Belarusian Central Rada The Belarusian Central Rada ( , The Belarusian Central Council ; ) was nominally the government of Belarus from 1943 – 44 . It was a collaborationist government established by Nazi Germany within the occupation and colonial administration of Reichskommissariat Ostland . Timeline . The autonomous government had its origins on July 3 , 1941 , within " Reichskommissariat Ostland " . The German administrator in the Belarus area , " Generalreichskommissar " Wilhelm Kube , had his command center in Minsk , along with subordinated Kommissars in Minsk and Baranovichi . Ivan Jermačenka , a Belarusian collaborator who was the leader of Belarusian groups that supported the Nazi regime . Kube announced that Jermačenka had been named the " Advisor on Belarusian affairs " . When Belarusian territory originally came under Nazi German control , the " Generalbezirke of Belarus " was established , including Hlybokaye , Vileyka , Navahrudak , Polesia district at north of Erich Koch ' s Ukraine , Smolensk and all of Belarus . In 1942 , the German civil authority was extended to Minsk , Slutsk and Barysaw . The rest of Belarus remained under military control . The purpose of this political organization was to encourage local support for German forces in the short - term to help defeat the Soviet Union . In the long - term , Belarus was to be made part of the Nazis ' project of Lebensraum ( " living space " ) , in which those deemed non - Aryan would be exterminated or expelled to make way for German colonists , while the citizens who remained would be subject to forced Germanization . In June 1943 , the Nazi Germans organized a local " Vertrauensausschuss " ( Committee of confidence ) , composed of native " Kreisältester " ( district elder chief ) of districts and others six notable locals under presidency of Vatslau Ivanouski , the " Alderman " of Belarus . In 1943 , Kube was killed by his Belarusian mistress , who planted a bomb in his bed . General Reinhard Gehlen suggested in his memorandum to the German High Command that steps be taken to appeal to the Russian people to join Germans in the fight against partisans . So General Kurt von Gottberg , who was assigned Kube ' s post , decided to offer Belarusian collaborators a limited form of national autonomy . Radasłaŭ Astroŭski , who was at that time a mayor of Smolensk , was selected by the SS to head the new regime . Astroŭski became the head of the local government " cabinet " Rada . Sometime in spring of 1940 , Dr . Franz Six , a former professor of political science and head of the " Vorkommando " ( SS forward unit ) for " Einsatzgruppe B " , made contact with the local branch of the Belarusian " self - help " organization in Warsaw and put together a task force of some thirty to forty trusted Belarusians to serve as guides , administrators and informers . Among them were Stanislau Stankevich , who later ran the city of Borisov , Emmanuel Jasiuk , who was assigned to the city of Klecak , and Jury Sabaleuski , who administered Baranovichi . Astroŭski was to organize the counties around Minsk and then follow the invasion forces to Russia . In a moment of optimism , the SS had designated Dr . Six ' s unit " Vorkommando Moskau " . Six nominated two of his Belarusian collaborators to organize each city and town under military occupation . In Minsk , Astroŭski formed a municipal government subservient to Nazis , while Franz Kushel put together police forces . The SS equipped police wore black uniforms and red armbands labeled " Polizei " . Borisov was under control of Stanislau Stankevich . He ruled Borisov , a town of some 15 , 000 , more than half of them Jews , through Belarusian police force garbed in black SS - type uniforms with the white - red - white of Belarus on their armbands . Emanuel Jasiuk , was the wartime mayor of Kletsk In December 1940 , German authority was confirmed in this political organization by the ordinance of " Zentralrat " ( Central Council ) , and named " " Weissruthenischer Zentralrat " " . The principal function was to recruit from the local population the Belarusian " Interior Guard " ( BKA ) as a native collaborationist police service , the origin of next Belarusian volunteer units in Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS . Astroŭski organized the Belarusian home defense corps ( BKA ) from 20 , 000 men in police battalions . he present a list of ministers for a Belarusian Central Council ( Rada ) , to the Germans , and petitioned for authorization to organize collaborators in each province and districts . Dmitry Kasmovich , the police chief of Smolensk area , established an expanding ring of fortified villages around Smolensk . One of the most powerful weapons in the collaborationist arsenal was religion . The SS established an Autocephalous Belarusian Orthodox Church independent from the Patriarch of Moscow who , similarly , was used by the Soviet atheists to rally Russians against the Germans . The church ' s priests had considerable influence with the peasantry , and they actively supported the defeat of Soviet Russia , which had invaded Western Belarus , then under Polish rule , on September 17 , 1939 under the terms of the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and under the pretext of protecting the former citizens of a collapsed Poland conquered by Nazi Germany . In late June 1944 , Minsk Opera House was filled with 1 , 039 delegates from all Belarusian provinces . Joachim Kipel was the president of the Second All - Belarusian Rada Congress . In 1944 , the withdrawal of authorities , local supporters and last Axis units from these territories to East Prussia n and Polish lands under German control began . The SS assigned a special train that carried 800 collaborators and their families to Germany on June 28 , 1944 . Astrouski left two days later since he was organizing evacuation . These ancient Belarusian BKA security police forces were absorbed into " 30 . Waffen - Grenadier - division der SS - Russiche No 2 . This infantry division was formed from the remnants of the 29th Waffen - SS Division , which included Belarusian and Ukrainian units . The Germans had set up an officers ' school and issued uniforms with Waffen Sturm - brigade Belarus designation . Orders were issued for Belarusian forces to be absorbed by Vlasov ' s Russian Army of Liberation ; but Astroŭski opposed this . He also sabotaged the idea of the " Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia " , since he did not wanted to align himself with Russians . Other members of the Belarusian police were recruited by SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny for training in Dahlwitz , near Berlin , to make special undercover strikes and operate behind enemy lines . These units were known as " Black Cat " , and led by Michas ' Vitushka . They operated in Belavezha Forest against Soviet forces in anti - communist guerrilla operations in 1945 . The state ended its existence in 1944 when the Red Army drove the retreating Nazi German forces from Belarus . At the end of 1945 , Astroŭski held a special meeting of the " Belarusian Central Committee " which decided to dissolve the government in order to avoid being sent back to Belarus as war criminals .