West Belarus 1

West Belarus

Administrative division of the Belorussian SSR in 1939-1944. Territory of West Belarusannexed from occupied Poland on the basis of Soviet-Nazi treaties marked in orange

Soviet map of expanded Belorussian SSR (year 1940). Territory of West Belarus annexedfrom occupied Poland marked in yellow

West Belarus is the name used inreference to the territory of modernBelarus which belonged to the SecondPolish Republic between 1919 and1939. Since the dissolution of theSoviet Union in 1991, the area, cededto the USSR in 1945, belongs to thesovereign Republic of Belarus.

The territory forming today's westernpart of Belarus include in particular,Hrodna and Brest voblasts, as well asparts of today's Minsk and Vitsebskoblasts. The historical population ofWest Belarus included Belarusians,Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, andRussians. Many peasants in Polesia(the Poleszuks) used to declarethemselves as simply Local people, orOrthodox, rather than Belarusians (alsosee: Belarusian minority in Poland).

History

Pursuant to the Treaty of Riga signedin March 1921 between Poland, SovietRussia and the Soviet Ukraine (thusending the Polish-Soviet War), theterritories of modern Belarus (part ofthe Russian Empire) were dividedbetween Poland and the Russian SovietFederative Socialist Republic. The areathat became part of Poland formed thecentral part of Kresy. In Soviet times,it was called West Belarus as oppose toEast Belarus. The new bordersestablished between the two countriesremained in force throughout the interwar period, up until the outbreak of World War II. They were later redrawnduring the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference.

Thousands of Poles settled in the area in the years that followed the Peace of Riga. In the elections of November1922, a Belarusian party (in the Blok Mniejszości Narodowych coalition) obtained 14 seats in the Polish parliament(11 of them in the lower chamber, Sejm).[1] In the spring of 1923, Polish prime minister Władysław Sikorski

ordered a report on the situation of the Belarusian minority in Poland. That summer, a new regulation was passed allowing for the Belarusian language to be used officially both in courts and in schools. Obligatory teaching of the

West Belarus 2

Belarusian language was introduced in all Polish gymnasia in areas inhabited by Belarusians in 1927.[1]

Hramada

The 1991 flag of Belarus used byBelarusian nationalists between

world wars

Compared to the (larger) Ukrainian minority living in Poland, Belarusians weremuch less politically aware and active. The largest Belarusian political organization,the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union Hramada received logistical helpfrom the Soviet emissaries, and financial aid from the Comintern. By 1927 Hramadawas controlled entirely by agents from Moscow. It was banned by the Polishauthorities, and further opposition to the Polish government was met withstate-imposed sanctions once the connection between Hramada and the SovietCommunist Party of Western Belarus was discovered.

Tensions between increasingly nationalistic Polish government and various increasingly separatist ethnic minoritygroups continued to grow, and Belarusian minority was no exception. In East Belarus between 1937 and 1938 theSoviet NKVD and the Communist Party made an attempt to exterminate Poles as an ethnic group entirely. ThePolish minority there was almost completely annihilated in waves of prison executions, wrote Professor BogdanMusial. In the course of the largest ethnic shooting-and-deportation action of the Great Terror called the PolishOperation which took place approximately from August 25, 1937 to November 15, 1938 some 111,091 Polish maleswere murdered by troykas in cold blood.

Celebration of an anniversary of the BelarusianDemocratic Republic in the Belarusian

Gymnasium of Vilnia in 1935

The Soviets were also constantly trying to escalate the ethnic divisionsby promoting the Soviet-controlled East Belarus as formallyautonomous in order to attract sympathies of Belarusians living inPoland. This image was attractive to many West Belarusian nationalleaders and some of them, like Francišak Alachnovič or UładzimirŽyłka emigrated from Poland to East Belarus, but very soon becamevictims of Soviet repressions. The Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939was portrayed by Soviet propaganda as the "liberation of West Belarusand Ukraine". Some Belarusians welcomed unification with theBelorussian SSR, although attitudes of many changed afterexperiencing the Soviet terror. From 1939 on, with the exception of abrief period of Nazi occupation, almost all Belarusians previously living in Poland would live in the BelorussianSSR.[2][3]

Soviet invasion of PolandSoon after the Nazi-Soviet Invasion of Poland in September of 1939, the area of West Belarus was annexed into theBelarusian Soviet Socialist Republic following staged elections decided by the NKVD in the atmosphere of completeterror.[4] The citizens were told repeatedly that the deportations to Siberia were imminent. Their ballot envelopeswere numbered so as to remain traceable.

