Belarus as part of the USSR. Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic: history, leaders, coat of arms Belarusian SSR year of foundation

January 1, 1919 - the day of the proclamation of the BSSR. It is symbolic that this date coincides with the New Year. 95 years ago and really began new era in our history.

The territory of the republic covered almost all the lands where Belarusians lived at that time, from Bialystok to Smolensk. But only on paper. In reality, everything was more complicated.

Preparations for the proclamation of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus - as the then BSSR was called according to the documents - began in the fall of 1918.

The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus in 2005 published a collection of documents prepared by Vitaly Skalaban and Vyacheslav Selemenev "January 1, 1919: The Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Soviet Government of Belarus." The book analyzes all available materials on the birth of the republic. The scientists came to the conclusion: “The decision to create the Belarusian Soviet government was made by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The government was formed in Moscow, and then in Smolensk and Minsk. It included representatives of two groups.

The first group consisted of members of the Belarusian sections of the RCP(b) and the Belarusian National Commissariat, a structural subdivision of the People's Commissariat for Nationalities of the RSFSR. Their leader was Dmitry Zhilunovich, who became chairman of the government.

The other was made up of members of the North-Western Regional Committee of the RCP(b) and the Executive Committee of Soviets of the Western Commune, headed by Alexander Myasnikov, who had previously denied the right of Belarusians to self-determination and fought against Belnatsk and the Belarusian sections of the RCP(b) as hotbeds of nationalism. One of them, Wilhelm Knorin, wrote on October 6, 1918 in the Zvezda newspaper: “We believed that the Belarusians are not a nation and that those ethnographic features that separate them from the rest of the Russians should be eliminated.”

In the “Manihvesets of the Hourly Worker-Peasant Savetskago Government of Belarus”, under which the date is January 1, 1919, both social and national liberation was proclaimed: –памешчыкаў, а потым захопляная пад уцiск расейскаго крываваго самадзяржаўя з яго гэнераламi i самаўладным чыноўнiцтвам, перажыўшая цяжкая ярмо нямецкаго прыгону, цяпер аслабаняяцца ад доўгай вякавой пакуты адважным наступам чырвонае армii, прычашчаяцца да новаго вольнаго жыцьця, якое будуяцца на закладзiнах камунiзму, на фундамянця мiжнароднае zluki pratsonaga people.

Workers, peasants and rednecks of the army of Belarus!

Remembrance of the parental peoples of the Race, Lithuania, Ukraine and Latvia, the hell of this day becomes free and you are free and unpaid gaspadars of the free independent Belarusian Satsyyalistkay Republic!

These words full of revolutionary passion, their author Dmitry Zhilunovich, translated into Russian, had previously given Stalin for approval. It was Iosif Vissarionovich, People's Commissar for Nationalities and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, who oversaw the creation of our republic. As early as December 25, 1918, he confronted Myasnikov with a fact: “The Central Committee of the Party decided, for many reasons that are now out of the question, to agree with the Belarusian comrades (i.e., the Zhilunovich group. - V.K., V.S.) on formation of the Belarusian Soviet government. This issue has been resolved and no longer needs to be discussed.

On December 29, Stalin again spoke with Myasnikov: “Today Belarusians (Zhilunovich’s group. - V.K., V.S.) are leaving for Smolensk. They bring a manifesto with them. The request of the Central Committee of the Party and Lenin to accept them as younger brothers, perhaps still inexperienced, but ready to give their lives to party and Soviet work.

Stalin in the propaganda materials of the 1930s - 1950s was declared the "founder of the BSSR." During Khrushchev's "thaw", history was corrected: only Lenin was called the creator of the BSSR. However, both were involved in the case. It was the Moscow leaders who were the engineers of the new republic. The “younger brothers” Zhilunovich and Myasnikov were assigned the role of ordinary builders according to the finished project. On January 1, 1919, Iosif Vissarionovich telegraphed Myasnikov: “I must remind you that the government will be in direct contact with the Central Committee of the party and will obey it. Ask Zhilunovich to come to the apparatus today.”

So, on January 1, the republic was proclaimed in Smolensk. Only a day later, the head of the government Zhilunovich with comrades Dylo, Chervyakov and Chernushevich left for Minsk. Osip Dylo later recalled how the first persons of Belarus traveled to their capital: “The pasyaradzine of the prylajan carriage was an extraordinary plaque stove, i, roaring all the way, all night long byazupynna gavaryli members of the rada, abgavarvayuchy their future shtodzen pratsa. Paslya galodny Muskva over the name of savory was bought for the gift of black bread and lard. Adna after another lyatseli stations. At the hellish months, dze, the steam locomotive fluttered, the chigun bosses looked with a dazed gaze, adkul geta took “Members of Belaruskaga Urada”, and adzin adzin adkazny ancestor at the prastatse of the pile of the soul asked tests, qi not ўrad geta Belaruskae (R.R. .K., V.S.)”.

A railway employee confused members of the government of one Belarusian republic with another. This is not a joke. And the contradictory reality of that time. The creators of the BSSR in their "Manihvesets" reckoned with the attempt to create the Belarusian People's Republic and defiantly "overthrew" political competitors:

All the laws, pastan's, riots and orders of the Rada and I are servants, and so the German, Polish and Ukrainian akupatsyyny ulasses themselves are not sapraved.

