, 2010);
- Bemporad, Elissa.
Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk
(Indiana UP, 2013).
- Epstein, Barbara.
The Minsk Ghetto 1941?1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism
(U of California Press, 2008).
- Guthier, Steven L. (1977). "The Belorussians: National identification and assimilation, 1897?1970: Part 1, 1897?1939".
Soviet Studies
.
29
(1): 37?61.
doi
:
10.1080/09668137708411105
.
- Horak, Stephan M. (1974). "Belorussia: Modernization, Human Rights, Nationalism".
Canadian Slavonic Papers
.
16
(3): 403?423.
doi
:
10.1080/00085006.1974.11091370
.
- Lubachko, Ivan (1972).
Belorussia under Soviet Rule, 1917?1957
. University Press of Kentucky.
- Marples, David R. (1985).
"Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia Under Soviet Occupation: The Development of Socialist Farming, 1939?1941"
(PDF)
.
Canadian Slavonic Papers
.
27
(2): 158?177.
doi
:
10.1080/00085006.1985.11091799
.
- Marples, David (2014).
'Our Glorious Past': Lukashenka's Belarus and the Great Patriotic War
. Columbia University Press.
ISBN
978-3838205748
.
- Olson, James Stuart; Pappas, Lee Brigance; Pappas, Nicholas C.J. (1994).
Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires
. Greenwood Press.
ISBN
0-313-27497-5
.
- Plokhy, Serhii (2001).
The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
0-19-924739-0
.
- Richmond, Yale (1995).
From Da to Yes: Understanding the East Europeans
. Intercultural Press.
ISBN
1-877864-30-7
.
- Rudling, Pers Anders.
The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906?1931
(University of Pittsburgh Press; 2014) 436pp
online review
- Silitski, Vitali & Jan Zaprudnik (2010).
The A to Z of Belarus
. Scarecrow Press.
ISBN
9781461731740
.
- Smilovitsky, Leonid (1997). "Righteous Gentiles, the Partisans, and Jewish Survival in Belorussia, 1941?1944".
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
.
11
(3): 301?329.
doi
:
10.1093/hgs/11.3.301
.
- Snyder, Timothy (1 December 2004).
The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569?1999
(1 ed.). Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0300105865
.
- Szporluk, Roman (1979).
"West Ukraine and west Belorussia: Historical tradition, social communication, and linguistic assimilation"
(PDF)
.
Soviet Studies
.
31
(1): 76?98.
doi
:
10.1080/09668137908411225
.
- Szporluk, Roman (1967). "The press in Belorussia, 1955?65".
Soviet Studies
.
18
(4): 482?493.
doi
:
10.1080/09668136708410553
.
- Urban, Michael E. (1989).
An Algebra of Soviet Power: Elite Circulation in the Belorussian Republic 1966-86
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0521372565
.
- Vakar, Nicholas Platonovich.
Belorussia: the making of a nation: a case study
(Harvard UP, 1956).
- Vakar, Nicholas Platonovich.
A bibliographical guide to Belorussia
(Harvard UP, 1956).
- Wexler, Paul (1985). "Belorussification, Russification and Polonization Trends in the Belorussian Language 1890?1982". In Kreindler, Isabelle T. (ed.).
Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Soviet National Languages: Their Past, Present and Future
. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 37?56.
doi
:
10.1515/9783110864380
.
ISBN
9783110864380
.
- Zaprudnik, Jan (1993).
Belarus: At A Crossroads In History
.
Westview Press
.
ISBN
0-8133-1794-0
. Archived from
the original
on 2 May 2016.
- Zejmis, Jakub (1997). "Belarus in the 1920s: Ambiguities of National Formation".
Nationalities Papers
.
25
(2): 243?254.
doi
:
10.1080/00905999708408501
.
S2CID
153635749
.
External links
[
edit
]
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