📰 Belarus · page 2

Under Nicholas I and Alexander III the national cultures were repressed with policies of Polonization[50] replaced by Russification[51] which included the return to Orthodox Christianity of Belarusian Uniates.74 Belarusian language was banned in schools while in nearby Samogitia primary school education with Samogitian literacy was allowed.[52]75

In a Russification drive in the 1840s, Nicholas I prohibited the 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.76 In 1863, economic and cultural pressure exploded in a revolt, led by Konstanty Kalinowski (also known as Kastus).77 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.[53]78

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.[54][55]79 Immediately afterwards, the Polish–Soviet War ignited, and the territory of Belarus was divided between Poland and Soviet Russia.[56]80 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.[57]81

Early states and interwar period

The Belarusian People's Republic was the first attempt to create an independent Belarusian state under the name "Belarus".82 Despite significant efforts, the state ceased to exist, primarily because the territory was continually dominated by the Imperial German Army and the Imperial Russian Army in World War I, and then the Bolshevik Red Army.83 It existed from only 1918 to 1919 but created prerequisites for the formation of a Belarusian state.84 The choice of name was probably based on the fact that core members of the newly formed government were educated in tsarist universities, with corresponding emphasis on the ideology of West-Russianism.[58]85

The Republic of Central Lithuania was a short-lived political entity, which was the last attempt to restore Lithuania to the historical confederacy state (it was also supposed to create Lithuania Upper and Lithuania Lower).86 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.87 Centred on the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilna (Vilnius, Wilno), for 18 months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland corpus, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area.[59]88 After a variety of delays, a disputed election took place on 8 January 1922, and the territory was annexed to Poland.89 Żeligowski later in his memoir which was published in London in 1943 condemned the annexation of the 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.[60]90

In January 1919, a part of Belarus under Bolshevik Russian control was declared the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia (SSRB) for just two months, but then merged with the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) to form the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (SSR LiB), which lost control of its territories by August.91

The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was created in July 1920.[61]92

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.[54][62]93 In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet agricultural and economic policies, including collectivisation and five-year plans for the national economy, led to famine and political repression.[63]94

The western part of modern Belarus remained part of the Second Polish Republic.[64][65]95 After an early period of liberalisation, tensions between increasingly nationalistic Polish government and various increasingly separatist ethnic minorities started to grow, and the Belarusian minority was no exception.[66][67]96 The polonisation drive was inspired and influenced by the Polish National Democracy, led by Roman Dmowski, who advocated refusing Belarusians and Ukrainians the right for a free national development.[68]97 A Belarusian organisation, the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union, was banned in 1927, and opposition to Polish government was met with state repressions.[66][67]98 Nonetheless, compared to the (larger) Ukrainian minority, Belarusians were much less politically aware and active, and thus suffered fewer repressions than the Ukrainians.[66][67]99 In 1935, after the death of Piłsudski, a new wave of repressions was released upon the minorities, with many Orthodox churches and Belarusian schools being closed.[66][67]100 Use of the Belarusian language was discouraged.[69]101 Belarusian leadership was sent to Bereza Kartuska prison.[70]102

World War II

Main article: Byelorussia in World War II, German occupation of Byelorussia during World War II

In September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied eastern Poland, following the German invasion of Poland two weeks earlier which marked the beginning of World War II.103 The territories of Western Belorussia were annexed and incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR.[71][72][73][74]104 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.105 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.106 The defence of Brest Fortress was the first major battle of Operation Barbarossa.107

The Byelorussian SSR was the hardest-hit Soviet republic in World War II; it remained under German occupation until 1944.108 The German Generalplan Ost called for the extermination, expulsion, or enslavement of most or all Belarusians to provide more living space in the East for Germans.[75]109 Most of Western Belarus became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941, but in 1943 the German authorities allowed local collaborators to set up a client state, the Belarusian Central Council.[76]110

During World War II, Belarus was home to a variety of guerrilla movements, including Jewish, Polish, and Soviet partisans.111 Belarusian partisan formations formed a large part of the Soviet partisans,[77] and in the modern day these partisans have formed a core part of the Belarusian national identity, with Belarus continuing to refer to itself as the "partisan republic" since the 1970s.[78][79]112 Following the war, many former Soviet partisans entered positions of government, among them Pyotr Masherov and Kirill Mazurov, both of whom were First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia.113 Until the late 1970s, the Belarusian government was almost entirely composed of former partisans.[80]114 Numerous pieces of media have been made about the Belarusian partisans, including the 1985 film Come and See and the works of authors Ales Adamovich and Vasil Bykaŭ.115

The German occupation in 1941–1944 and war on the Eastern Front devastated Belarus.116 During that time, 209 out of 290 towns and cities were destroyed, 85% of the republic's industry, and more than one million buildings.117 After the war, it was estimated that 2.2 million local inhabitants had died, and of those some 810,000 were combatants—some foreign.118 This figure represented a staggering quarter of the prewar population.[81]119 In the 1990s some raised the estimate even higher, to 2.7 million.[82]120 The Jewish population of Belarus was devastated during the Holocaust and never recovered.[81][83][84]121 The population of Belarus did not regain its pre-war level until 1971.[83]122 Belarus was also hit hard economically, losing around half of its economic resources.[81]123

