The Emerge of Belarusian Republic

Despite the oppression the Belarusian people did not want to put up with the tsarist policy. In 1863 the young Belarusian patriot Kastus Kalinousky started a new stage of the liberation struggle of the Belarusians. The cause of the national liberation uprising of 1863–1864 led by Kastus Kalinousky in Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland was the strive of the progressive people of the western parts of the Russian Empire for national independence, liquidation of feudal relations, for social and political changes. Kastus Kalinousky led the enslaved people against the colonial regime of the Russian tsarism and at the age of 26 was publicly executed by gendarmes in March 1864 in Vilnia (Vilnius), which was at that time the political and cultural center of the Belarusian people.

But nevertheless under the pressure of numerous oppressed peoples that inhabited the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century various political changes started. In 1905 the Belarusians got some rights for their cultural self-expression including the right to publish books and newspapers in the native language. Though the concessions of the tsarism were minor in fact, they breathed in a new life into the national rebirth of the Belarusians. But the quick renewal of the statehood became possible only after the fall of the Russian monarchy towards the end of World War I in February 1917, when Belarusian national organizations became more active. In December 1917 the All-Belarusian Congress opened in Minsk. 1872 delegates from all the regions of Belarus, from all political and public organizations took part in it. The participants discussed national problems of Belarusian people and supported the creation of a new Belarusian state.

But after March 3, 1918 when Soviet Russia, Germany, and Austria signed the Brest peace treaty Belarus, without the agreement from the Executive Committee of the All-Belarusian Congress, became the subject of annexation by Germany. On March 25, 1918 during the German occupation the Executive Committee of the All-Belarusian Congress declared the creation of the Belarusian People's Republic (BPR). A temporary Constitution in the form of statute decrees was adopted. It guaranteed the right to vote, freedom of speech, the press and assembly, the right to the eight-hours’ working day and the right to strike. Unfortunately, the new Belarusian state was short-lived and was liquidated by Soviet Russia with the help of the Red Army in 1919, but some leaders of the BPR managed to emigrate to the West and establish a Belarusian government in exile.

The creation of the BPR made the Bolsheviks with Lenin at the head understand that the creation of the totalitarian regime on the territory of the former Russian Empire without taking into consideration the national interests of the peoples that it wanted to envelop would be next to impossible. So on January 1, 1919 on the initiative of Belarusians in the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks to counterpoise the BPR the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was created. But the Russian Bolsheviks did not look upon Belarus from the point of view of providing the Belarusian people with the right to national self-determination and the creation of an independent state. They saw it as the buffer zone during the realization of the world communist revolution. To enlarge the sphere of influence the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was created in February 1919. But on July 31, 1920 because of the changed political conditions (the Polish army was advancing east) the BSSR was reestablished.

On March 18, 1921 according to the Riga Peace Treaty signed by Poland and Bolshevik Russia headed by Lenin, without the participation of Belarusian representatives Belarus was divided into two parts. The Western part of Belarus (Brest and Grodno regions of today's Belarus and Bialy Stok region of today's Poland) was given to Poland. This part of Belarus was given back to the USSR in 1939 and became part of the BSSR.

On December 30, 1922 the Communist governments of Belarus, Russia, the Ukraine and Caucasus created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which included the major part of the former Russian Empire. Since that time on the territory of Belarus as well as in the Soviet Union a severe communist dictatorship had been established which existed till 1990 when the first more or less democratic elections were held in Belarus. Belarus as well as the other Soviet republics of the former USSR had gone through all the stages of the creation of mythical communism and suffered enormous cultural, spiritual and human losses. During the construction of communism practically all the churches and religious institutions were destroyed, private property was liquidated; a lot of industrious, enterprising, educated people were repressed. The renaissance of the Belarusian nation that started only in the late 80s will take a lot of time.

Answer the questions:

1) What were the main purposes of Kastus Kalinovsky’s uprising?

2) What territories did the uprising cover?

3) What rights were given to the Belarusians in 1905?

4) What were the results of the All-Belarusian Congress opened in Minsk in 1917?

5) When was the creation of the Belarusian People’s Republic declared?

6) What were the rights guaranteed by a temporary constitution?

7) What was the reason for the BSSR’s creation?

8) Why and how was Belarus divided in 1921?

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