Before talking about the Belarusian national movement in the 20th century, it is certainly necessary to recall the activities of the Belarusian educators of the second half of the 19th century. It was then that the national revival began, already specifically Belarusian, and not Lithuanian. The transition from the legacy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the idea of a Belarusian national state was quite complex, and a number of the best representatives of the national intelligentsia of that time still showed a certain duality in this evolution.
In the works of such figures as Vincent Dunin-Marcinkiewicz, Franciszek Bogushevich, and Bronislaw Epimakh-Shypila, the concept of Belarus, which historically arose relatively late, is gradually taking shape.
In 1863, a national liberation uprising against Russian imperialism began in almost all ethnic Belarusian and Polish lands. In Belarus, the uprising was led by Kastus Kalinovsky, who had broken away from Polish subordination, essentially proclaiming the Independence of Lithuania-Belarus on behalf of the Lithuanian Uprising Committee… Kalinovsky was the first in the national political movement to legalize the term “Belarus” next to the old name “Lithuania”. The Insurgent Committee published the newspaper “Muzhitskaya Pravda” in Belarusian. In his last address before his execution, which he called “To the People of Belarus. A Letter from the Gallows of Konstantin Kalinovsky”, the author calls the country’s inhabitants either Lithuanians or Belarusians, meaning that for him these are related concepts. The last words of the address are: “For I tell you from the gallows, my people, that you will only live happily when the Muscovite is no longer above you.” On 10 March 1864, Russian occupiers hanged the national hero of the Belarusian people publicly on the Lukishko Market Square in Vilnius.
It is necessary to note the scale of the uprising. Russian publicist and eyewitness Pyotr Kropotkin in his work “Notes of a Revolutionary” quotes the words of Russian officers who suppressed the resistance of the Belarusians: “Armed bands of rebels held the entire region… While we were crossing some areas, we did not find any trace of the rebels. But as soon as we returned, it turned out that the bands had already appeared in the rear… And if some peasant rendered services to our troops, we found him hanged by the rebels…”. The governor-general appointed by the tsar, Mikhail Muravyov-the “gallows man”, dealt with the uprising very cruelly. In the towns everywhere on the gallows were the bodies of killed rebels, tens of thousands were sent into exile to Siberia and the Caucasus… The Russian Empire suppressed the uprising, but Kastus Kalinovsky still remains a symbol of the national struggle for independence. Even in Soviet times, the Bolsheviks honoured the memory of Kalinovsky, although they paid attention only to the social component of his struggle, keeping silent about the national…
After the protest was suppressed, a harsh police regime was established in Belarus for decades, the Belarusian language was persecuted, and Russian Orthodoxy was imposed. The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the mass resettlement of Belarusian peasants to Siberia according to the “Stolypin reform”. About 1.5 million people were resettled. Instead of Belarusians, residents of the central provinces were brought in…
At the beginning of the 20th century
However, in the early 1900s, a national revival began again. It was at that time that a galaxy of national talents, writers, thinkers, and politicians emerged. In the autumn of 1902, a group of patriotic students created the Belarusian Revolutionary Party, which aimed to restore an independent and democratic Belarus. At the congress, the organization was named the Belarusian Socialist Community, inspired by the ideas that were fashionable at the time.
The first Belarusian newspapers, Nasha Dolya and Nasha Niva began to be published in Vilnius. They became the foundation of national thought, around which the Belarusian intelligentsia united. Among the leaders of Gromada were such figures as Vaclav Ivanovsky, Iosif Voronko, Dmitry Zhilunovich, Simon Rak-Mikhailovsky, Arkady Smolich, Bronislav Tarashkevich and others.
Perhaps the most famous among the Gromadovites were the brothers Ivan and Anton Lutskevich, who founded the Belarusian Grammar School, the Belarusian Academic Society, the Belarusian Publishing Society and the Vilnius Belarusian Museum. Later, the Lutskevich brothers became members of the leadership of the Belarusian People’s Republic.
