About Belarus

Articles dedicated to Belarus history, Belarus politics, Belarus economy, Belarus culture and other issues and Belarus tourist destinations.

History of Belarus. WWI - present

The First World War in Belarus

The WWI broke out in 1914 and one quarter of the western Belarusian territories were occupied by German troops in 1915. The Russian regime launched a huge propaganda campaign among the local population, calling it upon the war for the Tsar and Motherland. Of all political parties and movements only the Bolsheviks were against this war. The defeats of the Russian army in 1915-1916, tremendous losses of lands, manpower and materiel caused anti-governmental uprisings. The threat of the German occupation caused a forced displacement of the eastern Belarusians by the Russian government that used them as a cheap labor force for the needs of the front. Endless requisitions brought Belarusian villages beyond the brink of poverty. Added to the fact that most factories increased their military output and therefore food and consumer goods considerably increased in price, this caused the February Revolution of 1917.

In February 1917 tsarist government was toppled, but several issues like land ownership and national issue were unresolved. In autumn 1917 the development of the Soviet governmental bodies began. The new soviet authorities conducted nationalization of the industry and land that belonged to the landlords, introduced an 8-hour long working day and pronounced equality of all nations and the right of each of them for self-determination.

In 1918 Germany renewed the war at the Eastern Front to liquidate the Soviet government and restore the reign of the landlords. Since there was no regular Soviet army, the Bolshevik government had to sign the Brest Peace Treaty with Germany, leaving the largest part of western Belarus under the German occupation. Germany lost the WWI in 1918 and the Brest Treaty was denounced with the Soviet government spreading throughout the whole territory of Belarus until 1919.

The territories of Western Belarus went to Poland according to the Riga Treaty of 1921. They were called eastern kresy – eastern outskirts of Rech Pospolita – and occupied the territory of 98 815 square kilometers with over 3 million people (over 50% of which were Belarusians) residing there. In terms of economy Western Belarus became an agrarian region supplementing industrial regions of Poland. Natural resources, in particular those in Belavezhskaya Reserve were extensively exploited. The majority of the population was employed in agricultural sector – over 80%. Landlords who constituted less than 1% of the total population of Western Belarus owned about one half of its territory.

Compared to Soviet Belarus the output of the industry of Western Belarus was 9 times as low, although their territories and population were almost equal. About 80% of the enterprises were small businesses that majored in food and woodworking industries. The social security of the employees was absent – the working day was 12-14 hours long, there were no paid sick leaves, etc. The average wage of a Belarusian in Western Belarus was about 68% of that of a worker in Central Poland. The world economy crunch of 1929-1933 exacerbated the state of the working class, leaving 46% of them unemployed. Unlimited exploitation and severe economic conditions caused waves of immigration to Canada, USA, Western Europe and Latin America.

Another indicator of discrimination by the Poles was their new national-religious policy that aimed at non-recognition and destruction of the Belarusians as an ethnic group. Education establishments that used Belarusian language were closed and local teachers were replaced by Polish ones, the number of Belarusian libraries, clubs, reading and publishing houses was reduced. It was prohibited to use Belarusian in state institutions and the citizens who didn’t write in Polish were stripped of their voting rights. The Orthodox churches were closed or converted into Catholic ones. The drive of the Polish government to turn the new eastern territory and its population into an ethnic Polish region was stopped by the Soviet Army in 1939.

In the Soviet Republic of Belarus (Eastern Belarus) the state of the villagers was exacerbated by successive requisitions of food by the Red Army. In the USSR industrialization was launched aiming to develop industrial and rural material infrastructure. In the course of the industrialization collective farms were established across the whole of the Soviet Union with the property of the rich farmers confiscated and distributed among the poorer villagers who were united into communes.

The WWII in Belarus

In 1939 the USSR and Germany signed a Non-aggression Treaty with secret protocols to it, according to which the Baltic States and Belarus were to become Soviet territories. After the WWII broke out on 1 September 1939 the Soviet troops moved into Western Belarus, following the provisions of the secret protocols.

However, the peace treaty was short-lived and on 22 June 1941 the Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. In the USSR and modern Belarusian history this conflict is referred to as the Great Patriotic War. In the first months of this war Belarus witnessed the retreat of the Red Army, caused by the shortcomings of the Soviet military doctrine, massive repressions of the top army ranks and outdated armament.

The country became the arena for advancing troops of the Nazi Army Group Center that established harsh occupation regime. The new order of the Nazi liquidated the Soviet government, got down to pillaging the national riches and resources, discrimination and extermination of the Soviet people. The ideological basis for their actions was the antihuman race theory that stipulated that the Nazi, the descendants of the Arians, were a superior nation and could govern other nations to secure their own space for life. The Belarusians were to be exterminated by 75 per cent, with the rest ones being kept as labor force.

The Belarusians didn’t surrender and their input into the victory in the WWII was immense. 1.3m Belarusians fought at the fronts. The workers of the factories that were relocated to the east worked extended shifts on extremely poor rations to supply the army with everything it required. The local population that launched the partisan movement against the Nazi disrupted their rare infrastructure and communications.

Belarus: modern days

When the great patriotic war was over for Belarus, the population got down to its restoration. The war left the whole country in ruins: at least 2.3m Belarusians were killed, 209 out of 290 cities and towns were destroyed, 9600 towns and townships were destroyed with a part of their population, 618 villages were flattened to the ground along with their population (186 of them have never been restored)… With the aid of other sister republics and foreign donors Belarus managed to rise from the ashes, rebuilding the economy and enterprises almost from scratch. It restored its prewar population level of 10m people by 1974. The economy of the Soviet Belarus was based on multiple enterprises and therefore the country was named the assembly plant of the USSR.

Today the Republic of Belarus is a modern European state, whose independence and sovereignty have been recognized by the international community after the USSR dissolved. The Declaration of the State Sovereignty was pronounced in 1990, the new country name – the Republic of Belarus – was adopted in 1991 and the new Constitution was adopted in 1994. The country’s first president was elected in the same year. In 2005 Belarus had diplomatic relations with 153 countries and was a member of over 60 international organizations. The relations between the former Soviet countries take place in the framework of the CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States.