Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic

The **Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic**, informally known as **Belarus** (Belarusian: Беларусь; IPA: [bʲɛlaˈrusʲ]), is a socialist republic in Eastern Europe, and one of 21 national republics of the Soviet Union. Its capital and largest city is Minsk, and its official languages are Belarusian and Russian.

In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian People's Republic, which was conquered by Soviet Russia. The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Byelorussian SSR). Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921. Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939, when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland, and were finalized after World War II. During WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years. In 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR.

Today, Belarus is the fourth most populous national republic of the Soviet Union, with a population of almost 20 million people. It is one of the most industrialised economies in the union, with 55% of its population working in manufacturing or other heavy industry. The republic boasts a high per capita GDP and a very high standard of living. The country is very urbanised, with over 75% of its population living in cities; nevertheless, Belarus remains an important agricultural producer for the Soviet Union. 80% of citizens of the Belarusian SSR are ethnic Belarusians, with a sizable minority of Russians, [[[wikipedia:Poles|Poles]] and Ukrainians. Following a 1995 referendum, the two official languages of the Belarusian SSR are Belarusian and Russian, which enjoy equal status at all levels of government within the republic.

## History

### Early history

From 5000 to 2000 BC, Bandkeramik cultures predominated. In addition, remains from the Dnieper-Donets culture were found in Belarus and parts of Ukraine. Cimmerians and other pastoralists roamed through the area by 1,000 BC, and by 500 AD, Slavs had taken up residence, which was circumscribed by the Scythians who roamed its outskirts. Invaders from Asia, among whom were the Huns and Avars, swept through c. 400–600 AD, but were unable to dislodge the Slavic presence.

The region that is now Belarus was first settled by Baltic tribes in the 3rd century. Around the 5th century, the area was taken over by Slavic tribes. The takeover was partially due to the lack of military coordination of the Balts but the gradual assimilation of the Balts into Slavic culture was peaceful in nature.

In the 9th century some principalities arose on the territory of modern Belarus. Among them was the Principality of Polotsk that for most of the time was effectively an independent State (apart from about 20 years when it was a Vassal of Kievan Rus'). The Principality of Polotsk was the first nation state to be established on the land of Belarus.

### Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Many early Rus' principalities were virtually razed or severely affected by a major Mongol invasion in the 13th century, but the lands of modern Belarus avoided the brunt of the invasion and were eventually joined the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

There are no sources of military seizure, but the annals affirm the alliance and united foreign policy of Polotsk and Lithuania for decades. For example, the Chronicle of Novgorod informs about "Izyaslav had been set to be Knyaz in Luki and covered Novgorod from the Lithuanians" in 1198 when Luki is situated on the east from Polotsk.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, whose territory started its existence between Nemunas and Neris rivers and existed in the center of Europe in the 13th–18th centuries and comprised entire territories of contemporary Belarus, Ukraine, partially Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

Incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania resulted in an economic, political and ethno-cultural unification of Belarusian lands. Of the principalities held by the Duchy, nine of them were settled by a population that would eventually become Belarusian people. During this time, the Duchy was involved in several military campaigns, including fighting on the side of Poland against the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410; the joint victory allowed the Duchy to control the northwestern borderlands of Eastern Europe.

The Muscovites, led by Ivan III of Moscow, began military campaigns in 1486 in an attempt to incorporate the lands of Kievan Rus', specifically the territories of modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

### Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

On 2 February 1386, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland were joined in a personal union through a marriage of their rulers.[54] This union set in motion the developments that eventually resulted in the formation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, created in 1569 by the Union of Lublin.

