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European Kingdoms
Eastern Europe
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Belarus / Belarussian Soviet Socialist Republic
The history of Belarus is tied closely to that of
Lithuania and
Poland. Formerly known as
Byelorussia or Belorussia, its prehistory essentially begins in the
seventh millennium BC with the Dnieper-Donets culture and a series of
successors. One of the first waves of migrants of the Yamnaya horizon
to settle outside of their traditional steppe environment in
Europe formed
the Corded Ware culture from about 2900 BC. Initially (and in part)
this witnessed settlement along the Vistula and up to the Baltic coast
to form populations that would later become the basis for Belarussians,
Latvians, Lithuanians,
and Prussians. These
populations appear to have included a range of ethnicities, however,
rather than being purely
Indo-European, making the Corded Ware very much a melting-pot
culture.
The proto-Slavs were
generally incubated in forest territory well above the northern coast
of the Black Sea (largely falling within modern northern
Ukraine, plus
the southern edge of
Russia and modern
Belarus), between the rivers Bug
and Dnieper (the latter of which runs through Belarus and Kiev before
draining into the Black Sea). However, a precise location for the
proto-Slavic homeland is little more than conjecture. Prior to Slavic
outwards expansion the higher Dnieper basin which encroaches into
southern Belarus from Ukraine was occupied by the
Dnieper Balts, a
theoretical grouping of Eastern Baltic tribes whose existence can be
ascertained through hydronyms. Further populations of
Balts could be found
to the north of this until Slavic expansion absorbed them between the
fifth and tenth centuries AD.
Roman sources localise
the Neuri - more
Balts - at the headwaters of the River Dnieper (in Belarus). This region
was within a broad band of territory along the northern edge of
Scythian-dominated
lands during a large part of the first millennium BC. Precise levels of
Scythian control here are largely impossible to calculate.
From around 250 BC,
Germanic expansion
and migration from the southern Baltic coast continued a slow
progression into modern Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, principally driven
by the Ostrogoths.
This eastwards and southwards extension allowed them to dominate the
Venedi who
already occupied a great swathe of territory between eastern
Prussia and modern
Kaliningrad to
western Belarus and western Ukraine. The Chernyakhiv culture which
subsequently formed across southern Belarus, western Ukraine, and in
Moldava and
Romania was a
fusion of previous cultures (including the Zarubintsy) and the
newly-arrived Gothic influence.
Various steppe empires subsequently dominated much of Eastern Europe,
including those of the
Huns and
Avars. The
Kievan Rus
subsequently emerged to dominate the Volhynian territories which
included south-western Belarus, but the arrival of the
Mongols largely destroyed this state. As it faded, the grand duchy
of
Lithuania vastly extended the size of its state to the east and
south, quickly taking command in Belarusian territories, followed by
Polotsk (south-eastern
Belarus), Vitebsk, and the Volhynian half of
Galicia-Volhynia,
before extending to the north coast of the Black Sea, and east to
Smolensk. That vast Slavic area of the Lithuanian duchy became known
as
Ruthenia, from a Latinisation of 'Rus'. 'Black Ruthenia' came to be
used for lands inhabited by Balts, and 'White Ruthenia' for the Slavs of
Belarus ('belaya', or 'white' Rus - although other origin theories for
'white Rus' are also available). The Slavic ancestors of the Belarussians
had already borrowed many words from the Balts they came to dominate, and
now the process was renewed from Lithuania's peasant vocabulary. Many of
the loan words remain in use today.
In 1397 the principality of Polotsk was abolished and became an
administrative division of Lithuania, known as the Polotsk voivodeship.
It shared Lithuania's fate as the grand duchy was united within a
commonwealth that was led by the kingdom of
Poland.
This was eventually partitioned into extinction in 1795. Today the city
of Polotsk forms part of Belarus. It was during this latter period that
Russia began to
administer an area of the former commonwealth known as the
Pale of
Settlement. Initially this was small, but it increased greatly from
1793 after the 'Second Partition' of the former
Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. By the mid-nineteenth century it
incorporated Belarus (eastern
Poland at the time),
eastern Latvia,
Lithuania,
the province of Bessarabia (modern
Moldova), and western
Ukraine. Having formerly been
citizens of the commonwealth, the
Jewish population of the 'Pale' was restricted from moving eastwards
into Russia proper.
