Western Belarus | |
|---|---|
 Administrative division of the Byelorussian SSR (green) before World War II with territories annexed by the USSR from Poland in 1939 (marked in shades of orange), overlaid with territory of present-day Belarus | |
 Western Belorussia in 1925 shown in dark green and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic shown in light green | |
| Country | Belarus, partly inPoland andLithuania |
| Area | Historical region |
| Today part of | Grodno,Brest,Minsk (partially) andVitsebsk (partially);Podlaskie Voivodeship (partially), SoutheasternLithuania includingVilnius |
Western Belorussia orWestern Belarus (Belarusian:Заходняя Беларусь,romanized: Zachodniaja Biełaruś;Polish:Zachodnia Białoruś;Russian:Западная Белоруссия,romanized: Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is ahistorical region of modern-dayBelarus which belonged to theSecond Polish Republic during theinterwar period. For twenty years before the 1939invasion of Poland, it was the northern part of the PolishKresymacroregion.[1] Following theend of World War II in Europe, most of Western Belorussia was ceded to theSoviet Union by theAllies, while some of it, includingBiałystok, was given to thePolish People's Republic. Until thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Western Belorussia formed the western part of theByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Today, it constitutes the west of modern Belarus.[2]
Created by the USSR after theconquest of Poland, the new western provinces of Byelorussian SSR acquired from Poland includedBaranavichy,Belastok,Brest,Vileyka and thePinsk Regions.[3] The majority of Belastok Region was returned to Poland and the rest of the regions were reorganized one more time after theSoviet liberation of Belarus into the contemporary western provinces of Belarus which include all ofGrodno andBrestregions, as well as parts of today'sMinsk andVitebsk regions.Vilnius[4][5] was returned by the USSR to theRepublic of Lithuania which soon after that became theLithuanian SSR.[6]
The territories of contemporary Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic states were amajor theatre of operations duringWorld War I; all the while, theBolshevik Coup overturned the interimRussian Provisional Government and formedSoviet Russia. The Bolsheviks withdrew from the war with theCentral Powers by signing theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk,[7] and ceded Belarus to Germany for the next eight and a half months.[citation needed] The German high command used this window of opportunity to transfer its troops to theWestern Front for the 1918Spring Offensive, leaving behind apower vacuum.[8] The non-Russians inhabiting the lands ceded by the Soviets to theGerman Empire, saw the treaty as an opportunity to set up independent states under the German umbrella. Three weeks after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March 1918, the newly formed Belarusian Central Council founded theBelarusian People's Republic. The idea was rejected by the Germans, theBolsheviks and the Americans.Woodrow Wilson rejected it, because the Americans intended to protect theterritorial integrity ofEuropean Russia.[7]
The fate of the region was not settled for the following three and a half years. ThePolish–Soviet War which erupted in 1919, was particularly bitter; it ended with thePeace of Riga of 1921.[1] Poland and theBaltic states emerged as independent countries bordering theUSSR. The territory of modern-day Belarus was split by the treaty into Western Belorussia ruled by the Polish and the SovietEastern Belorussia, with the border town inMikaszewicze.[9][10] Notably, the peace treaty was signed with the full active participation of the Belarusian delegation on the Soviet side.[11] In paragraph 3, Poland abandoned all rights and claims to the territories of Soviet Belarus, while Soviet Russia abandoned all rights and claims to Polish Western Belarus.[11]
