{"id":420965,"date":"2018-09-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/?page_id=420965"},"modified":"2018-09-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T00:00:00","slug":"the-formation-of-belarusian-statehood-in-1918-1920s-chronology-of-events","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/welcome-to-the-archives-of-belarus-website\/subject-guides-to-archival-records\/historical-events\/archival-documents-and-materials-5\/the-formation-of-belarusian-statehood-in-1918-1920s-chronology-of-events","title":{"rendered":"The formation of Belarusian statehood in 1918-1920s: Chronology of events"},"content":{"rendered":"Background and Overview<\/font>

\r\n

The First World War, the February and October Revolutions in Russia in 1917, disintegration of the Russian Empire and appearance of independent \r\nstates adjacent to Belarus \u2013 all these events drastically changed the political \r\nmap of Eastern Europe and directly affected its part now known as a sovereign \r\nstate of the Republic of Belarus. The processes that took place in this area at \r\nthat time led to the formation of Belarusian \r\nstatehood in both political and territorial aspects.\r\n

The February Revolution of 1917 powered the emergence of \r\nmany Belarusian cultural and educational organizations as well as political \r\ninstitutions aiming to discuss the future status of Belarus. Representatives of \r\npolitical forces active in conditions of the dual power of the \r\nProvisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers \r\nDeputies supported different views on the national question, including the right of nations for self-determination. The Cadet Party did not recognize \r\nthe right of the Belarusians for national and cultural autonomy; the Socialist-Revolutionaries (SRs) supported the right for the regional autonomy of nations, \r\nleaving the final decision for the future All-Russian Constituent Assembly; the \r\nBolsheviks, particularly the North-Western organization of the Russian Social \r\nDemocratic Workers Party (Bolshevik) RSDRP(B) in Belarus did not \r\nfinalize their attitude to the Belarusian nation-state idea. \r\n

Most Belarusian organizations initially gave \r\npriority to the idea of the Belarusian autonomy as part of democratic Russia. \r\nThis idea was pronounced at the Congress of Belarusian National Organizations in \r\nMinsk. As a coordination center of Belarusian national movement, the Congress \r\nelected the Belarusian National Committee and its delegation to the Provisional \r\nGovernment to discuss the foundation of Belarusian \r\nautonomy as part of the Russian Federative Republic and to prepare elections to \r\nthe Belarusian Regional Council (Rada). The Provisional Government however did \r\nnot support the idea of the autonomy of Belarus.\r\n

The Great Belarusian Council (Rada), which was established later, also aimed at \r\nthe autonomy of Belarus within the Russian Democratic Federative Republic. The \r\nCouncil was regarded as the first highest organ of state power in autonomous \r\nBelarus. The autonomy of Belarus was also supported by the Congress of Belarusian \r\nSoldiers of Western Front with the participation of \r\nrepresentatives from other fronts and the Baltic Fleet.\r\n

Soon after the October Revolution in Petrograd the Council of People’s \r\nCommissars headed by V. Lenin adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the \r\nPeoples of Russia which announced the equality and sovereignty of the peoples \r\nand their right for self-determination and foundation of independent \r\nstates. But at the same time the Soviet governmental body in Belarus \u2013 the Regional \r\nExecutive Committee of the Soviet of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants Deputies of \r\nWestern Front (Obliskomzap) and its executive organ \u2013 the Council of \r\nPeople’s Commissars (SNK) of Western Region and Front did not \r\nsupport the right of the Belarusian people for self-determination \r\nand nation-state formation.\r\n

At the end of November in Petrograd the All-Russian Soviet of Peasants \r\nDeputies created the Belarusian Regional Committee. The Committee supported the \r\nautonomy of Belarus as part of the Russian Federative Republic.

The Great \r\nBelarusian Council and the Belarusian Regional Committee initiated the \r\norganization of the All-Belarusian Congress in Minsk, which adopted a \r\nresolution on the right of the Belarusian people for self-determination and democratic government and worked out the concept of \r\nBelarusian statehood. This concept stipulated the creation of the All-Belarusian \r\nCouncil of Peasants, Soldiers and Workers Deputies bound to convene the \r\nBelarusian Constituent Assembly in order to determine the state and political status of \r\nBelarus and to create the legitimate organs of power. Actually this meant the \r\nSoviet forms of Belarusian statehood. This however contradicted the Obliskomzap’s monopoly \r\nfor power, and the All-Belarusian Congress was disbanded by the armed \r\nsoldiers commanded by the Council of People’s Commissars of Western Region and Front.\u00a0\r\n