Annexation of West Belarus by the USSRThe Soviet occupational administration organized their elections into a National assembly of West Belarus (Belarusian: Народны сход Заходняй Беларусі) on October 22, 1939, less than two weeks after the invasion. The so-called Elections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus took place under total control of the NKVD secret police and the Party agents from Russia. At times, the Belarusian civilians extracted from homes were brought to the voting halls under armed escorts. Their envelopes were numbered and oftentimes already sealed. On October 30, the National Assembly session held in Belastok passed the decision of West Belarus

West Belarus 3

joining the USSR and its unification with the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. These petitions were officiallyaccepted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on November 2 and by the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR on November12.[5]

However, the Soviet rule was short-lived. The corresponding terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed earlier inMoscow were broken, when the German army entered the Soviet occupation zone on June 22, 1941. Poland was nolonger divided between the Soviet Union and Germany (see German invasion of Poland and Soviet invasion ofPoland) after Operation Barbarossa. Two years later, at the insistence of Joseph Stalin during the Tehran Conferenceof 1943, most of West Belarus was formally ceded by the Allies to the Belorussian SSR following the end of WorldWar II in Europe. Only the region around Białystok (Belostok) was returned to Poland.

West Belarus shown in dark green

The Polish population was soon forcibly resettled. West Belarus in itsentirety was incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR (BSSR). It wasinitially planned to move the capital of the Byelorussian SSR toVilnius. However, the same year Joseph Stalin ordered that the city andsurrounding region be transferred to Lithuania, which some monthslater was annexed by the Soviet Union and became a new SovietRepublic. Minsk therefore was proclaimed the capital of the enlargedBSSR. The borders of the BSSR were again altered somewhat after thewar (notably the area around the city of Białystok (Belastok Voblast) was returned to Poland) but in general theycoincide with the borders of the modern Republic of Belarus.

Deportations and ethnic cleansing

Polish families deported to Siberia during theSoviet occupation of Kresy. The number of Polesextracted from their homes and sent into barren

land reached 1,700,000.

Under the Soviet occupation, the Western Belarusian citizenry,particularly the Poles faced a "filtration" procedure by the NKVDapparatus, which resulted in over 100,000 people forcibly deported toeastern parts of the USSR (i.e. Siberia) in the very first wave ofexpulsions.[6] In total, during the next two years some 1.7 millionPolish citizens were put on freight trains and sent from the PolishKresy to labour camps in the Gulag.[7]

Legacy

According to the first Polish national census of 1921, there werearound 1 million Belarusians in the country. There are historians whoestimate the number of Belarusians in Poland at that time to be perhaps1.7 million[8] or even up to 2 million.[9] In the 1921-1926 period, the newly-independent Poland did not have aconsistent policy towards its ethnic minorities yet. The Belarusians in Western Belarus had to contend with the trendtowards Polonization and their schools in 1921 were facing financial problems.

