Civil war and military intervention in Belarus (1918-1920)

The civil war and military intervention in Belarus ( 1918 - 1920 ) is a period in the history of Belarus , characterized by a series of acute conflicts in the struggle for power and a change in the national-state structure between various political, national and social groups in the territory of modern Belarus , which were the result of the February and October revolutions of 1917 in the Russian Empire , its collapse and exit from the First World War , as well as the Civil War that broke out on its territory. The events culminated in the establishment of Soviet power and the formation of the Byelorussian SSR on parts of the territory of modern Belarus, except for Western Belarus , the territory of which entered the Polish Republic .

Content

1 Background
2 1918
3 Literature
4 References

Background

The abolition of national restrictions by the Provisional Government on March 3, 1917 made it possible to resume the activities of the Belarusian Socialist Community (BSG). Her political course reflected the interests of the middle strata of society, who were interested in carrying out democratic reforms. On March 25, the BSG Conference spoke in support of the Provisional Government, identified itself with the slogan of “revolutionary defense”, put forward the demand for autonomy of Belarus as part of the Federal Russian Republic, and spoke out for public ownership of land, transferring it for use in accordance with labor standards.

Since July 1917, Belarusian national forces have intensified in Belarus, which, at the initiative of the Belarusian Socialist community, held the II Congress of Belarusian national organizations and decided to seek autonomy for Belarus as part of a democratic republican Russia. The Central Council was formed at the congress, which after October 1917 was transformed into the Great Belarusian Rada.

In November 1917, Minsk hosted congresses of Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies of the Western Region , III Congress of Peasant Deputies of the Minsk and Vilnius Provinces and II Congress of Armies of the Western Front , they created the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers, Soldiers 'and Peasants' Deputies of the Western Region and Front (Oblispolkomzap) and the Council of People's Commissars of the Western Region.

The Great Belarusian Council did not recognize the authorities of Obliskomzap, which it considered to be an exclusively front-line body.

December 7 (20), 1917, the First All-Belarusian Congress began . The Congress declared that all power was transferred to the Executive Committee, after which the Bolsheviks refused to participate and the Congress was dispersed by them by decision of the SNK of the Western Region .

1918

After the occupation of Minsk by German troops, Obliskzap was evacuated to Smolensk , which became the center of the Western region, to which Smolensk province of the Moscow region was transferred in April 1918.

On February 21, 1918, the Executive Committee of the All-Belarusian Congress addressed the people of Belarus with a charter, in which he declared himself temporary authority on the territory of Belarus. Prior to the opening of the All-Belarusian Constituent Assembly, the functions of the new government were entrusted to the People's Secretariat formed by the Executive Committee, whose leader was one of the leaders of the Belarusian Socialist Community Joseph Voronko .

On March 3, 1918, a peace treaty was signed in Brest-Litovsk , according to which, in addition to the territory of Western Belarus , which had been under occupation since 1915, most of the rest of the Belarusian ethnic territory was transferred under German control. On March 25, 1918, the Byelorussian People's Republic was proclaimed in the occupied territory.

Under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, Germany recognized "the independence of all territories that were part of the former Russian Empire by August 1, 1914", Germany recognized the independence of Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, but not Belarus. After the departure of German troops, the Red Army occupied most of the territory of Belarus , which was also claimed by the newly formed Poland , which led in the spring and summer of 1919 to the formation of the Soviet-Polish front .

“Down with the shameful Riga section! Let the free indivisible peasant Belarus live! ”,
Belarusian caricature, 1921

At the direction of V.I. Lenin , on January 1, 1919, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus (SSRB) was proclaimed in Smolensk as part of the RSFSR. On January 8, the capital of the SSRB was moved to Minsk (occupied without a fight by the Red Army on December 10, 1918). On January 31, 1919, the republic withdrew from the RSFSR and was renamed the Byelorussian Socialist Soviet Republic ; on February 3, 1919, the Constitution was adopted.

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 Belarus merged with the Lithuanian Soviet Republic into the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel). In March 1919, the troops of the Lithuanian Tariba , supported by the German occupation garrisons, began military operations in Lithuania. As a result of the Polish offensive in the spring and summer of 1919, Litbel was occupied by Polish troops and virtually ceased to exist on July 19, 1919.

After the occupation of a significant part of the territory of Belarus by the Red Army on July 31, 1920, the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic was again proclaimed in Minsk, renamed the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) after the creation of the USSR in 1922. Under the terms of the Riga Treaty , which was concluded without the participation of the BSSR, Western Belarus withdrew to Poland . The actions of partisan detachments in Western Belarus continued until 1925.

Literature

Kakurin N.E., Vatsetis I.I. Civil war. 1918-1921 / Ed. A. S. Bubnova, S. S. Kamenev, M. N. Tukhachevsky and others. - St. Petersburg, 2002.
Bogdanovich, E. G. The concept of autonomy in the socio-political movement of Belarus (March-October 1917) / E. G. Bogdanovich // Humanitarian-ekanamichny spring. - 1996. - No. 1. - S. 9-15.
Zhylunovich, Z. Z'ezd of the Belarusian natsyyanalnyh arganisatsy 25 sakavika 1917 // Polymya. - 1925. - No. 6. - S.
Ignatenko, I.M. The February bourgeois-democratic revolution in Belarus. - Mn., 1986. - S. 222-236.
Ladyseў, U. F. On the peral of epochs: the formerly Belarusian Belarus dzyarzhnaststsy (1917-1920) / U. F. Ladyse П. , P.I. Brygadzin . - Minsk: BDU, 1999 .-- 128 p.
Pratakol at the end of the Belarusian national arganization at Minsk 25–27 March 1917 // Spadchina. - 1990. - No. 4.
Syamenchyk, M. Ya.] Gramadska-palіtychna zhytstse і Minsk (sakavіk-krasavіk 1917): Vucheb. dapam. pa course "Gistoryya Belarus" / M. Ya. Syamenchyk; Belarus jarz. ped un-t - Minsk, 1994 .-- 112 p.
Shybek, Z. Narys gіstoryі Belarusі (1795-2002) / Z. Shybek. - Minsk: Enceklapedyks, 2003 .-- 490 p.

Links

October start. How the October Revolution influenced the formation of Belarusian statehood (Neopr.) (November 3, 2017). Date of treatment April 6, 2019.