At first, Vaclav Lastovsky who was also in Gromada, later joined the Belarusian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs). Lastovsky published the newspaper Gomon and wrote A Brief History of Belarus. Lastovsky did not believe in a political union with either Russia or Poland, he was an ardent separatist. In 1918, Vaclav Lastovsky wrote a small brochure What Every Belarusian Should Know, which is still banned in his homeland. It was the first Belarusian catechism written from a national-defensive, nationalistic position. Here are the first lines of the work:
“1. Belarusian people
– We are Belarusians.
– Who are the Belarusians?
– Belarusians are a people of the Slavic tribe.
– Why do they call us Belarusians?
– Because we were born Belarusians, in whose veins flows Belarusian blood, whose great-grandfathers, grandfathers and parents were Belarusians.
– What is the name of someone who renounces his people?
– Anyone who renounces his people is a traitor, a soul-seller. Treason is the worst crime known to man. Therefore, we will never abandon our people. A true Belarusian, a true son of his people, will always have the thought: “I would rather die than renounce my Belarusian people…”
Since December 1919, Vaclav Lastovsky was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the BNR.
The aforementioned Nasha Niva became the foundation of the political and literary creativity of the young Belarusian elite. The best Belarusian writers were published on the pages of the newspaper – Yanka Kupala, Yakub Kolas, Karus Kaganets, Ales Garun, Maksim Goretsky, and Maksim Bogdanovich. Many researchers call the Belarusian revival of the early 20th century the “Nasha Niva cycle”…
As national consciousness grew, the Belarusian intelligentsia increasingly defended the interests of the Belarusian people, demanded an end to the Russification and Polonization of Belarusians, and the opening of Belarusian-language schools and universities. In the whirlwind of political upheavals, there were various organizations of supporters for a union with Russia, but it was the national organizations that had the greatest weight. In addition to the parties mentioned, the Christian Democratic Union was rapidly gaining influence.
During the First World War, on 18 December 1917, patriotic figures gathered in Minsk for the First All-Belarusian Congress of Political Forces, which was attended by 1,872 delegates from all Belarusian lands, including Smolensk, Vilnius, Dvinsk, and Bialystok. Later, the participants of the Congress said that it was an extraordinary event of the highest rise of national spirit. Belarusian activists wrote in their memoirs that they had never experienced anything like it in their lives. All Belarusians were together, generals and soldiers, peasants and gentlemen, poets and sailors…
Gradually, the delegates began to proclaim the will of the Belarusian people, to strive for national and political independence. The Bolsheviks immediately brought in military units and dispersed the Belarusian people’s forum… However, the Congress managed to create an Executive Committee, which headed the national liberation movement of the Belarusian people and prepared the proclamation of the Belarusian People’s Republic and its independence in March 1918.
At that time, the leader of the Western Region Bolsheviks, Wilhelm Knorin, wrote: “We believe that Belarusians are not a nation, and those ethnographic features that distance them from other Russians must be eliminated. Our task is not to create new nations, but to destroy the old national barriers.” Soviet communists continued the old Russian imperial policy of forced Russification, without intending to help the Belarusian people.
Under the flag of the BNR
On 25 March 1918, in the 3rd Statutory Charter of the Council of the Belarusian People’s Republic, Belarus was proclaimed an independent state: “A year ago, the peoples of Belarus, together with the peoples of Russia, overthrew the yoke of Russian tsarism, which oppressed Belarus most of all; without asking the people, it threw our land into the fire of war, destroyed Belarusian cities and villages to the ground.
Now we, the Council of the Belarusian People’s Republic, are throwing off the last yoke of state dependence on our homeland, which the Russian tsars forcibly imposed on our free and independent land.
From now on, the Belarusian People’s Republic is proclaimed an Independent and Free State…”
At this time, the Germans went on the offensive at the front, and the Bolsheviks retreated in panic. Minsk was occupied by the troops of the Kaiser’s Germany. They took the cash desk of the People’s Secretariat, tore the white-red-white flag from its building, and kicked out the employees. The BNR leaders were warned that the occupation authorities would not allow them to carry out serious political activity, since this was prohibited by the agreement with the Soviet government in Brest… Only cultural activity was allowed, and in this regard, during the short period of the Kaiser’s occupation, the Belarusians were able to make a major breakthrough: Belarusian schools, newspapers and magazines, and theatres were opened.
