After the 1917
February Revolution in Russia, active discussions started in Belarus about either gaining autonomy within the new
Russian Republic or declaring independence. Deputies of most Belarusian regions and of different political powers, including the
Belarusian Socialist Assembly, the
Christian democratic movement and the
General Jewish Labour Bund, formed a Belarusian National Council in late 1917. The Council started working on establishing Belarusian governmental institutions. Both the Bolsheviks and Germans refused to recognize it and interfered in its activity. However, the Germans saw an independent Belarus as part of the implementation of their plan for
buffer states within
Mitteleuropa. The Bolsheviks had negotiations with the Belarusian Democratic Republic regarding eventual recognition, but later decided instead to establish a pro-Soviet government of Belarus – the
Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia. Parallel with negotiations that started between the Germans and
Bolsheviks, the Belarusian Council started actively demanding recognition of autonomous status for
Belarus, with continuing internal discussions on whether it should become an autonomous region within Russia or declare national independence. On 21 February 1918, the German army captured
Minsk. On the same day, the Belarusian Council passed the
First Constituent Charter declaring the council the only legitimate power on the territory of Belarus. Neither the occupying authorities, nor its government in Berlin, however, were interested in the idea of an independent Belarusian state. On 3 March, Germans and Bolsheviks signed the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. On 6 March, the Belarusian Council passed the Second Charter declared the establishment of the Belarusian People's Republic. The Council became the provisional government of Belarus and was renamed the
Council of the Belarusian People's Republic. On March 25, 1918, the All-Belarusian Congress proclaimed the independence of the Belarusian People's Republic (Bielaruskaja Narodnaja Respublika, abbreviated as BNR). As the German army retreated and the
Bolsheviks pushed westward, the Government of the BNR left Minsk in December 1918 for the Lithuanian Republic, and in the spring of 1919 went into exile.
Territory In its Third Constituent Charter, the following territories were claimed for BNR:
Mogilev Governorate (province), as well as Belarusian parts of
Minsk Governorate,
Grodno Governorate (including
Belastok),
Vilna Governorate,
Vitebsk Governorate, and
Smolensk Governorate, and parts of bordering governorates populated by Belarusians, rejecting the then split of the Belarusian lands between Germany and Russia. The areas were claimed because of a Belarusian majority or large minority (as in
Grodno and
Vilna Governorate), although there were also numbers of
Lithuanians,
Poles and people speaking mixed varieties of
Belarusian,
Lithuanian and
Polish, as well as many
Jews, mostly in towns and cities (in some towns they made up a majority). Some of the Jews spoke Russian as their native tongue; others spoke
Yiddish.
Military in a Polish general's uniform There were attempts to create the armed forces of the newly established Belarusian People's Republic. Belarusian military units started to form within the disorganized
Imperial Russian Army already in 1917. According to the historian
Oleg Łatyszonek, about 11,000 people, mostly volunteers, served in the Army of the Belarusian People's Republic. General
Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz supported the
Government of the People's Republic and openly positioned his army as a Belarusian national army. In 1920, his units became a part of the led by the Russian SR revolutionary
Boris Savinkov which established the short-lived
Belarusian State during its actions against the Red Army. The major military action of the Army of the People's Republic was the failed
Slutsk defence action in late 1920. The Council of the BNR, based at that time in
Lithuania, sent officers to help organize armed
anti-Bolshevik resistance in the town of
Slutsk. These events served as the basis for
Vasil Bykau's story and the film based on it,
On Black Slash-and-Burn Fields.
Foreign relations During its short existence, the government of Belarus established close ties with the
Ukrainian People's Republic, organized food supplies to Belarus from Ukraine and thereby prevented hunger in the country. Beginning in 1918,
Anton Łuckievič, the
prime minister of Belarus, met with
Vladimir Lenin hoping to gain recognition for the independence of Belarus by Soviet Russia. The Belarusian delegation even proposed the creation of a federation with the RSFSR and the adoption of the Soviet Constitution in Belarus in exchange for Russia recognizing the independent status of Belarus, but Lenin did not agree to these proposals. In 1919, a delegation of the Belarusian People's Republic under Prime Minister
Anton Łuckievič participated in the
Paris Peace Conference, attempting to gain international recognition of the independence of Belarus. On the way to the conference, the delegation was received by
Czechoslovak president
Tomáš Masaryk in
Prague. During the conference, Łuckievič had meetings with the exiled foreign minister of
Admiral Kolchak's Russian government
Sergey Sazonov and the prime minister of Poland
Ignacy Jan Paderewski. In October 1919 the Belarusian People's Republic was officially recognized by
Estonia and in December 1919 by
Finland. On November 11, 1920, the Belarusian People's Republic signed a treaty with the government of
Lithuania in which both states declared to recognize each other and to cooperate together.
Other actions ,
Jan Sierada,
Jazep Varonka,
Vasil Zacharka. Standing, left to right:
Arkadź Smolič,
Pyotra Krecheuski,
Kastuś Jezavitaŭ,
Antoni Owsianik,
Leanard Zajac. The government also managed to create between 150 and 350 schools and preparations for the creation of a university in Minsk were initiated. ==Exile==