As soon as the Soviet-German peace treaty was signed in March 1918, the newly formedRada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic laid territorial claims to Belarus based on areas specified in the Third Constituent Charter unilaterally as inhabited by the Belarusian majority.[citation needed] The same Rada charter also declared that the Treaty of Brest-Litowsk of March 1918 was invalid because it was signed by foreign governments partitioning territories that were not theirs.[12]
In February 1919, a jointLithuanian Belorussian Soviet Republic (Litbel) was established, and then a separateByelorussian SSR. Thus, the almost unsolicited national state, which arose during the First World War, owed its existence directly to the alternative German, Russian and Polish attempts to secure control over the area. — Tania Raffass[13]
In the Second Constituent Charter, the Rada abolished the right to private ownership of land (paragraph 7) in line withthe Communist Manifesto.[12] Meanwhile, by 1919, the Bolsheviks took control over large parts of Belarus and forced the Belarusian Rada into exile in Germany. The Bolsheviks formed theSocialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia during the war with Poland on roughly the same territory claimed by the Belarusian Republic.[14]
TheLeague of Nations ratified the new Polish-Soviet border.[1] The peace agreement remained in place throughout the interwar period. The borders established between the two countries remained in force untilWorld War II and the17 September 1939Soviet invasion of Poland. OnJoseph Stalin's insistence, the borders were redrawn in theYalta andPotsdam Conferences.[1]
"Despite Soviet efforts at sealing the border [with Poland], peasants – refugees from the BSSR – crossed into Poland in the tens of thousands, wrotePer Anders Rudling.[15] According to thePolish census of 1921, there were around 1 million Belarusians in the country. Some estimated the number of Belarusians in Poland at that time to be perhaps 1.7 million,[16] or even up to2 million.[17] Following the Peace of Riga,thousands of Poles settled in the area, many of them (including veterans of armed struggle for Poland's independence) were given land by the government.[18]
In his negotiations with Belarusian leaders in Vilnius,Józef Piłsudski rejected the call for Western Belorussian independence. In December 1919 the Rada was dissolved by Poland, while by early January 1920 a new body was formed, theRada Najwyższa, without aspirations for independence, but with proposed cultural, social and educational functions.[19] Józef Piłsudski negotiated with the Western Belorussian leadership,[20] but eventually abandoned the ideas ofIntermarium, his own proposed federation of partially self-governing states on the lands of the formerPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[21]
In the1922 Polish legislative election, the Belarusian party in theBloc of National Minorities obtained 14 seats in thePolish parliament (11 of them in theSejm).[22] In the spring of 1923, Polishprime ministerWładysław Sikorski ordered a report on the situation of theBelarusian minority in Poland. That summer, a new regulation was passed allowing for theBelarusian language to officially be used in courts and schools. Obligatory teaching of the Belarusian language was introduced in all Polishgymnasia in areas inhabited by Belarusians in 1927.[22]
The Belarusian population of West Belarus faced activePolonization by the central Polish authorities. The policy pressured Belarusian schooling, discriminated against the Belarusian language, and imposed the Polish national identity onRoman Catholics in Belarus.
In January 1921, thestarosta fromWilejka wrote of the popular mood as being one of resignation and apathy among the Western Belorussianpeasants, impoverished by food requisitions by the Bolsheviks and thePolish military. He insisted that, although the new Belarusian schools were 'springing up everywhere' in his county, they harbored anti-Polish attitudes.[23]
