It was essentially a continuation of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR of 1938–1991 immediately after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, which in its turn was the successor of both the All-Byelorussian Congress of Soviets (1919–1937) and its Central Executive Committee (1920–1938), and all of which had been the highest organs of state power in Belarus during 1920–1990. During 1990–1996 it functioned as a permanent parliament.