Unfortunately, there was no unanimity in the BNR government, there were different currents, a split into left and right wings, which saw the socio-economic policy of the young state differently. Instead of firmly defending the Nation and its interests, some BNR activists succumbed to socialist propaganda. The hope for Germany’s support in restoring national military formations was not justified, and appeals to the Entente countries were also unsuccessful… And yet, the BNR was recognized by Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Finland, and Ukraine. After some time, the BNR was also recognized by Germany…
After 8 months of relative freedom, the Soviets returned on bayonets. Before leaving, the BNR government issued the 5th Charter, in which it called on the Belarusian people to resist the Bolsheviks. But for fundamental work in such conditions, strong allies were needed, which Belarus did not have. The greatest support at that time in the formation of military structures for the Belarusians was provided by the government of the UNR Directory Symon Petliura, but the Ukrainians were also going through very turbulent and difficult times…
The Polish leadership of that time, which declared its support for Belarusians and Ukrainians, in practice did not provide any support in this matter. Moreover: the Belarusian military units of the BNR created in Grodno were disbanded by the Polish authorities.
The Bolsheviks quickly showed their true colours in the captured Belarusian lands, committing murders of representatives of the wealthy strata of the population, the clergy, and national figures, carrying out requisitions and confiscations. The Belarusians very quickly saw with their own eyes what the “power of the Soviets” was. Anti-Soviet uprisings began – in almost every Belarusian county. But the Koydanovsky and Slutsk uprisings, as well as the uprising led by General Bulak-Balakhovich, had the greatest scope.
Perhaps the most organized was the legendary Slutsk Armed Clan, which began on 28 November 1920. The rebels fought under the slogans of the BNR for an independent Belarus, most of the participants were peasants and high school students. There were not enough weapons to arm everyone who wanted to join the BNR army… Therefore, preference was given to those who had at least some military experience… At first, the communists did not attach much importance to military actions in Slutsk, but after heavy fighting, the military forces of Tukhachevsky’s army were pulled in, which brutally suppressed the uprising. Those Belarusian heroes who managed to retreat to the Polish side were disarmed and interned.
General Stanislav Bulak-Balahovich and other Belarusian military units, together with the army of Symon Petliura and the Polish army, were able to stop the advance of Tukhachevsky’s Red Army in the famous battle “Miracle on the Vistula” in August 1920. Polish politicians do not like to remember the role of Belarusians in that great battle.
General Balakhovich fought in World War I and was awarded six orders and three combat St. George’s Crosses. During the civil war in Russia, he was a major general in the White Army. However, after some hesitation, he contacted the BNR leadership, received the status of general of the Special Detachment of the BNR and moved from the Baltics to Poland, then to Belarus. Balakhovich was supported by Józef Pilsudski, who provided him with weapons and ammunition. In October 1920, Balakhovich crossed the border with his small detachment and in a short time gathered a detachment of more than 20 thousand people, captured almost all of Polesie, took Turov, Mozyr, where he hung out a white-red-white flag and declared himself “Chief of the Belarusian State”. However, the Bolsheviks drove the general out of Mozyr, forcing him to retreat to the neutral zone…
However, in various places in Belarus, there were popular partisan units that continued to fight against the Bolshevik government, seeking independence. The most famous organization was the “Belarusian Peasant Party of the Green Oak”, which waged an underground struggle until the early 1930s.