In 1928 there were 69 schools with Belarusian language in Western Belorussia; the attendance was minimal due in part to lower quality of instruction.[24] The first-evertextbook of Belarusian grammar was written only around 1918.[25] In 1939, over 90% of children in Poland attended school.[26] As elsewhere, the educational systems promoted Polish language there also.[27] Meanwhile, the Belarusian agitators deported to the USSR from Poland were put in prison by the SovietNKVD asbourgeois nationalists.[28]
Most Polish inhabitants of the region supported the policy ofcultural assimilation of Belarusians as proposed byDmowski.[29] The polonization drive was inspired and influenced by Dmowski's PolishNational Democracy, who advocated refusing Belarusians and Ukrainians the right of free national development.[30]Władysław Studnicki, an influential Polish official, stated that Poland's engagement in the East amounts to a much needed economiccolonization.[31]Belarusian nationalist media was pressured andcensored by the Polish authorities.[32]
Belarusians were divided along religious lines with roughly 70% being Orthodox and 30% Roman Catholic.[25] According to Russian sources, discrimination was targeting assimilation of Eastern Orthodox Belarusians.[33] The Polish church authorities promotedPolish in Orthodox services,[33] and initiated the creation of thePolish Orthodox Societies in four cities includingSlonim,Białystok,Vawkavysk, andNovogrodek.[33] The Belarusian Roman Catholic priest Fr.Vincent Hadleŭski who promoted Belarusian in church,[33] and Belarusian national awareness, was under pressure by his Polish counterparts.[33] The Polish Catholic Church in Western Belorussia issued documents to priests about the usage of the Belarusian language rather than Polish language in Churches and Catholic Sunday Schools. The Warsaw-published instruction of the Polish Catholic Church from 1921 criticized priests preaching in Belarusian at theCatholic masses.[34]
Compared to the (larger)Ukrainian minority living in Poland, Belarusians were much less politically aware and active. The largest Belarusian political organization was theBelarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union, also referred to as theHramada. Hramada received logistical help from the Soviet Union and theCommunist International and served as a cover for the radical and subversiveCommunist Party of Western Belorussia. It was therefore banned by the Polish authorities,[35][36] its leaders sentenced to various terms in prison and then deported to the USSR, where they were killed by the Soviet regime.[37]
Tensions between the increasingly nationalistic Polish government and various increasingly separatist ethnic minorities continued to grow, and the Belarusian minority was no exception. Likewise, according toMarek Jan Chodakiewicz, the USSR considered Poland to be "enemy number one".[38] During theGreat Purge, thePolish National District atDzyarzhynsk was disbanded and the Soviet NKVD undertook the so-called"Polish Operation" (from approximately 25 August 1937, to 15 November 1938) – where the Poles in East Belorussia, i.e. BSSR, were deported and executed.[38] The operation caused the deaths of up to 250,000 people – out of an official ethnic Polish population of 636,000 – as a result ofpolitical murder,disease orstarvation.[38] Amongst these, at least 111,091 members of the Polish minority were shot byNKVD troika.[38][39][40] According to Bogdan Musiał, many were murdered in prison executions.[39] In addition, several hundred thousand ethnic Poles from Belarus and Ukraine were deported to other parts of the Soviet Union.[38]
The Soviets also promoted the Soviet-controlled BSSR as formally autonomous to attract Belarusians living in Poland. This image was attractive to many Western Belorussian national leaders, and some of them, likeFrantsishak Alyakhnovich orUładzimir Žyłka emigrated from Poland to the BSSR, but very soon became victims ofSoviet repression.
