Powstawanie państwa białoruskiego. Od republiki ludowej do republiki sowieckiej

Abstract

World War I turned out to be an accelerator of changes for the Byelorussians, which, in a relatively short period of time, led to the appearance of the postulate to have an independent state. The first manifestation of this will was a proposal made by the Byelorussian activists from Vilnius in December 1915 to revive the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A great breakthrough happened after the February Revolution in Russia. The Revolution set in motion social groups which, a few years earlier, had been far from the ideas they afterwards identified with. In Belarus, parties and organizations aiming at radical changes and building a new legal and state order multiplied, but initially, no movement envisaged separation from Russia. Political autonomy for Belarus within the Russian federal and democratic state was postulated. All subsequent centers of power in Russia consistently rejected Byelorussians' proposais. This, in consequence, led to the appearance of the idea of independent statehood. This decision was precipitated by the consequences of the German-Russian Treaty signed in Brest in February 1918. According to the intention of its creators, proclamation of independence of the People's Republic of Belarus (PRB) was to protect Belarus against requisitions in Russia envisaged in the Treaty of Brest. Even though the PRB had limited possibilities of building state structures under German occupation, the legend of having an independent state originated just then. Bolsheviks had to take this fact into consideration while creating a dummy of independent Byelorussian statehood in the form of a Soviet republic within the last days of 1918.