The Lithuanian nobles were forced to go for rapprochement because of the threat coming from Muscovy. To strengthen the independence in the format of the union, three editions of the Statutes of Lithuania were issued in the 16th century. The third Article of the Statute establishes that all lands of Grand Duchy of Lithuania will be eternally in Grand Duchy of Lithuania and never enter as a part of other states. It allowed to own the land within Grand Duchy of Lithuania only to own families. Anyone from outside Duchy would be honored with property only own it after swearing to Grand Duke of Lithuania. These articles were aimed to defend the rights of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania nobility against Polish, Prussian and other aristocracy of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In the years following the union, the process of gradual Polonization of both Lithuanians and Ruthenians gained steady momentum. In culture and social life, both the Polish language and Catholicism became dominant, and in 1696, Polish replaced Ruthenian as the official language—with the Ruthenian language being banned from administrative use.[55] However, the Ruthenian peasants, continued to speak their own language and remained faithful to the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church. Statutes were initially only issued in Ruthenian language and later also in Polish. Around 1840 the Statutes were banned by the Russian tsar following the November Uprising. Modern Ukrainian lands used it until 1860s.

### Russian Empire

The union between Poland and Lithuania ended in 1795 with the Third Partition of Poland by Imperial Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Belarusian territories acquired by the Russian Empire under the reign of Catherine II[57] were included into the Belarusian Governorate (Russian: Белорусское генерал-губернаторство) in 1796 and held until their occupation by the German Empire during World War I.

Under Nicholas I and Alexander III the national cultures were repressed. Policies of Polonization[59] changed by Russification, which included the return to Orthodox Christianity of Belorusian Uniates. Belarusian language was banned in schools while in neighboring Samogitia primary school education with Samogitian literacy was allowed.

In a Russification drive in the 1840s, Nicholas I prohibited use of the Belarusian language in public schools, campaigned against Belarusian publications and tried to pressure those who had converted to Catholicism under the Poles to reconvert to the Orthodox faith. In 1863, economic and cultural pressure exploded in a revolt, led by Konstanty Kalinowski. After the failed revolt, the Russian government reintroduced the use of Cyrillic to Belarusian in 1864 and no documents in Belarusian were permitted by the Russian government until 1905.

During the negotiations of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Belarus first declared independence under German occupation on 25 March 1918, forming the Belarusian People's Republic.[63][64] Immediately afterwards, the Polish–Soviet War ignited, and the territory of Belarus was divided between Poland and Soviet Russia.[65] The Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic exists as a government in exile ever since then; in fact, it is currently the world's longest serving government in exile.

### Belarusian People's Republic

The Belarusian People's Republic was a first attempt to create an independent Belarusian state under name "Belarus". Despite the many efforts state ceased to exist cause territory was occupied and controlled by German Imperial Army, Imperial Russian Army and than Red Army in World War I times. It existed only from 1918 to 1919 but created prerequisites for the formation of the state idea around the newly name "Belarus" on these lands. The choice of the name was probably based the fact that the intelligent core of young government was educated in the tsardom universities with a corresponding education around the ideology of West-Russianism.

### Republic of Central Lithuania

The Republic of Central Lithuania was a short-lived political entity, which was the last attempt to restore Lithuania in the historical confederacy state (it was also supposed to create Lithuania Upper and Lithuania Lower). The republic was created in 1920 following the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st Lithuanian–Belarusian Division of the Polish Army under Lucjan Żeligowski. Centered on the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilna (Lithuanian: Vilnius, Polish: Wilno), for 18 months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area.[68] After a variety of delays, a disputed election took place on 8 January 1922, and the territory was annexed to Poland. Żeligowski later in his memoir which was published in London in 1943 condemned the annexation of Republic by Poland, as well as the policy of closing Belarusian schools and general disregard of Marshal Józef Piłsudski's confederation plans by Polish ally.[69] Years earlier interrogation report of 19-year-old revolutionary Pilsudski of March 10, 1887 indicated that he called himself a "belarusian, nobleman".

### Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic

A part of Belarus under Russian rule emerged as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Byelorussian SSR) in 1919. Soon thereafter it merged to form the Lithuanian-Byelorussian SSR. The contested lands were divided between Poland and the Soviet Union after the war ended in 1921, and the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. The western part of modern Belarus remained part of Poland.