The table below shows a comparison of the number of Belarusians and the number of Poles in Western Belarus based on the 1931 census (questions aboutmother tongue and religion). Belarusian/Poleshuk("Tutejszy")/Russian and Orthodox/Greek Catholic plurality or majority counties are highlighted with yellow, while Polish and Roman Catholic plurality or majority counties are highlighted with pink:
| Today part of | County part of Voivodeship | County | Pop. | Belarusian, Poleshuk & Russian | % | Polish | % | Orthodox & Uniate | % | Roman Catholic | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  | Wilno | Braslaw | 143161 | 37689 | 26.3% | 93958 | 65.6% | 29713 | 20.8% | 89020 | 62.2% |
| Wilno | Dzisna | 159886 | 85051 | 53.2% | 62282 | 39.0% | 88118 | 55.1% | 56895 | 35.6% |
| Wilno | Molodechno | 91285 | 49747 | 54.5% | 35523 | 38.9% | 63074 | 69.1% | 21704 | 23.8% |
| Wilno | Oshmyany | 104612 | 11064 | 10.6% | 84951 | 81.2% | 15125 | 14.5% | 81369 | 77.8% |
| Wilno | Pastavy | 99907 | 49071 | 49.1% | 47917 | 48.0% | 44477 | 44.5% | 50751 | 50.8% |
| Wilno | Švenčionys | 136475 | 16814 | 12.3% | 68441 | 50.1% | 1978 | 1.4% | 117524 | 86.1%[Note 1] |
| Wilno | Vilyeyka | 131070 | 65220 | 49.8% | 59477 | 45.4% | 70664 | 53.9% | 53168 | 40.6% |
| Wilno | Vilnius-Trakai | 214472 | 9263 | 4.3% | 180546 | 84.2% | 2988 | 1.4% | 201053 | 93.7% |
| Wilno | Vilnius City | 195071 | 9109 | 4.7% | 128628 | 65.9% | 9598 | 4.9% | 125999 | 64.6% |
| Total in Wilno Voivodeship | 1275939 | 333028 | 26.1% | 761723 | 59.7% | 325735 | 25.5% | 797483 | 62.5% | ||
| Nowogródek | Baranavichy | 161038 | 70627 | 43.9% | 74916 | 46.5% | 99118 | 61.5% | 45126 | 28.0% |
| Nowogródek | Lida | 183485 | 20538 | 11.2% | 145609 | 79.4% | 23025 | 12.5% | 144627 | 78.8% |
| Nowogródek | Nyasvizh | 114464 | 77094 | 67.4% | 27933 | 24.4% | 82245 | 71.9% | 22378 | 19.6% |
| Nowogródek | Novogrudok | 149536 | 103783 | 69.4% | 35084 | 23.5% | 109162 | 73.0% | 28796 | 19.3% |
| Nowogródek | Slonim | 126510 | 63445 | 50.2% | 52313 | 41.4% | 89724 | 70.9% | 23817 | 18.8% |
| Nowogródek | Stowbtsy | 99389 | 40875 | 41.1% | 51820 | 52.1% | 54076 | 54.4% | 37856 | 38.1% |
| Nowogródek | Shchuchyn | 107203 | 10658 | 9.9% | 89462 | 83.5% | 38900 | 36.3% | 60097 | 56.1% |
| Nowogródek | Valozhyn | 115522 | 33240 | 28.8% | 76722 | 66.4% | 47923 | 41.5% | 61852 | 53.5% |
| Total in Nowogródek Voivodeship | 1057147 | 420260 | 39.8% | 553859 | 52.4% | 544173 | 51.5% | 424549 | 40.2% | ||
| Polesie | Brest | 215927 | 115323 | 53.4% | 50248 | 23.3% | 135911 | 62.9% | 43020 | 19.9% |
| Polesie | Drahichyn | 97040 | 81557 | 84.0% | 6844 | 7.1% | 83147 | 85.7% | 5699 | 5.9% |
 | Polesie | Kamin-Kashyrskyi[Note 2] | 94988 | 75699 | 79.7% | 6692 | 7.0% | 83113 | 87.5% | 6026 | 6.3% |
| Polesie | Kobryn | 113972 | 71435 | 62.7% | 10040 | 8.8% | 93426 | 82.0% | 8973 | 7.9% |
| Polesie | Kosava | 83696 | 68769 | 82.2% | 8456 | 10.1% | 68941 | 82.4% | 7810 | 9.3% |
| Polesie | Luninyets | 108663 | 83769 | 77.1% | 16535 | 15.2% | 85728 | 78.9% | 13754 | 12.7% |
| Polesie | Pinsk | 184305 | 128787 | 69.9% | 29077 | 15.8% | 140022 | 76.0% | 16465 | 8.9% |
| Polesie | Pruzhany | 108583 | 81032 | 74.6% | 17762 | 16.4% | 82015 | 75.5% | 16311 | 15.0% |
| Polesie | Stolin | 124765 | 92253 | 73.9% | 18452 | 14.8% | 105280 | 84.4% | 6893 | 5.5% |
| Total in Polesie Voivodeship | 1131939 | 798624 | 70.6% | 164106 | 14.5% | 877583 | 77.5% | 124951 | 11.0% | ||
 | Białystok | Augustów | 74751 | 1582 | 2.1% | 68674 | 91.9% | 875 | 1.2% | 67821 | 90.7% |
| Białystok | Białystok City | 91101 | 3781 | 4.2% | 46386 | 50.9% | 7628 | 8.4% | 41493 | 45.5% |
| Białystok | Białystok County | 140078 | 11465 | 8.2% | 116709 | 83.3% | 22035 | 15.7% | 105685 | 75.4% |
| Białystok | Bielsk Podlaski | 202410 | 70356 | 34.8% | 111377 | 55.0% | 91749 | 45.3% | 91215 | 45.1% |
| Białystok | Grodno | 213105 | 69832 | 32.8% | 101089 | 47.4% | 87205 | 40.9% | 89122 | 41.8%[Note 3] |
| Białystok | Łomża | 168167 | 129 | 0.1% | 146308 | 87.0% | 295 | 0.2% | 145230 | 86.4% |
| Białystok | Ostrołęka | 112587 | 49 | 0.0% | 104341 | 92.7% | 166 | 0.1% | 103871 | 92.3% |
| Białystok | Ostrów Mazowiecka | 99741 | 60 | 0.1% | 85925 | 86.1% | 160 | 0.2% | 85540 | 85.8% |
