Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка (Belarusian) Белорусская Советская Социалистическая Республика (Russian)[a] | |||||||||||||||||
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1920–1991 1941–1944: German occupation | |||||||||||||||||
Flag
(1951–1991) State emblem
(1981–1991) | |||||||||||||||||
Motto: Пралетарыі ўсіх краін, яднайцеся! ( Yiddish[b] | |||||||||||||||||
Religion | State atheism | ||||||||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Byelorussian, Soviet | ||||||||||||||||
Government |
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First Secretary | |||||||||||||||||
• 1920–1923 (first) | Vilgelm Knorin | ||||||||||||||||
• 1988–1990 (last)[2] | Yefrem Sokolov | ||||||||||||||||
Head of state | |||||||||||||||||
• 1920–1937 (first) | Alexander Chervyakov | ||||||||||||||||
• 1991 (last) | Stanislav Shushkevich | ||||||||||||||||
Head of government | |||||||||||||||||
• 1920–1924 (first) | Alexander Chervyakov | ||||||||||||||||
• 1990–1991 (last) | Vyacheslav Kebich | ||||||||||||||||
Legislature | Congress of Soviets (1920–1938) Sovereignty declared, partial cancellation of the Soviet form of government | 27 July 1990 | |||||||||||||||
• Independence declared | 25 August 1991 | ||||||||||||||||
• Renamed Republic of Belarus | 19 September 1991 | ||||||||||||||||
10 December 1991 | |||||||||||||||||
• Internationally recognized (Dissolution of the Soviet Union) | 26 December 1991 | ||||||||||||||||
15 March 1994 | |||||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||||
• Total | 207,600 km2 (80,200 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||
Population | |||||||||||||||||
• 1989 census | 10,199,709 | ||||||||||||||||
Currency | Soviet rouble (Rbl) (SUR) | ||||||||||||||||
Calling code | +7 015/016/017/02 | ||||||||||||||||
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Today part of | Belarus Lithuania[c] Poland Russia |
History of Belarus |
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Prehistory |
Middle ages |
Early Modern |
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Modern |
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Belarus portal |
Eastern Bloc |
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The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR;[d] Belarusian: Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, romanized: Byelaruskaya Savyetskaya Satsyyalistychnaya Respublika; Russian: Белорусская Советская Социалистическая Республика, romanized: Byelorusskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), also known as Byelorussia, 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 own 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 a number of 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
The
Towards the final years of the Soviet Union's existence, the Supreme Soviet of Byelorussian SSR adopted the
Terminology
The term Byelorussia (Russian: Белору́ссия), derives from the term Belaya Rus' , i.e.,
The latter part similar but spelled and stressed differently from Росси́я (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
On 19 September 1991 the
History
Beginning
Prior to the
The abdication of
Towards the autumn political stability continued to shake, and countering the rising nationalist tendencies were the Bolshevik
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
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
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
Creation
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
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.
The new Soviet republic initially consisted of seven districts:
Litbel
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
In the
Eager to win support, the Bolshevik government decided to restore the
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
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
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
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
War continues
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
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
Slutsk uprising
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
In February 1921, the delegations of the Second Polish Republic and the Russian SFSR finally signed the
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),
On the other hand, the region's strategic role decided its fate, as a full
However the politics in Moscow took a different course of events, and eventually the accession of
SSRB in the mid-1920s
According to its entry in the
. 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
Yet, the titular nation of the SSRB were the
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
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
The 1930s marked the peak of
A
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
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.
After World War II, the Byelorussian SSR was given a seat in the United Nations
Dissolution
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
Politics and government
Until 1990, Byelorussia was a
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
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
Demographics
According to the
Ethnicities (1959):
- Belarusians – 81%
- Poles – 16%
- Lithuanians – 5%
- Ukrainians – about 1%
- Jews – about 1%
- Russians – <1%
The largest cities were:
Culture
Cuisine
Whilst part of the Union, the
See also
Notes
- ^ Historical names:
- 1920–1936: Byelorussian Socialist Soviet Republic (Беларуская Сацыялістычная Савецкая Рэспубліка; 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., Švenčionys, Šalčininkai, Dieveniškės, Adutiškis, 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 - 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
- .
- ^ 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. Drobaŭ (1971). Art of Soviet Byelorussia. Avrora.
- ^ Webster's (1978). Webster's Encyclopedia of Dictionaries New American Edition. Webster's.
- ISBN 0-8133-1794-0.
- ^ Язэп Юхо (Joseph Juho) (1956) Аб паходжанні назваў Белая і Чорная Русь (About the Origins of the Names of White and Black Ruthenia).
- ISBN 978-0-691-13467-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-983799-1.
- ISBN 1-877864-30-7.
- ISBN 978-0-7425-5558-7.
- ISBN 1-85743-058-1.
- ISBN 5-89957-012-1.
- ISBN 5-89957-012-1.
- ^ a b Great Soviet Encyclopedia 1st edition, Volume 5, p.378-413, 1927
- ^ В. Ф. Кушнер. Грамадска-палітычнае жыццё ў БССР у 1920—1930–я гг. Гісторыя Беларусі (у кантэксьце сусьветных цывілізацыяў) p. 370.
- ^ 600 000 ахвяраў — прыблізная лічба Archived 11 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine: з І. Кузьняцовым гутарыць Руслан Равяка // Наша Ніва, 3 кастрычніка 1999.
- ^ Ігар Кузьняцоў. Рэпрэсіі супраць беларускай iнтэлiгенцыi і сялянства ў 1930—1940 гады. Лекцыя 2. Archived 3 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine // «Беларускі Калегіюм», 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
- 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. 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. .
- Horak, Stephan M. (1974). "Belorussia: Modernization, Human Rights, Nationalism". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 16 (3): 403–423. .
- 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. .
- 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. .
- 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. .
- Szporluk, Roman (1967). "The press in Belorussia, 1955–65". Soviet Studies. 18 (4): 482–493. .
- 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. ISBN 9783110864380.
- Zaprudnik, Jan (1993). Belarus: At A Crossroads In History. ISBN 0-8133-1794-0. Archived from the originalon 2 May 2016.
- Zejmis, Jakub (1997). "Belarus in the 1920s: Ambiguities of National Formation". Nationalities Papers. 25 (2): 243–254. S2CID 153635749.
External links
- Byelorussia : speeding towards abundance by Tikhon Kiselev.