In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied two-thirds of Poland, marking the beginning of World War II. The Soviets took control of what remained of eastern Poland in order to secure what was now lawless territory along Soviet borders following the flight of the Polish government and its failure to set up any sort of provisional underground regime for its citizens left behind to face the fascist invasion. Much of the northern section of this area was added to the Byelorussian SSR, and now constitutes West Belarus. The Soviet-controlled Byelorussian People's Council officially took control of the territories, whose populations consisted of a mixture of Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews, on 28 October 1939 in Białystok. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The Brest Fortress, which had been annexed in 1939, at this time was subjected to one of the most destructive onslaughts that happened during the war. Statistically, the Byelorussian SSR was the hardest-hit Soviet republic in World War II; it remained in Nazi hands until 1944. During that time, Germany destroyed 209 out of 290 cities in the republic, 85% of the republic's industry, and more than one million buildings. The Nazi *Generalplan Ost* called for the extermination, expulsion or enslavement of most or all Belarusians for the purpose of providing more living space in the East for Germans.

Casualties were estimated to be between 2 and 3 million (about a quarter to one-third of the total population), while the Jewish population of Belarus was devastated during the Holocaust and never recovered. The population of Belarus did not regain its pre-war level until 1971. It was also after this conflict that the final borders of Belarus were set by Stalin when parts of Belarusian territory were given to the recently annexed Lithuania.

After the war, Belarus was among the 51 founding countries of the United Nations Charter and as such it was allowed an additional vote at the UN, on top of the Soviet Union's vote. Vigorous postwar reconstruction promptly followed the end of the war and the Byelorussian SSR became a major center of manufacturing in the western USSR, creating jobs and attracting ethnic Russians. The borders of the Byelorussian SSR and Poland were redrawn, in accord with the 1919-proposed Curzon Line.

Joseph Stalin implemented a policy of Sovietization to isolate the Byelorussian SSR from Western influences. This policy involved sending Russians from various parts of the Soviet Union and placing them in key positions in the Byelorussian SSR government. After Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev continued his predecessor's cultural hegemony program, stating, "The sooner we all start speaking Russian, the faster we shall build communism."

In 1986, the Byelorussian SSR was exposed to significant nuclear fallout from the explosion at the Chernobyl power plant in the neighboring Ukrainian SSR.

## Politics

As a union republic of the USSR, the Belarusian SSR is governed by a national branch of the All-Union Communist Party (AUCP) headquartered in Moscow, the Communist Party of Belarus. The Communist Party of Belarus is led by a National Committee which is elected by its National Congress; they are answerable to the Central Committee and All-Union Congress, respectively, the AUCP leadership in Moscow. The National Committee elects a Politburo and a First Secretary to lead the Politburo; this position is the republican equivalent of the office of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the AUCP.

The highest institution of state power in the Belarusian SSR is the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, which is a bicameral legislative assembly, consisting of two nominally equal chambers both of which are directly elected by all adult working members of Belarusian society: the Soviet of the Republic is the "upper house", consisting of 196 seats each representing a *raion* regardless of population count; the Soviet of Deputies is the "lower house", consisting of 249 seats each representing an equally populated census-defined electoral district. The Supreme Soviet at a joint plenary session elects the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which is an eleven-member council serving as collective head of state of the Belarusian SSR. The Presidium elects from amongst itself a chairperson, whose role is similar to that of a president in parliamentary republics. Between sessions of the Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet acts on its behalf, and is empowered to pass legislation which may be reviewed upon subsequent plenary Supreme Soviet sessions.

The Supreme Soviet of Belarus also elects the chair and deputy chairs of the Council of Ministers, which serves as the executive branch of the Belarusian republican government. The Chairman of the Council of Ministers is *ex officio* Premier (head of government) of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Premier appoints individuals to lead the various republican ministries, which function as national branches of a respective union-republican ministry subordinate to the All-Union Council of Ministers in Moscow. The Council of Ministers of Belarusian SSR also oversees its republican branch of various state committees; while all ministries under the Council of Ministers are subordinate to the union-republican apparatus in Moscow, there are many state committees which are exclusively republican and unique to Belarus.