The territory that formed Belarus remained a province of the Russian empire
until the collapse of all three of the central and eastern great powers at
the end of the First World War. The Polish people united to declare a free
and independent Poland on 7 November 1918, incorporating
Galicia &
Lodomeria and
Pomerania
into their new state. This, though, was not a stable and secure Poland. It
had to fight off
German irregular
troops in the west, and had to fight for its life against Bolshevik
Russian troops in
the east during the Russo-Polish War, as it tried to push its borders as
far east as historical claims would allow. That push saw it occupy areas
of western Ukraine and all of Belarus, which also ended the short-lived
independent Belarusian People's Republic. In the end, those borders
went too far. Under the terms of the 1921 settlement, White Russia, or
Belarus, was partitioned between the Belarussian Soviet Socialist
Republic and Poland.
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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Karl-Heinz
Gabbey, from Getica, Jordanes, from The History of the Baltic
Countries, Zigmantas Kiaupa, Ain Mäesalu, Ago Pajur, & Gvido Straube
(Eds, Estonia 2008), from Belorussia under Soviet Rule, 1917-1957, Ivan
S Lubachko (University Press of Kentucky, 1972), from God's Playground,
Norman Davies (Columbia University Press, 1979), from Confession, Ethnicity,
and Language in Belarus in the 20th Century, H Bieder (Zeitschrift für
Slawistik 45, 2000, in German), and from External Links:
The Balts, Marija Gimbutas (1963, previously available online thanks to
Gabriella at Vaidilute, but still available as a PDF - click or tap on link
to download or access it), and
The White
Ruthenian Problem in Eastern Europe, Jozef Lichtensztul & Joseph
Lichtensztul (Bulletin of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in
America, Vol 2, No 4 (July 1944), pp 1170-1197, via JSTOR).) |
1918 |
The Second Polish Republic (or Second Commonwealth) is formed on 7 November
with the declaration of a free and independent state in the face of the
collapsing great powers that had previously occupied it between them.
Austria,
Germany, and
Russia are in no state
to argue. Polish general
and nationalist figure Józef Piłsudski is asked to take control of the
new state, which also includes
Galicia &
Lodomeria (now almost entirely within
Ukraine, except for
its westernmost edge).
Belarus experiences its first attempt at creating its own state out of the
chaos, known alternatively as the Belarusian People's Republic (BPR),
or the Belarusian National Republic (BNR). Historically it is also referred
to as the White Ruthenian Democratic Republic,with a flag of white-red-white
being adopted (inherited from the former
Polish
Commonwealth). The Lemko-Rusyn republic that is formed in western Galicia
tries to link up with Russia, while eastern parts of Galicia are claimed as
the West Ukrainian People's Republic, and the competing claims lead to war
between Poland, Russia, and Ukraine.
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A parade of Polish uhlans at Sejny, a town in Poland today, but
initially Lithuanian (after 1915), which swapped hands several
times in the Polish-Lithuanian War of 1919-1920
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1919 |
The Russo-Polish War is ignited between
Poland and
Ukraine on one side and Soviet
Russia on the other over
the creation of the Second Polish Republic and the somewhat uncertain borders
on its eastern flank. Józef Piłsudski considers this the best opportunity
to restore Poland to its former greatness, and he leads his troops into both
Lithuania's Vilnius
(part of the fairly brief Polish-Lithuanian War) and Kiev, occupying a
welcoming western Ukraine (part of the former
Polish Commonwealth).
The latter move also sees Byelorussia occupied and its independent republican
government extinguished. |
1920 - 1921 |
The short-lived Galitzian Socialist Soviet Republic is declared at Ternopol
in eastern Galicia, and the Polish-Lithuanian War is briefly fought
over the control of Vilnius. With
Poland the victor, the
short-lived 'Republic of Central Lithuania' is formed (later to be transformed
into a Polish voivodeship). Red Army pressure causes the Poles to fall back
temporarily, but Piłsudski leads his forces to a notable victory against
the Russians at the Battle of Warsaw.
