History of the state border of Belarus

Map of territories claimed by the BNR leadership

In the Second BNR charter, the basic principle was proclaimed, according to which the leaders of the BNR determined the territory to which the sovereignty of the BNR should extend:

Belarus within the borders of the settlement and numerical predominance of the Belarusian people is proclaimed the People's Republic.

Original text (belor.)

Belarus at the frontier of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Belarus to the people of Abvyashchaets People’s Republic.

- 2 nd Local Gramat of the Parliament of Belarus People's Republic ^[1] .

Thus, the territory of the BNR by its creators was understood as the ethnic territory of Belarusians.

In the Third BNR charter, its authors somewhat clarified the alleged territorial composition of the BNR, while preserving the basic principle of its formation established by the Second charter:

The Belarusian People’s Republic should cover all the lands where the Belarusian people live and have numerical superiority, namely: the Mogilev region, the Belarusian parts of the Minsk region, the Grodno region (with Grodno, Bialystok, etc.), the Vilensky region, the Vitebsk region, the Smolensk region, the Chernihiv region, and adjacent parts of neighboring provinces, populated by Belarusians.

Original text (belor.)

Belaruskaya Narodnaya Respublika pavіnna abnyats truncated zemlі, jo Long live i May lіchbennuyu peravagu Belaruski people and lasne: Magіleўshchynu, belaruskіya chastsі Menshchyny, Grodnenshchyny (s Grodnyay, Białystok i іnsh.) Vіlenshchyny, Vіtsebshchyny, Smalenshchyny, Charnіgaўshchyny i sumezhnyh chastsyaў susednіh gubernyaў, populated by Belarusians.

- The 3rd Local Gramat of the Parliament of Belarus People's Republic ^[1] .

Thus, in the ethnic territory of Belarusians and, accordingly, in the BNR, the authors of the Third Statutory Charter included entirely only the Mogilev Province , all other provinces listed in the Third Statutory Charter should be included in the BNR only in those parts in which Belarusians are numerically predominant . At the same time, the text of the Third Charter Letter does not indicate which specific parts of the Minsk , Vilensk , Vitebsk , Smolensk provinces and Chernihiv province should be included in the BNR. Such instructions are given only for the Grodno province, in relation to which it is said that Grodno and Bialystok should have joined the BNR, while Brest, also located on the territory of the Grodno province, was not mentioned. The text of the Third Charter also lacks instructions on which parts and which provinces were also supposed to be parts of the ethnic territory of Belarusians and, accordingly, the BNR.

By the time of the creation of the Third Charter (March 24, 1918), the first two volumes of the fundamental work of academician Karsky “Belarusians” were widely known, as well as the Ethnographic Map of the Belarusian Tribe compiled by him (1903), in which the “border of the Belarusian region” was printed . The structure of this "Belarusian region" Karsky was entirely included only in the Mogilev province. Grodno province (with Grodno and Bialystok), but without Bielsk (now in Poland), Brest, Kobrin , Pruzhany (now part of Belarus), entered its large parts. Also, for the most part, “the border of the Belarusian region” included Minsk province, but without Pinsk and the southern half of Mozyr county (now part of Belarus). For the most part, the Vitebsk province (without its northwestern parts with Lutsin , Rezhitsa and Dvinsky now included in Latvia), as well as the Vilnius province (without its western outskirts, nowadays most part of modern Lithuania) were included in the Karski “borders of the Belarusian region” ) Karsky also included most of the Smolensk province in the “borders of the Belarusian region”, but without its four eastern districts: Vyazemsky, Sychevsky, Gzhatsky and Yukhnovsky (now part of Russia). The smaller part of the Chernigov province with its five northern districts: Surazhsky, Mglinsky, Starodubsky, Novozybkovsky districts (now part of Russia) and Gorodnyansky, as well as part of Novgorod-Seversky county (now part of Ukraine) was included in the “borders of the Belarusian region” Karsky. . For a number of other provinces, only small territories bordering the previously listed ones were included in the Karskyi as part of the “borders of the Belarusian region”. These provinces included Suvalka (southern part of Seinen district), Koven (eastern part of Novoaleksandrovsky district), Kurland (eastern part of Illuksk district), Pskov (southern outskirts of Opoch, Velikoluksky and Toropetsk counties), Tver (southern and western outskirts of Ostashkov) counties) and Oryol (western parts of Bryansk and Trubchevsky counties).

The description of the composition of the territory of the BNR given in the Third Charter does not contradict the composition of the “Belarusian region” given by Karsky on the “Ethnographic Map of the Belarusian Tribe”. Nevertheless, during the period of the BNR existence, it took measures to clarify the borders of those territories that the BNR leaders would like to see in its composition. No delimitation and, moreover, demarcation of the borders of the BNR has ever been made; the BNR also did not have a border service. In May 1918, the so-called Strategic Commission was created at the People's Secretariat of Foreign Affairs. The functions of the latter included compiling a description of the boundaries of the BNR. At the same time, a special commission under the People's Secretariat of International Affairs was engaged in the same tasks. The result of the work of both commissions was the release of a special postage stamp in 1918, which indicated the approximate boundaries of the territories claimed by the BNR.

The final map of the alleged borders of the BNR was not published by the BNR authorities until 1919 in the Polish-controlled Grodno, where the BNR government took refuge after the withdrawal of German troops and the fall of the BNR ^[2] .

The main differences compared with the Karsky map were that the BNR authorities emigrated the adjacent cities of the Kars of Augustow , Sokolka , Bielsk and Siemiatycze (now in Poland) into the proposed territory of the BNR, which could give access to the borders of Germany, and also the cities of Orana and Sventsyany (now in Lithuania), the city of Dvinsk (now in Latvia), Velikiye Luki , Bryansk , Trubchevsk (now in Russia). In relation to the border with Ukraine, on the map of the BNR, the southern southern Polessye parts of the Minsk province (Pinsky and Mozyr counties) and the Grodno province (Pruzhany, Brest-Litovsky and Kobrin counties), which Karsky qualified as ethnographically Ukrainian, were displayed.

On December 30 - 31, 1918, at the VI Conference of Organizations of the RCP (B) of the Western Region , held in Smolensk, the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus was created (abbr. KP (b) B ). In Smolensk, on the night of January 1 to 2, 1919, the Manifesto on the Formation of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus as part of the RSFSR was announced. The newly formed republic included Vitebsk , Grodno , Mogilev , Minsk and Smolensk provinces .

On February 27, 1919, the SSRB was disbanded: Smolensk, Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces were included in the RSFSR, and the rest of the territory of the Soviet Byelorussia merged with the Lithuanian Soviet Republic into the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (abbr. Litbel ).

After the liberation of the significant part of the territory of Belarus by the Red Army , the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus was re-formed on July 31, 1920 , renamed the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) after the creation of the USSR in 1922 .

In March 1924 and December 1926, part of the Russian territory, namely: parts of the Vitebsk (from the city ​​of Vitebsk ), Smolensk (from the city ​​of Orsha ), Gomel province (with the city ​​of Gomel ), provinces were returned to the Byelorussian SSR (thus the territory BSSR more than doubled).

By the law of the USSR of November 2, 1939, Western Belarus was annexed to the BSSR.

The border between the BSSR and the Lithuanian SSR was established on November 6, 1940 by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR .

Under an agreement between the USSR and Poland of August 16, 1945, the territory of the Bialystok region , as well as parts of the Grodno region and the Brest region were transferred to Poland , the Bialystok region was liquidated. Since that time, the territory of Belarus has not undergone significant changes.