Post-war

The borders of the Byelorussian SSR and Poland were redrawn, in accord with the 1919-proposed Curzon Line.[49]124 Byelorus gained territory to the west: the formerly Polish Kresy.125

Joseph Stalin implemented a policy of Sovietisation to isolate the Byelorussian SSR from Western influences.[83]126 This policy involved sending Russians from various parts of the Soviet Union and placing them in key positions in the Byelorussian SSR government.127 After Stalin died in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev continued his predecessor's cultural hegemony programme, stating, "The sooner we all start speaking Russian, the faster we shall build communism."[83]128

Between Stalin's death in 1953 and 1980, Belarusian politics was dominated by former members of the Soviet partisans, including First Secretaries Kirill Mazurov and Pyotr Masherov.[80]129 Mazurov and Masherov oversaw Belarus's rapid industrialisation and transformation from one of the Soviet Union's poorest republics into one of its richest.[85]130 In 1986, the Byelorussian SSR was contaminated with most (70%) of the nuclear fallout from the explosion at the Chernobyl power plant located 16 km beyond the border in the neighbouring Ukrainian SSR.[86][87]131

By the late 1980s, political liberalisation led to a national revival, with the Belarusian Popular Front becoming a major pro-independence force.[88][89]132

Independence

In March 1990, elections for seats in the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR took place.133 Though the opposition candidates, mostly associated with the pro-independence Belarusian Popular Front, took only 10% of the seats,[90] Belarus declared itself sovereign on 27 July 1990 by issuing the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic.[91]134

Wide-scale strikes erupted in April 1991.135 With the support of the Communist Party of Byelorussia, the country's name was changed to the Republic of Belarus on 25 August 1991.[92][90]136 Stanislav Shushkevich, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, met with Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine on 8 December 1991 in Białowieża Forest to formally declare the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.[90]137

In January 1992, the Belarusian Popular Front campaigned for early elections later in the year, two years before they were scheduled.138 By May of that year, about 383,000 signatures had been collected for a petition to hold the referendum, which was 23,000 more than legally required to be put to a referendum at the time.139 Despite this, the meeting of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus to ultimately decide the date for the referendum was delayed by six months.140 However, with no evidence to suggest such, the Supreme Council rejected the petition on the grounds of massive irregularities.141 Elections for the Supreme Council were set for March 1994.142 A new law on parliamentary elections failed to pass by 1993.143 Disputes over the referendum were accredited to the largely conservative Party of Belarusian Communists, which controlled the Supreme Council at the time and was largely opposed to political and economic reform, with allegations that some of the deputies opposed Belarusian independence.[93]144

Lukashenko era

A national constitution was adopted in March 1994 in which the functions of prime minister were given to the President of Belarus.145 A two-round election for the presidency on 24 June 1994 and 10 July 1994[28] catapulted the formerly unknown Alexander Lukashenko into national prominence.146 He garnered 45% of the vote in the first round and 80%[90] in the second, defeating Vyacheslav Kebich who received 14% of the vote.147 The elections were the first and only free elections in Belarus after independence.[94]148

The 2000s saw some economic disputes between Belarus and its primary economic partner, Russia.149 The first one was the 2004 Russia–Belarus energy dispute when Russian energy giant Gazprom ceased the import of gas into Belarus because of price disagreements.150 The 2007 Russia–Belarus energy dispute centred on accusations by Gazprom that Belarus was siphoning oil from the Druzhba pipeline that runs through Belarus.151 Two years later the so-called Milk War, a trade dispute, started when Russia wanted Belarus to recognise the independence of Abkhazia corpus and South Ossetia corpus and through a series of events ended up banning the import of dairy products from Belarus.152

In 2011, Belarus suffered a severe economic crisis attributed to Lukashenko's government's centralised control of the economy, with inflation reaching 108.7%.[95]153 Around the same time the 2011 Minsk Metro bombing occurred in which 15 people were killed and 204 were injured.154 Two suspects, who were arrested within two days, confessed to being the perpetrators and were executed by shooting in 2012.155 The official version of events as publicised by the Belarusian government was questioned in the unprecedented wording of the UN Security Council statement condemning "the apparent terrorist attack" intimating the possibility that the Belarusian government itself was behind the bombing.[96]156

Mass protests erupted across the country following the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential election,[97] in which Lukashenko sought a sixth term in office.[98]157 Neighbouring countries Poland and Lithuania do not recognise Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus and the Lithuanian government has allotted a residence for main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and other members of the Belarusian opposition in Vilnius corpus.[99][100][101][102][103]158 Neither is Lukashenko recognised as the legitimate president of Belarus by the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom or the United States.[104][105][106][107]159 The European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all imposed sanctions against Belarus because of the rigged election and political oppression during the ongoing protests in the country.[108][109]160 Further sanctions were imposed in 2022 following the country's role and complicity in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine; Russian troops were allowed to stage part of the invasion from Belarusian territory.[110][111]161 Sanctions were targeted towards not only corporate offices and individual officers of government, but also private individuals who work in the state-owned enterprise industrial sector.[112]162 Norway corpus and Japan corpus have joined the sanctions regime which aims to isolate Belarus from the international supply chain.163 Most major Belarusian banks are also under restrictions.[112]164