In Eastern Belarus, the Soviet government carried out its policy in the most brutal manner: collectivization, mass executions, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people to Siberian camps, to the White Sea Canal… Almost all representatives of the national intelligentsia were subject to extermination. Historians still cannot accurately determine the scale of the communist terror. The dominant figure is about 1.5 million killed Belarusians…
In Western Belarus, events unfolded according to a slightly different scenario…
After the shameful Riga Peace Treaty between Soviet Russia and Poland, Belarus was divided into parts, and the border ran close to Minsk. Families were thus divided, and the fates of millions of people were broken. Belarusians, like Ukrainians, fell under the rule of strangers…
At the beginning of the proclamation of the BNR and UPR, the head of Poland, Józef Piłsudski, expressed support for the Belarusians and Ukrainians and then promised autonomy within the new Rzeczpospolita. However, after the annexation of the Belarusian lands, the policy of Polonization of the Belarusians and social oppression of the peasants immediately began. Today, Polish historians claim that mass repressions and murders took place in Eastern Belarus, while Western Belarus was almost a paradise. In fact, in the western part of our country, Poland pursued its aggressive imperial policy, although it was more cunning than the Bolsheviks. A harsh political regime and police terror reigned in Western Belarus. The Polish government pursued a policy of settling the Belarusian lands with Polish soldiers, the so-called settlers, who were allocated the best land plots. The differentiation of peasants increased, and the number of poor people grew… There were not only economic protests and strikes but also partisan struggles. Belarusian patriots were constantly tried and sent to famous prisons – Lukishki, Vronki, the Bereza Kartuzskaya concentration camp…
The Belarusian liberation movement was divided into communist and national democratic. Among the nationalists, it is worth mentioning the Christian Democrats (Fr. Adam Stankevich), Social Democrats (Bronislav Tarashkevich, Simon Rak-Mikhailovsky), Socialist Revolutionaries (Sergey Baran), and National Communists (Vera Khoruzha, Vasily Korzh). The Society of Belarusian Schools (OBSh) played an important role in the socio-political life of the region. In the difficult conditions of national oppression, the OBSh educated a significant number of creative intellectuals…
World War II
When World War II began, many Belarusian patriots, tired of Russian and Polish repressions, hoped that the German authorities would finally give freedom to Belarusians, and they began to cooperate with the new government.
At first, the Germans showed assistance to the Belarusian movement in the occupied Belarusian territory, hoping to use the Belarusians against the Red Army.
School education was conducted in Belarusian (partially in German), the Union of Belarusian Youth was created, and all administration in cities and Minsk was conducted in Belarusian and German. The Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was founded, and the Belarusianization of the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic churches took place.
Newspapers were published in the native language, theatres worked, and such structures as the Belarusian Society of People’s Self-Help and the Union of Belarusian Youth were created. Several prominent national figures tried to take advantage of the situation and rebuild an independent Belarus. Among them are Vaclav Ivanovsky (Mayor of Minsk), Iosif Naidyuk, Yan Stankevich, Yulian Sakovich, Natalia Arsenyeva, Ivan Kosyak, Yevgeny Kolubovich, Yury Sobolevsky, the head of the SBM Mikhail Ganko and many others.
Belarusian nationalists rightly distrusted the Germans and were preparing for an anti-German uprising and the proclamation of their own independent state. The most famous organization that waged the struggle was the Belarusian Nezalezhnitskaya Party led by Vincent Godlevsky. “Get an Independent Belarusian State or die fighting for it!” was the famous slogan of this organization. The members of the BNP included such people as Mikhail Vitushka, Vsevolod Rodzka, Boris Ragulya, and Ivan Gelda. The BNP published its propaganda materials and called for an uncompromising struggle against the Germans, Poles and Soviet partisans. The organization established contacts with the Ukrainian nationalists OUN (b) and participated in the legendary congress of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN) in the Rivne region in 1943. Belarusian independent partisans were also active. However, the Soviet leadership, with great efforts and the deployment of NKVD special forces, destroyed such units and their commanders… The Party of Belarusian Nationalists of Jan Stankevich was also active, but its activities did not acquire the same scope as the activities of the BNP. …
Gauleiter of Belarus Wilhelm Kube was an extremely intelligent and cunning man who believed that the stake should be placed on Belarusian nationalism. This policy contradicted Himmler’s line aimed at exterminating the Slavic population and was also deadly for the Soviet leadership. After a series of attacks, the action organized by Soviet partisans with the assistance of the Gestapo was crowned with success, in September 1943 Kube was killed… Belarus came under the control of SS structures. After this, the scale of the Nazi punitive actions increased by an order of magnitude, and the partisan movement engulfed all of Belarus…
The punitive actions of the SS Sonderkommandos became one of the factors that destroyed the trusting relations between the Belarusians and the Germans. After such bloody actions, the partisan movement became more active. The same Kube sent dispatches to Berlin demanding an end to the terror against the Belarusian population, but it had no effect…
A partisan headquarters was created in Moscow, headed by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus, Panteleimon Ponomarenko, who prepared sabotage groups that were transferred to Belarus en masse. The SS Sonderkommando responded to the actions of the partisans by exterminating civilians and burning villages… Ordinary people were forced to hide in the forests. Thus, Belarus had its own civil war…
Only in 1944 did the Germans take such a step as declaring the Belarusian Central Council (BCS), a puppet pro-German state headed by Radoslaw Ostrovsky. Soviet and Russian historians call this politician a “bloody accomplice of the occupiers”, but it is known that Ostrovsky did his utmost to prevent the punitive actions of the SS and organized Belarusian national structures. (The great Belarusian scientist Boris Kit talks about this in his memoirs).