After the 1930 elections in Poland, Belarusian representation in the Polish parliament was reduced and in the early1930s the Polish government started to introduce policies intended to Polonize minorities. Use of the Belarusianlanguage was not being promoted. At the onset of World War II only 44 schools teaching in Belarusian still existedin Poland. Meanwhile, refugees from Western Belarus were arrested by Soviet authorities and frequently executed,Kurapaty graves contain many products from Poland - cloths, shoes. The most prominent victim of NKVD was theactivist and linguist Branislaw Tarashkyevich. Frantsishak Alyakhnovich was liberated in 1933 after several years inSoviet camps and exchanged toward Tarashkyevich.Presently, Belarus annually celebrates September 17 as a public holiday dubbed the reunification of Belarus and nodeportations nor ethnic cleansing of Poles are being signified by the state.[10]

West Belarus 4

Notes1. ^ Mironowicz, p. 942. ^ Żarnowski, p. 3733. ^ Mironowicz, p. 804. ^ Mironowicz, p. 109

References[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ West_Belarus#endnote_Mironowicz-1[2] Norman Davies, God's Playground (Polish edition), second tome, p.512-513[3] Stosunki polsko-białoruskie pod okupacją sowiecką (1939-1941) (http:/ / www. bialorus. pl/ index. php?secId=49& docId=60& &

Rozdzial=historia)[4] Bernd Wegner (1997). From peace to war: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the world, 1939-1941. (http:/ / books. google. ca/

books?id=aESBIpIm6UcC& pg=PA74& redir_esc=y#v=onepage& q& f=false) Berghahn Books. pp. 73–75. ISBN 1-57181-882-0.[5] Уладзімір Снапкоўскі. Беларусь у геапалітыцы і дыпламатыі перыяду Другой Сусветнай вайны (http:/ / evolutio. info/ index.

php?option=com_content& task=view& id=354& Itemid=51)[6] Сёньня — дзень ўзьяднаньня Заходняй і Усходняй Беларусі (http:/ / www. nn. by/ index. php?c=ar& i=19977)[7] A Forgotten Odyssey (https:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20060203183513/ http:/ / aforgottenodyssey. com/ ) 2001 Lest We Forget Productions.[8] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ West_Belarus#endnote_. C5. BBarnowski[9] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ West_Belarus#endnote_Mironowicz-2[10] Congratulation by the President of Belarus on the 70th anniversary of reunification of West Belarus with the BSSR (http:/ / 21. by/

news_?id=442385)

1. Janusz Żarnowski, "Społeczeństwo Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej 1918-1939" (in Polish language), Warszawa 19732. Eugeniusz Mironowicz, "Białoruś" (in Polish language), Trio, Warszawa, 1999, ISBN 83-85660-82-8

External links• (Belarusian) Жыцьцё і сьмерць мітаў: Заходняя Беларусь (http:/ / www. svaboda. org/ content/ transcript/

1741945. html)

Article Sources and Contributors 5

Article Sources and ContributorsWest Belarus  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=620948575  Contributors: Ajh1492, Alansohn, Amire80, Bfmlc1, Biruitorul, Brianski, Christofor, Czalex, Ehistory,EugeneZelenko, Flowerparty, FoliesTrévise, Ground Zero, Gurch, Guto2003, Khazar, Ko Soi IX, Kuban kazak, Lokyz, Lysy, Mike612, Mister X, Mogism, Nick Number, Piotrus, Poeticbent,RafaAzevedo, Rausch, Renata3, Toddy1, Tymek, Vlad fedorov, Voyevoda, Woohookitty, Xx236, Yalens, Zscout370, 22 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Administrative division of Belarus (1939-1944).jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Administrative_division_of_Belarus_(1939-1944).jpg  License: GNU FreeDocumentation License  Contributors: Drtrotsky. Original uploader was Drtrotsky at ru.wikipediaFile:Belorussian SSR in 1940 after annexation of eastern Poland.jpg  Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Belorussian_SSR_in_1940_after_annexation_of_eastern_Poland.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Soviet governmentFile:Flag of Belarus (1991-1995).svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Belarus_(1991-1995).svg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0Unported  Contributors: User:Nokka, User:ShNara, User:Zscout370File:1 stol.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:1_stol.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: ZedlikFile:East-and-west-belarus.png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:East-and-west-belarus.png  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Brianski (talk)File:Sybiracy (deportacje 1940-1941).jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sybiracy_(deportacje_1940-1941).jpg  License: anonymous-EU  Contributors: Poeticbent,Totomka, Yann

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/