* * *<\/font>\r\n

Following the German occupation of most of Belarus in \r\nFebruary 1918, fixed by the Treaty of Brest in March 1918 (a peace treaty between \r\nSoviet Russia and Germany and her allies), the center of Western Region \r\nmoved from Minsk to Smolensk. By the resolution of the Second Congress of \r\nSoviets of Western Region, held in April 1918, \r\nSmolensk Province came into Western Region. \r\n

After the Council of People’s Commissars of Western Region and Front and Obliskomzap \r\nabandoned \r\nMinsk on 19 February 1918, the Executive Committee of the Council \r\n(Rada) of the All-Belarusian Congress resumed its work and, before convening the \r\nConstituent Assembly, announced itself a high authority in Belarus and created the \r\ngovernment \u2013 the National Secretariat of Belarus headed by I. Voronko. On\u00a0 \r\n9 March 1918 the Executive Committee declared the Belarusian National \r\n(People’s\/Democratic) Republic (BNR)<\/strong>. On 18 March 1918 the Council of \r\nthe All-Belarusian Congress was renamed as the Council of the BNR. On 25 March 1918 \r\nin Minsk the Council of the BNR adopted the Third Constituent Charter – the act \r\nof declaration of independence of the Belarusian National Republic. \r\n

According to the Treaty of Brest the German authorities regarded Belarus as \r\npart of Russia. They refused all appeals by the Council of the BNR for recognition \r\nof state sovereignty. They banned the formation of Belarusian armed units \r\nand did not accept the National Secretariat as the government, though\u00a0 supported \r\nits activity as a representation of the Belarusian people (particularly in \r\nthe formation of local self-government and in the sphere of\u00a0 trade, industry, \r\nsocial care, school education and publishing). The German command consented to the formation of groups of Belarusian counselors at the district commandant’s \r\noffices. Nevertheless the Belarusian National Republic did not have its own system of local bodies and could not \r\nexercise jurisdiction in the area where it was declared.\r\n

The Soviet government rejected the declaration of the Belarusian National \r\nRepublic, announcing it as a counter-revolutionary action of the enemies of Soviet power.\r\n

In February 1918 the Belarusian National Commissariat (Belnatskom) \u2013 \r\na division of the People’s Commissariat of Nationalities of the Russian \r\nSocialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) began its activity\u00a0in \r\nPetrograd pursuant to the \r\nDecree of the Council of People’s Commissars of RSFSR. From March 1918 it \r\nwas quartered in Moscow. From its\u00a0foundation until May 1918 the \r\nCommissar of the Belnatskom was A. Chervyakov. The Commissariat conducted \r\npolitical, cultural and educational work among the Belarusians in the area of \r\nSoviet Russia, took account of the Belarusian organizations\u00a0evacuated in the First World War, opened Belarusian schools and clubs, \r\npublished “Dzyannitsa” \u2013 the first Soviet newspaper in the Belarusian language. \r\nThe Commissariat convened the All-Russian Congress of Refugees from Belarus, \r\nwho numbered hundreds of thousands. The Commissariat collaborated with the \r\nBelarusian sections of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) RKP(b). In the \r\nnewspaper \u00abDzyannitsa\u00bb the Belarusian sections of the RKP(b) together with the Commissariat \r\nrepeatedly put a question of the rights of the Belarusian people for \r\nself-determination. They defended this position in polemics with members of the RKP(b) \r\nNorth-Western Regional Committee and Obliskomzap (A. Myasnikov, V. Knorin), who \r\ndisapproved the idea of Belarusian sovereignty and thought of national \r\ninterests as subordinate to class interests. In September 1918 the \r\nCommissariat, on the proposal of the RKP(b) Belarusian sections, developed a \r\nproject for renaming the Western Region into the Belarusian-Lithuanian Commune. \r\nHowever the RKP(b) North-Western Regional Committee refused the proposal and \r\nrenamed\u00a0 the Western Region as the Western Commune.\r\n

In April 1918 the Council of the BNR sent a telegram to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany \r\nthanking for liberation from Russian rule and asking to support the BNR. \r\nThis step resulted in a serious crisis.\r\n

The Russian Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Jewish Socialists \r\nabandoned the Council of the BNR.\r\n