Also on 23 February 1944, the Germans allowed the creation of a military formation – the Belarusian Regional Defence with a total strength of about 40 thousand people. Franciszek Kushal was appointed commander of the BKO. The BKO formation was used against Soviet partisans and the Polish Home Army. The German command did not trust the Belarusians and restrained the independent actions of the BKO commanders, did not give them weapons. There were clashes between the Belarusian units and the SS punitive detachments since the Belarusians tried to protect ordinary people. The Germans began to transfer some parts of the BKO to the auxiliary police, after which many volunteers left this military structure…
After the war
With the arrival of the Red Army, the fate of Belarusian activists was varied. The communists took cruel revenge on Belarusians who, in their opinion, collaborated with the Germans. For example, almost all SBM activists, young men and women, were sent to camps, from which only a few returned.
Many emigrated, others were awaited by Siberia, and some continued the partisan struggle against the Soviet power. Among those who continued the armed struggle for independence, the most famous leaders were Vsevolod Rodzka and Mikhail Vitushka.
As historian Sergei Yorsh writes: “Back in 1940-41, Vsevolod Rodzka, together with Vincent Godlevsky and Nikolai Shchors, organized the embryo of the underground BNP in Warsaw. Then they transferred the organization’s activities to Belarus… Vsevolod Rodzka maintained contacts with Ukrainian nationalists, first with the ataman Taras Bulba-Borovets, and then with the OUN–Bandera.” Rodzka met with Bulba-Borovets and Stepan Bandera in Berlin in 1945, concluding an agreement with them on a joint struggle.
Back in 1941, together with Mikhail Vitushka and Ataman Kharevskiy-Novik, Rodzka headed the department of the Belarusian Self-Defence, which, together with the Polesia Sich, cleared Polesia of marauders. After the Germans tortured Vincent Gadlewski in prison in January 1942, he headed the BNP. Together with Mikhail Vitushka and Ivan Gelda, he prepared an uprising against the Germans intending to declare the complete independence of Belarus. At the decisive moment, when the II All-Belarusian Congress began on 27 June, Polish fighters of the Home Army blew up the railway and blocked the BDP detachments travelling to Minsk, which thwarted the plans of the BNP leadership…
Together with his unit of the Belarusian Military Organization, a BNP formation, Rodzka made his way to Belarus in 1945 to organize a national liberation struggle. He was arrested by the NKVD in Bialystok together with Ivan Gelda and immediately taken to Minsk for interrogation, where he was personally interrogated by the Minister of State Security of the BSSR, Lavrenty Tsanava. The Bolsheviks publicly hanged Gelda in Bialystok in 1946 and secretly killed Rodzka. It is still unknown where Vsevolod Rodzka is buried… The remnants of the BVO unit joined Vitushka…
During the occupation, Mikhail Vitushka proved himself to be a good organizer, trying to form Belarusian military structures. After the Germans left, he managed to create an extensive underground network. The unification of various units was called the Belarusian Liberation Army, which operated until the early 1950s. Vitushka’s units worked to disorganize Soviet structures, attacked NKVD departments, and freed those arrested. During the day, the BVO members were ordinary citizens, and at night they were a formidable force that terrified the NKVD. Vitushka established contacts with Baltic anti-Soviet groups, with which he coordinated his activities. Several desperate actions by Vitushka’s units are known, such as the capture of Novogrudok (a district centre) and the release of all political prisoners from prison… The most truthful version is that in the 1950s he managed to break through to the West, and then to Latin America, where he lived under a different name until the end of his days. This was reported by his son after Vitushka’s death…
