The First All-Belarusian Congress () was a congress of Belarusian political organisations and groups held in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

in December 1917. The congress gathered 1872 delegates from all regions of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and was violently dispersed by the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

military. The congress played an important role in the consolidation of the Belarusian national liberation movement after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

in Russia. The council that was selected at the congress formed the

Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic The Rada of the Belarusian People's Republic (, ) was the governing body of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. Since 1919, the Rada BNR has been in exile where it has preserved its existence among the Belarusian diaspora as an advocacy group ...

and on 25 March 1918 declared the independence of

as the

Belarusian Democratic Republic The Belarusian People's Republic (BNR; , ), also known as the Belarusian Democratic Republic, was a state proclaimed by the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in its Second Constituent Charter on 9 March 1918 during World War I. The ...

Background

In early 1917

was still part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Following the

February February is the second month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 in leap years, with the February 29, 29th day being called the ''leap day''. February is the third a ...

and

s in Russia, the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

who came to power promised free self-determination to all nations living in the former Russian Empire, including the possibility of gaining full independence. Belarusian political organizations, representing regions with a Belarusian majority population, decided to hold a conference in order to work out a unitary position regarding the future of Belarus. The Supreme Belarusian Council, a coalition consolidating Belarusian organizations, was the organizer of the conference.

The congress

A total of 1872 delegates came to the conference, representing all regions of Belarus. The delegates were representatives of various social and political organizations, local governments, trade unions, as well as of refugees to Russia, soldiers of the Russian army and diasporas in Petrograd and Moscow. The congress elected the ''Council of the First All-Belarusian Congress'' of 71 members under the leadership of

Jan Sierada Ivan Mikitavič Sierada ( – after 19 November 1943), better known by the pseudonyms of Jan or Janka was a Belarusian statesman, pedagogist and writer who served as the first president of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. Biogr ...

. The Council, in turn, formed an executive committee which was to serve as the organizing body in the process of establishing a modern constitutional democratic Belarusian state. There were active discussions on various topics of the future of Belarus, with the main question being the future form of state of Belarus. Right wing-leaning delegates and many delegates from

western Belarus Western Belorussia or Western Belarus (; ; ) is a historical region of modern-day Belarus which belonged to the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period. For twenty years before the 1939 invasion of Poland, it was the northern part of th ...

insisted on immediately declaring full independence of Belarus from Russia. Left-leaning delegates and delegates from the eastern regions of Belarus opposed this idea. Many of them proposed that Belarus establish itself as an entity within a democratic Russian Federation. In the night of 18 December 1917, the delegates adopted the first items of the final resolution, declaring Belarus a democratic republic but without yet defining its status in relation with Russia. At this point Bolshevik soldiers violently interrupted the conference and arrested several participants.

Aftermath

The executive committee of the congress' council managed to maintain its activity in the underground up until

was taken over by German forces in February 1918. It later transformed into the

(Rada BNR) and declared the independence of Belarus in March 1918. The Rada BNR later held negotiations with various foreign governments regarding international recognition of the independence of Belarus and still exists in exile today. According to Belarusian authors, the congress has managed to bring the question of Belarus on the international agenda. In particular, the Soviets were criticized for dispersing the conference at the Soviet-German Brest-Litovsk peace conference{{cite book , last1=Калубовіч , first1=Калубовіч , year=1993 , chapter=Рэха I-га Ўсебеларускага Кангрэсу на Захадзе , trans-chapter=The Echo of the First All-Belarusian Congress in the West , chapter-url=http://knihi.com/Auhien_Kalubovic/Recha_I-ha_Usiebielaruskaha_Kanhresu_na_Zachadzie.html , title=Крокі гісторыі , trans-title=The Steps of History , url=http://knihi.com/Auhien_Kalubovic/Recha_I-ha_Usiebielaruskaha_Kanhresu_na_Zachadzie.html , language=be , location=Bielastk, Vilnia, Minsk and in a few articles in German, Swiss and Russian non-Bolshevik media. According to a widespread view in Belarus, the conference had a pivotal meaning for the Belarusian independence movement, the future establishment of the

and later the Belarusian Soviet Republic. In February 1919, the Bolsheviks held their own conference with an almost identical name, the First All-Belarusian Congress ''of the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

s of Worker, Peasant and

Red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Soldier Deputies'', at the same venue as the First All-Belarusian Congress.Як БНР заваявала незалежнасць Казахстану
/ref> The Soviet Congress adopted the constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus.

References

Belarusian National Republic Belarusian opposition Belarusian independence movement Legal history of Belarus 1917 in Belarus 1917 conferences

Background

The congress

Aftermath

See also

References