Belarusian national activists had different views about which side to support in \r\nmatters of building the Belarusian state. As a result, the Belarusian Socialist \r\nGromada \r\nParty (BSG) split into three parties with different political platforms. The \r\nBelarusian Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries supported full \r\nself-determination of the Belarusian people, opposed the Bolsheviks, did \r\nnot later recognize the socialist soviet states in the area of Belarus, and opposed \r\nthe annexation of Belarusian territory by Poland and the Russian SFSR.\u00a0The Belarusian \r\nParty of Socialist-Federalists supported the declaration of independence of the \r\nBNR, at the same time supported “the concept of the worldwide federation” \r\n(integration on a world scale) and simultaneous solution of national and social \r\nproblems, opposed the Bolsheviks, also later did not recognize the socialist \r\nsoviet states in the area of Belarus, opposed the Polish authorities, \r\nlater refu<\/span>sed “the federalist\u00a0concept” and supported the idea of \r\nthe restoration of full independence and indivisibility of the BNR in \r\nethnographic borders of the Belarusians. The Belarusian Social Democratic Party \r\nheld the Marxist positions, regarding the transition to Socialism possible in a highly developed country only, \r\nsupported the independence of Belarus as a \r\ndemocratic republic, and believed that Socialism aimed to culture national \r\nhabits but not to eradicate them. \r\n

The representatives of the left wing of the Belarusian Socialist Gromada \r\nParty participated in the Belarusian National Commissariat, joined the Belarusian RKP(b) \r\nsections, and later entered the first Soviet government.\r\n

In the German-occupied territory of Belarus, the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries \r\norganized the partisan movement, especially \r\nin the southern districts. There were over 100 partisan detachments, with the \r\nlargest\u00a0numbering several hundred men. The RKP(b) North-Western \r\nRegional Committee developed a plan for partisan actions in the rear of \r\nGerman troops. The Minsk District Conference of the Bolshevik Party, held \r\nunderground in July 1918, announced an armed uprising in the \r\noccupied territory as a major task to restore the Soviet power.\u00a0 \r\n

In November 1918, following the defeat of the Austrian-German block in the \r\nFirst World War and the Revolution in Germany, the Peace Treaty of Brest was \r\nannulled and the Soviet troops began to occupy the territory of Belarus after the \r\nwithdrawal of German troops. The Council of the BNR, which had moved from Minsk to \r\nGrodno, attempted to organize the military formations. Practically in the \r\nconditions of the occupation, they managed to create only several units with no \r\nsignificant military force. The leading circles of the Polish State, reestablished in \r\nNovember 1918, pursued a policy of the restoration of the Polish Commonwealth \r\nin the borders that existed in 1772 \u2013 that is, before its partitions (the prevailing position was to \r\ncreate unitary Poland but not the confederation of Poland, Belarus, Lithuania and \r\nUkraine).\r\n

On 25 December 1918 the extraordinary meeting of the Belarusian National \r\nCommittee, the Central Bureau of RKP(b) Belarusian Sections and the \r\nCommittee of RKP(b) Belarusian Section in Moscow defined a list of candidates \r\nto the Provisional Government of the Belarusian Soviet Republic \r\nheaded by its Chairman D. Zhilunovich.

On 27 December 1918 there were issued \r\nthe Decree of the People’s Commissariat of Nationalities of RSFSR specifying the \r\nbasic principles of the party and state building in Belarus and the Manifesto of \r\nthe Provisional Workers-Peasants Soviet Government of Belarus. On 30-31 \r\nDecember 1918 in Smolensk the Sixth RKP(b) North-Western Regional Conference \r\nannounced itself the First Congress of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of \r\nBelarus KP(b)B. One of the main questions at the Congress was the \r\nBelarusian statehood. The Western Commune was declared as an independent \r\nBelarusian Soviet Republic. <\/strong>The area of the \r\nBelarusian Republic was announced to include the provinces of Minsk, Smolensk, Mogilev, Vitebsk and Grodno and part of adjacent ethnic \r\nlocalities in the bordering provinces \r\npopulated predominantly by the Belarusians.\r\n