One cannot help but recall the struggle of Yanka Filistovich’s detachment. He was transferred to Belarus with the support of American intelligence in 1951 and tried to unite the remaining members of the BVO and other Belarusian formations. Filistovich organized an underground network of activists in different cities of Belarus and was preparing to publish his own propaganda literature. Then he formed a detachment stationed in the forests of Vileika. Filistovich called his organization the “National Liberation Armed Forces”, but it was still a local structure. The partisans stood up for the people, helped the poor, and returned property confiscated by the Soviet government. The fame of the “Belarusian Robin Hood” spread throughout the Union. In 1952, the USSR MGB was able to arrest Filistovich. The same Tsanava was amazed after a conversation with a very smart, educated, and intelligent enemy of the Soviet government. Later, in his memoirs, he recalled a conversation with a Belarusian “nationalist idealist”. This did not stop the Soviets from executing the rebels. The burial place of Yanka Filistovich is also unknown…
Historians acknowledge that many local resistance groups, the so-called “Khutoryanshchina”, also operated on the territory of Belarus after the war…
After the war, Belarusian affairs in the homeland were mainly dealt with by writers, historians, and teachers. Belarusian historians waged a hard fight for truthful coverage of the legacy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Zhemontia. In the Soviet academic school, controlled by Moscow, it was forbidden to mention the Belarusian character of this state. The approach of the famous Russifier Abecedary, who built his concept on the “inseparable unity of the three Slavic peoples”, dominated. Each generation of Belarusian historians began to restore justice, even in Soviet times. After which repressions began against them, some were exiled to Siberia, some were secretly killed, and others were sent to a mental hospital. Thus, the Belarusian historical school was successively destroyed in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
One of those who endured the oppression of the Soviet regime all his life, almost losing his sight, was the legendary historian Nikolai Yermolovich, who lived until the 90s and founded the current historical school of Belarus.
Perhaps the dissident movement in Belarus was not very widespread, but the whole world knows such people as Father Vladislav Chernyavsky and Mikhail Kubaka, who in the 1970s again declared the goal of restoring an independent Belarus. Mikhail Kubaka, like some other opponents of the communist government, was forcibly confined to a mental hospital.
On 25 March 1978 (the next anniversary of the Independence Day of the BNR) in Bobruisk, Kukabaka wrote the famous work “Stolen Homeland”, and the priest Chernyavsky was saved by the Pope himself, who convinced the Soviet authorities not to arrest this patriot… For many years, Vladislav Chernyavsky conducted services in the Belarusian language in Belarus…
The work of Belarusian writers, who have preserved the legacy of generations, is still underestimated. It was Belarusian writers who were able to influence the famous “Pesnyar” Vladimir Mulyavin and, during the times of intensive Russification, convinced the First Secretary of the Belarus Communist Party Central Committee, Pyotr Masherov to stop the destruction of Belarusian-language education.
The 20th century was difficult for the Belarusian people; Belarusians experienced terrible repressions, the scale of which can only be compared to the torture of the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples.
There were difficult years and many bloody battles, all national liberation initiatives were crushed by enemies, but the Belarusian people survived.
On 25 August 1991, the Belarusian State was reborn! This did not happen out of nowhere, not as a “gift of fate,” as some politicians of modern Belarus like to say, but as a result of a great sacrifice by heroes!
At present, the Belarusian State is going through hard times, having fallen into strict dependence on Russia again. Belarus is in the position of the socialist camp countries during the existence of the USSR: formally the country is independent, but in reality, it is completely dependent on Moscow. Yet, the end of this story has not been finalised! And today, thousands of Belarusians, as hard as they can, fight for the independence of their homeland, despite the repressions of Moscow agents, in opposition to the corrupt proxies of the “new opposition” founded by Russian oligarchs and special services…