| Białystok | Sokółka | 103135 | 2107 | 2.0% | 92816 | 90.0% | 13329 | 12.9% | 81030 | 78.6% |
| Białystok | Suwałki | 110124 | 6289 | 5.7% | 85707 | 77.8% | 1519 | 1.4% | 87350 | 79.3% |
| Białystok | Szczuczyn | 68215 | 117 | 0.2% | 60935 | 89.3% | 200 | 0.3% | 60763 | 89.1% |
| Białystok | Volkovysk | 171327 | 74823 | 43.7% | 83111 | 48.5% | 80621 | 47.1% | 76373 | 44.6% |
| Białystok | Wysokie Mazowieckie | 89103 | 148 | 0.2% | 78881 | 88.5% | 376 | 0.4% | 78584 | 88.2% |
| Total in Białystok Voivodeship | 1643844 | 240738 | 14.6% | 1182259 | 71.9% | 306158 | 18.6% | 1114077 | 67.8% | ||
| Total in four voivodeships | 5108869 | 1792650 | 35.1% | 2661947 | 52.1% | 2053649 | 40.2% | 2461060 | 48.2% | ||
Soon after the Nazi-Sovietinvasion of Poland following theNazi–Soviet Pact, the area of Western Belorussiawas formally annexed into theBelarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). The Soviet secret policeNKVD, aided by the Red Army, organizedstaged elections which were decided in the atmosphere of intimidation and state terror.[41] The Soviet occupational administration held the elections on 22 October 1939, less than two weeks after the invasion.[42] The citizens were threatened repeatedly that their deportations to Siberia were imminent. The ballot envelopes were numbered to remain traceable and usually handed over already sealed.[41] The referendum was rigged. By design, the candidates were unknown to their constituencies which were brought to the voting stations by armed guards.[43] The so-calledElections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia were conducted in Russian.[41]
On 30 October, the People's Assembly session held inBelastok (Polish Białystok) affirmed the Soviet decision to join theBelarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) with the USSR.[44] Nevertheless, the unification voting in the People's Assembly of Western Belorussia was not fully successful during the first attempt because 10Lithuanians, who were elected to the People's Assembly of Western Belorussia, initially voted against the unification of Western Belorussia with the Belarusian SSR and explained that they instead want to unite withLithuania, thus the voting had to be repeated and eventually succeeded.[45] The petition was officially accepted by theSupreme Soviet of the USSR on 2 November and by the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR on 12 November 1939.[44] From then on, all citizens of Poland but also born in Poland would find themselves living in the ByelorussianSSR as the Soviet subjects, without the recognition of their Polish citizenship.[46]
The Soviet propaganda portrayed theSoviet invasion of Poland as the "reunion of Western Belorussia and Ukraine". Many ethnic Belarusians and Jews welcomed unification with the BSSR. Mostly wealthy groups of citizens changed their attitude after experiencing firsthand the style of the Soviet system.[46][47]
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The Soviets quickly began confiscating, nationalizing, and redistributing all private and state-owned property.[48] During the two years following the annexation, the Soviets arrested approximately 100,000 Polish citizens across Kresy.[49] Due to a lack of access to the secret Soviet and Belarusian archives, for many years after the war the estimates of the number of Polish citizens deported to Siberia from the areas of Western Belorussia, as well as the number who perished under Soviet rule, were only estimated.[50] In August 2009, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion, the authoritativePolish Institute of National Remembrance announced that its researchers reduced the estimate of the number of people deported to Siberia to 320,000 in total. Some 150,000 Polish citizens perished under Soviet rule.[51] The majority ofLithuanians in Belarusintelligentsia and communists were also repressed.[52]