* * *<\/font>\r\n

On 1 January 1919 the Provisional Workers-Peasants Soviet Government of Belarus was finally \r\nformed\u00a0 (included seven members of Belnatskom and \r\nRKP(b) Belarusian sections and nine members of Obliskomzap) and on the \r\nsame day the Government proclaimed by radio the Manifesto announcing that the \r\nwhole power in Belarus belonged to the Soviet of Workers, Peasants and Red Army \r\nSoldiers Deputies. The Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus (SSRB,\r\n<\/strong>later the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, BSSR)<\/strong> \r\nwas separated from\u00a0the Russian SFSR. The Council and Government of the BNR were \r\nannounced illegal.\r\n

On 3 January the Obliskomzap made a decision on voluntary dissolution. The \r\ngovernment of the SSRB moved from Smolensk to Minsk. A. Myasnikov became Chairman of \r\nthe Central Bureau of the KP(b)B and from 21 January headed the \r\nMilitary-Revolutionary Council of the SSRB.\r\n

The Belarusian statehood on Soviet basis was not recognized by most of the national parties: neither Belarusian Party of \r\nSocialist-Revolutionaries, nor Belarusian Party of Socialist-Federalists or \r\nBelarusian Social-Democratic Party, as they believed the proclaimed republic could \r\nnot be sufficiently independent.

Without preliminary consultations with \r\nBelarusian representatives on 16 January 1919 the plenary session of the TsK \r\nRKP(b) heard the question on Belarus. The plenum took a decision to exclude the \r\nprovinces of Vitebsk, Smolensk and Mogilev from the Republic and leave only the \r\nprovinces of Minsk and \r\nGrodno. The plenum also assigned the Congress of Soviets of Belarus to pass a resolution on \r\nthe unification with Soviet Lithuania. This decision was not supported by the \r\nmajority of the Soviet Government of Belarus. Their repeated appeals to the\u00a0TsK RKP(b) \r\nto cancel this decision were however rejected.\u00a0\r\n

The First All-Belarusian Congress of Soviets, held on 2-3 February 1919, \r\nagreed to separate the provinces of Vitebsk, Mogilev and Smolensk from the \r\nBelarusian Republic \r\nand to include them in the Russian SFSR, and announced the Belarusian Republic \r\nto include the provinces of\u00a0Minsk and Grodno. Also, by the \r\nproposal of Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) and \r\nSecretary of the TsK RKP(b) Ya. Sverdlov, the Congress passed a declaration on \r\nthe unification of the Soviet Socialist Republics of Belarus and Lithuania into \r\none state in order to warn “against the danger of national chauvinistic \r\ntrends to appear in them”. In reality, however, with the military danger increasing from \r\nthe side of Poland it was necessary to create a buffer state to separate the \r\nRussian SFSR from the Polish Republic. On 20 February the declaration for the \r\nunification of the two soviet republics was passed at the Congress of Soviets in \r\nLithuania.\r\n

On 27 February in Vilnius the united session of the TsIK of the Lithuanian \r\nand Belarusian Republics adopted a resolution on the unification of Lithuania \r\nand Belarus and elected a united government \u2013 the Council of People’s Commissars \r\nheaded by V. Mitskyavichus-Kapsukas with a small representation of Belarusian \r\nmembers. On 2 March the Council of People’s Commissars approved the official \r\nname of the new state: the Socialist Soviet Republic of \r\nLithuania and Belarus (SSRLiB, LitBel) <\/strong>with the capital in Vilnius. The \r\nRepublic included the provinces of Minsk, Grodno, Vilnius and Kaunas and part of \r\nSuvalkija Province. On 4-6 March 1919 the United Congress of the KP(b) of \r\nBelarus and the KP(b) of Lithuania and Western Belarus took place in Vilnius.

\r\nThe government of the LitBel saw its major task in strengthening the Soviet power on \r\nall levels, defending the area from foreign threats, firstly from the \r\nside of Poland, and restoring the national economy. The power of the LitBel government was \r\nhowever limited and all important decisions were taken by the TsK \r\nRKP(b).\u00a0\r\n

Already at the end of February 1919 the Polish troops began their advance on \r\nthe territory of the LitBel. On 21 April they took Vilnius. On \r\n19 April the Council of People’s Commissars of the LitBel resolved to give full \r\nauthority to the Council of Defence. By its initiative on 1 June the VTsIK of \r\nthe RSFSR \r\npassed a resolution on the military union of the Soviet Republics of Russia, \r\nUkraine, Lithuania and Belarus. The military command and administration of \r\neconomics, railroads and finance went to the Russian SFSR. But the situation on \r\nthe Western Front did not improve. By mid-summer the Polish troops occupied the \r\nmajor part of the LitBel, and on 8 August they entered Minsk.\r\n