As the Poles again advance, a ceasefire is agreed with the
Soviets in October 1920
and Vilnius is regained (to be held until 1939). The Peace of Riga is signed
on 18 March 1921. This formally divides disputed territory between the Soviets
and Poles, with the area that forms modern
Belarus effectively split in half. Galicia
remains within the new Poland (modern western
Ukraine), including the
now-suppressed Lemko-Rusyn republic, and the easternmost parts of
Lithuania also remain
part of Poland. |
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1927 |
With western Byelorussia still within the Second Polish Republic, an early
phase of liberalisation is turning towards repression and
Polish nationalism,
while the very same process is also taking place in
Germany,
albeit with more dramatic results. Belarussians and
Ukrainians have generally
been refused the right of undertaking any free national development. A
Belarusian organisation by the name of the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers'
Union is now banned, and opposition to the Polish government is met by state
repression. However, Belarussians at this time are much less politically
aware and active than their Ukrainian neighbours, with the result that they
suffer fewer repressions.
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Gubernatorskaya Street in Minsk in the years immediately before
the First World War shows a fairly well-off class of shopper and
a very clean and tidy street scene, much of which was not to
survive the Second World War
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1935 |
With Józef Piłsudski now dead the minority populations within the Second
Polish Republic are hit by a fresh wave of repression. Large numbers of
Orthodox churches and Belarusian schools are closed, the use of the Belarusian
language is discouraged, and the Belarusian leadership is sent to the prison
at Bereza Kartuska. |
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1939 - 1940 |
The Nazi German
invasion of Poland on
1 September is the trigger for the Second World War. With both
France and
Britain pledged to support Poland, both countries have no option but to
declare war on 3 September, although nothing can be done to alleviate Poland's
suffering at the hands of the invaders. As part of the Molotov–Ribbentrop
Pact, the Soviets invade
Poland from the east on 17 September, and they annexe western
Ukraine and west Byelorussia
on 28 September.
On 6 October the last Polish troops surrender, but thousands of Poles both
military and civilian escape the country to form Polish units with the Allied
powers, including Polish Navy vessels that serve in the Atlantic and fighter
pilots who help defend Britain during the Battle of Britain. The German-occupied
zone of Poland, which includes Danzig, Pozen, Silesia, and West Prussia, is
partly annexed to Germany. Six days later, the remaining sections of Poland are
formed into the 'General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories' which,
on 31 July 1940, is re-titled the General Government. The
Soviet section, which
includes Byelorussia, is organised as the Byelorussian SSR. |
1941 |
Following its invasion of
Soviet-controlled
lands, Germany
takes over the Soviet-occupied areas of
Poland on 21 June 1941.
These are divided between the General Government and the Reichskommissariat
Ostland and Ukraine. On 1
August, eastern
Galicia is
added to the General Government. Much of Minsk is destroyed by the subsequent
warfare between Germany and the USSR. |
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1945 |
The last German
troops surrender on 17 January in the face of the relentless
Soviet advance. The
conclusion of the Second World War sees
Poland benefit from the
addition of the southern half of the former
East Prussia to
its territory, including the regions of
Pomesania,
Culm, and
Warmia, once the seats of medieval
bishops. The northern half of East Prussia is annexed to Russia as the
district of Kaliningrad.
Poland's western border is shifted further west, to the Oder-Neisse line,
but it loses a vast swathe of eastern territory to Byelorussia, most of
Galicia
to Ukraine, and Vilnius to
Lithuania.
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Poet Yevgeny Dolmatovski recites his works on Berlin's Pariser
Platz just a few days after the German surrender - a remarkable
poetry recital with the bullet-riddled Brandenburg Gate flanked
by ruins and two tank barrels hovering above the heads of
soldiers
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As a result, Poland's total territory falls by twenty per cent, but
Byelorussia itself has been devastated by the brutal warfare of the Eastern
Front. Minsk has been all but levelled, and the country's mixed population
has suffered a casualty rate of about twenty-five percent of its former
total, with the Jewish remnants of the former
Pale of
Settlement have suffered an unrecoverable loss of numbers. It takes
almost thirty years for the population figure to recover. |
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1955 |
The USSR forms the
Warsaw Pact in direct response to the admission of the Federal Republic
of Germany (West
Germany)
into Nato whilst itself being barred from joining. The states involved
in the founding of this eastern alliance are
Albania,
Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, the
German Democratic Republic (East Germany),
Hungary,
Poland,
Romania, and
Russia. Byelorussia, meanwhile, is undergoing a process of Stalinisation
which involves the strict imposition of Russian language, and a Russian
influx of workers and key government personnel designed mainly to cut off
any possible western influence. |
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1986 |
On 26 April 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power station in
Ukraine suffers a catastrophic
meltdown. The disaster immediately rings alarm bells around the world but the
Soviet government
attempts to invoke a cover-up. About eight per cent of Ukraine's territory is
contaminated by the resultant radiation cloud, while the majority of the fallout
takes place over neighbouring Belarus. Millions suffer as a result, not least
those closest to the explosion who are quickly and painfully killed by
radiation sickness. |
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1990 |
On 11 March 1990,
Lithuania becomes
the first Soviet republic to declare its renewed independence. The following
year the declaration becomes fact as
Poland, Lithuania and
Byelorussia finally regain independence with the fall of the Soviet Union.