The terms of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed earlier in Moscow were soon broken, when theGerman Army entered theSoviet occupation zone on 22 June 1941. AfterOperation Barbarossa, most of Western Belorussia became part of the GermanReichskommissariat Ostland (RKO), as the so-calledGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien (General Region of White Ruthenia). Many ethnic Belarusians supported Nazi Germany.[53] By the end of 1942, sworn GermanophileIvan Yermachenka formed the pro-Nazi BNS organization with 30,000 members.[54] TheBelarusian Auxiliary Police was formed.[54][55] Known to the Germans as theSchutzmannschaft, the ethnic Belarusian police played an indispensable role inthe Holocaust in Belarus,[56][57] notably during the second wave of the ghetto liquidations,[58] starting in February–March 1942.[55]
In 1945, theBig Three, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union,established new borders for Poland. Most of Western Belarus remained part of the BSSR after theend of World War II in Europe; only the region aroundBiałystok (Belostok) was to be returned to Poland. The Polish population was soonforcibly resettled west. The Western Belorussia, in its entirety, wasincorporated into the BSSR.[2]
It was initially planned to move the capital of the BSSR toVilna. However, the same yearJoseph Stalin ordered that the city and surrounding region be transferred toLithuania, which some months later was annexed by the Soviet Union and became a new Soviet Republic. Minsk, therefore, remained the capital of the enlarged BSSR. The borders of the BSSR were again altered somewhat after the war (notably the area around the city ofBiałystok (Belastok Region) was returned to Poland). Still, in general, they coincide with the borders of the modernRepublic of Belarus.
The Belarusian political parties and the society in Western Belorussia often lacked information about repressions in the Soviet Union and was under a strong influence of Soviet propaganda.[33] Because of bad economic conditions and national discrimination of Belarusian in Poland, much of the population of Western Belorussia welcomed the annexation by the USSR.[33]
However, soon after the annexation of Western Belorussia by the Soviet Union, the Belarusian political activists had no illusions as to the friendliness of the Soviet regime.[33] The population grew less loyal as the economic conditions became even worse and as the new regime carried out mass repressions and deportations that targeted Belarusians as well as ethnic Poles.[33]
Immediately after the annexation, the Soviet authorities carried out the nationalization of agricultural land owned by large landowners in Western Belorussia.[33]Collectivization and the creation of collective farms (kolkhoz) was planned to be carried out at a slower pace than in Eastern Belorussia in the 1920s.[33] By 1941, in the western regions of the BSSR, the number of individual farms decreased only by 7%; 1115 collective farms were created.[33] At the same time, pressure and even repressions against larger farmers (called by the Soviet propaganda,kulaki) began: the size of agricultural land for one individual farm was limited to 10ha, 12ha and 14ha depending on the quality of the land.[33] It was forbidden to hire workers and lease land.[33]
Under the Soviet occupation, the Western Belorussian citizenry, particularly the Poles, faced a "filtration" procedure by the NKVD apparatus, which resulted in over 100,000 people being forcibly deported to eastern parts of the Soviet Union (e.g. Siberia) in the very first wave of expulsions.[60] In total, during the next two years some 1.7 million Polish citizens were put on freight trains and sent from the PolishKresy to labour camps in theGulag.[61]
The majority of Poles live in the Western regions, including 230,000 in theGrodno oblast. In addition,Sapotskin and itsselsoviet have a Polish majority. The largest Polish organization in Belarus is theUnion of Poles in Belarus (Związek Polaków na Białorusi), with over 20,000 members.
Mensk, 21 (8) February 1917 – 25 March 1918
UMEA International Research Group. Abstracts of Presentations.
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