TheCommunist Party of Western Belorussia (Polish:Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Białorusi, KPZB;Belarusian:Камуністычная партыя Заходняй Беларусі, КПЗБ,romanized: Kamunistyčnaja partyja Zachodniaj Bielarusi, KPZB) was a banned political party in theInterwar Poland,[1] active in the territory of present-dayWest Belarus from 1923 until 1939; inPolesie (1932–1933)Słonim county (1934) andVilnius.[2]
The party was founded in 1923 inWilno by representatives of the Belarusian communist circles from Wilno,Białystok andBrest with logistical help from theBolsheviks. Although its name, the Communist Party of Western Belarus, could suggest a desire for independence of Belarus, wrote historian Sergiusz Łukasiewicz, in reality the party aimed for the transfer of eastern provinces of Poland to the Soviet Union. As this constituted high treason, the party was illegalized by the Polish authorities.[2]
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The party's political program included asocialist revolution in Poland and unification ofWestern Belorussia with theBelarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR. The party worked undercover; in 1925-1927 it masked its illegal activities under the legalBelarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union in Poland. It received support from theSoviet Union with leadership brought in secretly from across the border (seeVera Kharuzhaya).[2]
In 1938, following a decision by theComintern on the orders of Joseph Stalin, the KPZB along with theCommunist Party of Poland and theCommunist Party of Western Ukraine were delegalized by the USSR under the charge of affiliation with the Polishbourgeoisie.[2][4] Following theSoviet invasion of Poland and the annexation of Western Belarus to the Soviet Union in 1939, many former members of the KPZB joined theCommunist Party of Byelorussia, the East Belarusian branch of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union following the dissolution of the party.[2][4]
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