Former East Prussia,
renamed Kaliningrad,
remains directly part of Russia, and is now an isolated coastal enclave
wedged between Poland and Lithuania.
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The Chernobyl disaster and the subsequent attempted cover-up by
the Soviet authorities was the spark that brought down the
already-fragile USSR, allowing Belarus amongst many other
subject territories to gain its independence
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1991 |
Thanks to behind-the-scenes manoeuvring by the newly-elected president of the
Russian republic, Boris Yeltsin, on Christmas Day 1991 Communist USSR President
Gorbachev announces the termination of the Soviet Communist state. The Soviet
republics become independent sovereign states (if they had not already become
so since 1989 - Belarus included), including
Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia,
Estonia,
Georgia,
Hungary,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Moldova, North
Ossetia,
Romania,
Turkmenistan,
Ukraine, and
Uzbekistan. |
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Modern Belarus
AD 1991 - Present Day
The republic of Belarus (formerly Byelorussia or
Belorussia, both
officially retired in 1993) is a landlocked state that is located in
Eastern Europe, with its capital in the largest of its cities - the
city of Minsk that largely had to be rebuilt after the war. It is
neighboured to the west by the country that dominated it for much
of its existence as a recognisable region or state -
Russia - while
Ukraine is to
its south, Poland
to its west, and
Lithuania
and Latvia to
its north. In terms of size it is roughly half as big as Ukraine,
and roughly comparable to
Romania.
The dominant culture in modern Belarus is
Slavic, but its heritage
includes various influences - some stronger than others - which include
Neolithic foragers,
proto-
Indo-European cattle-herders,
Balts,
Venedi,
Ostrogoths,
Avars, and Slavs. The
Kievan Rus dominated
from about the ninth century AD, followed by the
Mongols. Finally, as they faded, the history of Belarus was tied for
about four hundred years to that of the grand duchy of
Lithuania and the
Polish-Lithuanian
commonwealth. Domination by the
Russian empire
followed this golden period and, by the mid-nineteenth century, its
region of Belarus was still technically part of eastern
Poland. Belarus
remained a province of the Russian empire until the collapse of all three
of the central and eastern great powers at the end of the First World War.
Then Poland declared its independence in 1918, trying to extend its eastern
border as far east as historical claims would allow. In the end, those
borders went too far. Under the terms of the 1921 settlement, White Russia,
or Belarus, was partitioned between the
Belarussian Soviet Socialist
Republic and Poland.
On 11 March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare
its renewed independence from the decaying
Soviet Union. The
following year the declaration became fact as Poland, Lithuania, and
Belarus finally regained their independence. Thanks to behind-the-scenes
manoeuvring by the newly-elected president of the Russian republic, Boris
Yeltsin, on Christmas Day 1991 Communist USSR President Gorbachev announced
the termination of the Soviet Communist state. The Soviet republics become
independent sovereign states (if they had not already become so since 1989),
including Belarus,
Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia,
Estonia,
Georgia,
Hungary,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Moldova, North
Ossetia,
Poland,
Romania,
Turkmenistan,
Ukraine, and
Uzbekistan.