Actually the LitBel as a state formation ceased to exist, though legal \r\ndocuments on its liquidation were not issued. In the area unoccupied by Polish \r\ntroops, the highest authority was the Minsk Province Military-Revolutionary \r\nCommittee, though at the end of August it also stopped its activity. The \r\nunoccupied area of the LitBel joined the Russian SFSR.\r\n

The Head of the Polish State J. Pilsudski in April 1919 made an appeal \r\n“To the residents of the former Great Duchy of Lithuania”, in which he promised \r\nthe solution of their national problems. His so-called federalist conception \r\npurported the formation of independent Belarusian state, as well as \r\nLithuanian and Ukrainian states, subordinate to Poland. This \r\nactually concealed their intention to join Belarusian lands to the Polish state.\u00a0 \r\n

The discontent with this policy was expressed by the Belarusian \r\nSocialist-Revolutionaries at the Belarusian Congress of Vilnius and Grodno \r\nRegions held \r\nin Vilnius in June 1919, which supported the formation of the \r\nBelarusian-Lithuanian state within the borders of the former Great Duchy of \r\nLithuania.\r\n

The advance of the Polish troops was stopped only in October-November 1919 on \r\nthe line of the river Western Dvina \u2013 Polotsk \u2013 Lepel \u2013 Borisov \u2013 down the river \r\nBerezina to Bobruisk \u2013 down the river Ptich to Mozyr. A temporary truce was \r\nsigned. \r\n

The government of the Russian SFSR in the autumn of 1919 proposed to give to \r\nPoland the territory to the river Berezina. But received no positive answer. The \r\nPolish troops prepared for the new advance.\u00a0\r\n

On 13 December 1919 the Council of the Belarusian National Republic split \r\ninto the Highest Council of the BNR and the National Council of the BNR \u2013 \r\nrespectively, the supporters of \r\ncollaboration with the Polish authorities (Ya. Lyosik, A. Lutskevich) and \r\nthose who supported the full independence of Belarus (P. Krechevsky, V. \r\nLastovsky).\r\n\r\n

* * *<\/font>\r\n

In the beginning of March 1920 the Polish troops began military operations in Polesye Region \r\nand seized Mozyr, Kalinkovichi and Rechitsa. In May they planned to capture \r\nZhlobin and Mogilev. In May the Red Army conducted an unsuccessful offensive and in July \r\nresumed an attack. On 11 July the Soviet troops liberated Minsk.\u00a0\r\n

On 12 July in Moscow the Russian SFSR and Lithuania concluded a peace treaty, \r\nwhich recognized the right of Lithuania for the town of Vilnius, Vilnius \r\nRegion, and Belarusian ethnic territories with the towns of Grodno, Shchuchin, \r\nOshmyany, Smorgon and Lida. \r\n

On 31 July 1920 the Minsk Province Military-Revolutionary \r\nCommittee and representatives of the Party and Soviet bodies adopted the \r\nDeclaration of the Independence of the Socialist Soviet Republic of \r\nBelarus<\/strong> (the second proclamation of the SSRB, later BSSR). The SSRB was \r\nrestored only within the borders of six districts of Minsk Province.\r\n

In August the Red Army launched an attack towards Warsaw, which ended in defeat. The \r\nPolish troops assumed an offensive and again seized a large area.\r\n

On 17 August 1920 the peace negotiations began in Minsk and later moved to \r\nRiga. The head of the BNR government V. Lastovsky sent a note to the People’s \r\nCommissar of Foreign Affairs of RSFSR G. Chicherin demanding that \r\nrepresentatives of the BNR \r\ngovernment participate in the negotiations. On 10 September the \r\nMilitary-Revolutionary Committee of the Belarusian Republic authorized the Russian government to \r\nhold negotiations with Poland. \r\n

The representatives of Soviet Belarus came to Riga; the head of the \r\ndelegation A. Chervyakov questioned their admission to negotiate before the head of the \r\nRussian delegation A. Ioffe but received refusal. The delegation of the BNR was \r\nalso not allowed to participate. Therefore, neither SSRB nor BNR representatives \r\nparticipated in the talks, because both Poland and the Entente as well as \r\nthe Russian SFSR were not interested in this. \r\n