Since the country gained independence, the first elected president of
Belarus - Alexander Lukashenko - has solidified his hold on office as a
latter-day dictator. Known irreverently as 'Europe's last dictator', his
administration has ensured authoritarian rule, a poor human rights record,
a degree of continuance of Soviet-style state ownership, and the continuation
of the death penalty, the only European state to do so. The country's
formation out of the chaos of the Russo-Polish War and the
Polish-Lithuanian War gave it a population which is dominated by
indigenous Belarussians, with large Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian
minorities, and various smaller regional groups. Soviet era Stalinisation
increased the percentage of Russians in the country. Relations with
post-Soviet Russia were initially close, but Lukashenko has seemed
determined to follow his own path in the twenty-first century. This
has led to tensions between Minsk and Moscow, but Russian support was
still provided to shore up Lukashenko's destabilised rule in 2020. |
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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Karl-Heinz
Gabbey, from Getica, Jordanes, from The History of the Baltic
Countries, Zigmantas Kiaupa, Ain Mäesalu, Ago Pajur, & Gvido Straube
(Eds, Estonia 2008), and from External Links:
The Balts, Marija Gimbutas (1963, previously available online thanks to
Gabriella at Vaidilute, but still available as a PDF - click or tap on link
to download or access it), and
Belarus: inside Europe's last dictatorship (The Guardian), and
CIA World Factbook, and
Country
Studies: Belarus, and
Women unite in maverick attempt to unseat Lukashenko in Belarus (The
Guardian), and
Calls for EU to impose sanctions on Belarus after disputed elections
(The Guardian).) |
1991 - 1994 |
In 1991 the supreme Soviet of
Belorussia begins the process
of drawing up a new constitution now that it has gained independence from
the former Soviet Union.
The final draft is submitted to the supreme council on 15 March 1994, creating
the office of president of Belarus. It contains influences by western
governments and by experiences during Soviet occupation, and specifies a five
year single term and a maximum of two terms for the president. The winner of
the second round of voting during the subsequent elections is Alexander
Lukashenko, a former state farm director and current deputy director of the
supreme council.
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Alexander Lukashenko in 2020, by which time he had maintained
his grip on power for twenty-six years, although the question
at the time was regarding how much longer he could manage it
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1994 - Present |
Alexander Lukashenko |
Elected president. Became dictator. |
1996 |
A referendum is held in the country, with the president framing a series of
proposals in the form of questions for the electorate. The most important
proposals are accepted, with the result that the country's national day is
changed to 3 July, and the constitution is amended to give the president
more powers. Elections that are due in 1999 are pushed back to 2001. The
referendum is condemned by external bodies as failing to meet democratic
standards, using many examples of state pressure on voters to ensure the
'right' result. The same tactics are used in each subsequent election to
ensure that Lukashenko remains in office. |
1999 - 2000 |
Belarus has retained closer political and economic ties to
Russia than any of
the other former Soviet
republics. On 8 December 1999, Belarus and Russia sign a treaty to ensure
two-state union between the countries, envisioning greater political and
economic integration. Although Belarus agrees to a framework within which
the accord will be carried out, serious implementation does not take
place.
In the same year of 1999, Gennady Karpenko, the leader of the opposition
to Lukashenko, dies, either of a cerebral haemorrhage or of poison. Jury
Zacharanka, former minister of internal affairs who has joined the
opposition, disappeares in the same year. So does Victor Gonchar, opposition
politician, and Anatol Krasouski, a businessman who was with him that
evening. A year later, cameraman Dmitriy Zavadski disappears. They are all
presumed dead, victims of Lukashenko's regime. |
2004 |
Along with a large selection of former
Soviet-occupied Eastern
European states - which fails to include Belarus -
Poland becomes a member
of the European Union. The relaxation of borders across Europe leads initially
to a large number of people migrating to the west, and even Belarus is not
immune from this phenomenon.
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This aerial view of south-western Minsk in 2016 shows a good
deal of post-war concrete construction in the distance, but
the the Palace of Sport in the foreground offers an example
of architectural evolution in Belarus
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In October of the same year, and facing the prospect of having to step down
in 2006 as his two (extended) terms of office are concluded, Lukashenko holds
a referendum on the elimination of those presidential term limits, winning
with an approval figure of 79.42%. Again, external bodies state that the
referendum falls far short of international standards. |
2020 |
The usual pattern of deeply flawed elections has continued to ratify
Lukashenko's stay in office, but the 2020 elections are seemingly the most
highly-rigged yet. Official results state that Lukashenko wins 80.23% of the
vote, enabling him to claim a sixth term in office. His main rival, the
highly popular Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who is a stand-in candidate for her
jailed husband, officially takes 9.9% of the vote. She has already taken her
family out of the country after facing threats and intimidation, but in the
days following the election, when vast numbers of angered Belarussians are
out on the streets in protest at the rigged elections, she is forced to seek
asylum in
Lithuania. |
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