In October 1920 in accordance with the Polish-Lithuanian agreement, the \r\nVilnius Region was recognized as part of Lithuania. The \r\n“revolt” of the First Lithuanian-Belarusian Division of the Polish Army led by \r\nGeneral L. Zheligovsky and inspired by the Chief of the Polish Republic J. \r\nPilsudski, interested in the inclusion of Vilnius to Poland, resulted in the \r\ncreation in this area of the \r\nPolish puppet state of Middle Lithuania with the \r\ncapital in Vilnius. In February 1922 Middle Lithuania entered the Polish \r\nRepublic.\r\n

On 12 October 1920 a preliminary peace agreement was signed, which confirmed the \r\nindependence of Ukraine and Belarus. Combat operations however continued \r\nand on 15 October the Polish troops captured Minsk and on 17 October abandoned \r\nthe city.\r\n

The Conference of Socialist-Revolutionaries, Social-Democrats and \r\nSocialist-Federalists took place in October. Its delegates demanded to review \r\nthe preliminary peace agreement, to fix the borderline with Poland and \r\nRussia on ethnographic principle, to withdraw Polish and Russian \r\ntroops from\u00a0the Belarusian ethnographic territory and to petition the Socialists \r\nof Poland, Russia and the whole world to support their requirements.\r\n

In November 1920 General S. Bulak-Balakhovich, supported by J. \r\nPilsudski and the Russian Political Committee in Poland, undertook a large \r\nmilitary operation to seize territories along the river Pripyat and captured the \r\ntowns of Petrikov and Kalinkovichi.\u00a0 Bulak-Balakhovich announced \r\nhimself\u00a0 “Chief of the Belarusian State”, declared its independence and \r\noverthrow of the governments of the SSRB and the BNR. The Red Army responded with \r\nan offensive and Bulak-Balakhovich’s units retreated behind the demarcation \r\nline between the Soviet and Polish troops. \r\n

In November \u2013 December 1920 the Socialist-Revolutionaries supported by \r\nintelligentsia and peasants organized an \r\nanti-Soviet rebellion in Slutsk District under the slogan of the restoration of an independent Belarusian \r\nNational Republic. The Belarusian Council of Slutsk was established as a \r\nprovisional government of the BNR. The Slutsk Brigade of \r\nfour thousand men was defeated by ten-thousand Red Army troops.\r\n

* * *<\/font>\r\n

On 18 March 1921 a peace treaty was signed in Riga between the Russian SFSR (the \r\npreamble stated that the Russian government signed “for itself and on \r\nbehalf of the Belarusian SSR”) and the Ukrainian SSR on the one hand and \r\nPoland on the other, according to which Western Belarus became \r\npart of Poland. <\/p>\r\n

In December 1922 the Belarusian Republic joined a new state \u2013 the Union of Soviet Socialist \r\nRepublics (USSR).\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n

The formation of the Republic’s territory was not then finished. In March 1924, \r\nduring the so-called first enlargement, the \r\nRepublic returned its districts in Vitebsk, Gomel and Smolensk provinces with \r\nthe Belarusian majority. In December 1927 the \r\nsecond enlargement took place \u2013 when Rechitsa and Gomel districts were returned. <\/p>\r\n

In April 1927, by the resolution of the Eighth All-Belarusian Congress of \r\nSoviets of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Soldiers Deputies, the Socialist \r\nSoviet Republic of Belarus (SSRB) was renamed the Belarusian Soviet \r\nSocialist Republic (BSSR)<\/strong>. <\/p>\r\n

On 17 September 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War and following the conclusion of an agreement between the \r\nUSSR and Germany (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 23 \r\nAugust 1939) the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Polish border and occupied the area \r\nof Western Belarus, Vilnius City and Region. <\/p>\r\n

On 10 October 1939 the Lithuanian Republic and the USSR signed an agreement which stipulated the transfer of Vilnius \r\nCity and Region to Lithuania and established favorable, for the Soviet leadership, \r\nconditions for the military cooperation between these states. <\/p>\r\n

In October 1939 in Bialystok the People’s Assembly of Western Belarus \r\nadopted the Declaration announcing the Soviet power and reunification of \r\nWestern Belarus with the Belarusian SSR, which came into effect by laws passed in \r\nNovember at the third extraordinary session of the Supreme Council of the BSSR. <\/p>\r\n

<\/p>
\r\n

Chronological list of main events<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\r\n\r\n

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