Certain prominent figures of the intelligentsia considered the creation of the BSSR as a long-awaited embodiment of the "Belarusian dream" of their state. On January 3, 1919, the writer Maxim Goretsky appeared in the Smolensk newspaper Izvestia with the article “Long live communist Belarus.” On January 6, the head of the government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the BNR, Anton Lutskevich, wrote in his diary: “There was a message that the Savetsky Belarusian Republic was independent of the Mensk Savetska oblast. Geta ўsikh so electrified that everyone, like adzin gatovs, went to Mensk and worked at times for balshaviks. On January 26, Lutskevich was sure that “the idea of ​​the Belarusian Republic can celebrate Christmas with a good party. Ab yoy gavoratsya, for yae byaruzza baroztsa tyya, who is yashche ўchora baroўsya proci yae. I have Balchaviki, coded, I was unraveled by ўBlaruska Z'ydni at the Snezhni in 1917, Ab'yavili Savetskaya Belarus at Fadarazi rye, and yes ўrada yai, the hole, the falsaga, the I. ".

However, Lutskevich hastened to conclusions. He did not know that as early as January 22, 1919, the Moscow envoy in Minsk, Ioffe, at a meeting of the Central Bureau of the CP (b) B, explained the emergence of the BSSR in a completely different way: “After the collapse of German imperialism, a period of nationalist aspirations begins again. The imperialists wanted to take advantage of these aspirations to create republics through which they could influence in the desired sense on Soviet Russia. To avoid this, as well as the direct influence of imperialism on Russia, the Central Committee decided to create a number of buffer republics between them and us. In particular, it is necessary to isolate ourselves from Polish and Petliura imperialism. On the basis of these considerations, the Central Committee decided to form the Lithuanian and Byelorussian Republics.

On these grounds, Lenin formed the Byelorussian Republic.

On February 2-3, in Minsk, in the building of the current Kupala Theater, the First Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Red Army Deputies of Belarus gathered. The deputies approved the decision initiated in Moscow to transfer Smolensk, Vitebsk and Mogilev provinces from the BSSR to the RSFSR. Zhilunovich, Dylo and Falsky were removed from their positions.

On February 8-10, Dylo, Falsky and Shantyr were arrested. The party newspaper "Zvezda" in an editorial of February 5, 1919 "On the results of the Congress of Soviets of Belarus" drew a line: "The Congress confirmed that the attempts of the Belarusian nationalist intelligentsia to create "their" Belarusian language, "their" national culture are in vain. Knorin later that crucial moment described it as follows: “After that, we undertook to carry out the Belarusian policy ourselves, not by the hands of Belarusians, but by international hands. Those were for the wide implementation of the Belarusian language, and Myasnikov had such a policy that we are pursuing a certain line, focusing in the direction of Moscow.”

The fate of most members of the first government of the BSSR is tragic - and members of the group of Zhilunovich and Myasnikov became victims. In 1919, Naidenkov was shot, in 1920 - Shantyr, in the 1930s Zhilunovich, Andreev, Kalmanovich, Pikel, Reingold, Chernushevich, Yarkin were killed during the repressions. In 1937, Chervyakov committed suicide - he could not stand the persecution. Some of the first persons of the first republic did not wait for rehabilitation until the end of the 20th century.

At the aforementioned First Congress of Soviets of Belarus in February 1919, a decision was made to unite Soviet Belarus with Soviet Lithuania into the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belarus. Her existence was short-lived. During April - August, Poland captured most of these lands, and the remaining territories were annexed to the RSFSR.

Only on July 31, 1920, after the expulsion of the Poles from Minsk, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus was re-proclaimed, which included only 6 districts of the Minsk province with the cities of Minsk, Slutsk, Bobruisk, Borisov, Mozyr, Igumen (Cherven). In 1924, 1926, lands with a Belarusian population were returned from the RSFSR to the BSSR. In 1939, the BSSR grew due to the reunification of Western Belarus.

In 1945, the BSSR became one of the founding states of the United Nations.

On September 19, 1991, the Supreme Council of the BSSR adopted the Law “On the Name of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic”, which proclaimed: “The Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic will henceforth be called the “Republic of Belarus”, and in abbreviated and compound names - “Belarus”.

Viktor KORBUT, SB, Vyacheslav SELEMENEV, chief archivist of the National Archives.

Which on January 31, 1919 withdrew from the RSFSR, and on February 27 merged with Litbel.

Litbel ceased to exist as a result of the Polish occupation during the Soviet-Polish war. On July 12, 1920, as a result of the Moscow Treaty, concluded between the RSFSR and Lithuania, Litbel was actually liquidated. Legally, Litbel ceased to exist on July 31, 1920, when the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic (Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus) was restored in Minsk, later changing its name to Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. The BSSR, among the 4 Soviet republics, signed the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR on December 30, 1922.

On September 19, 1991, on the basis of the adopted one, the BSSR was renamed the Republic of Belarus, and on December 8, 1991, the Belovezhskaya agreement on the creation of the CIS was signed with the RSFSR and Ukraine.

At the end of 1918, the Belarusian political and public structures held different views on the question of the creation of the Belarusian statehood. The regional executive committee of the Western Region and the Front and the North-Western Regional Committee of the RCP (b) were opposed to its creation, while ethnic Belarusian refugees in Petrograd, Moscow and other cities created their own influential socio-political organizations and insisted on self-determination.

Until December 1918, the Soviet party leadership did not have a definite position on the issue of Belarusian Soviet statehood. In December, a telegram was sent from the Obliskomzap to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR containing the following text: . In connection with the change in the military-political situation, the decision is overdue. Although proposals for the creation of the Byelorussian Soviet Republic were heard earlier, Special attention The Central Committee of the RCP (b) was attracted by the decisions of the conference of the Belarusian sections of the RCP (b), which decided to create a temporary workers' and peasants' government, convene the All-Belarusian Congress of Communists and create a national party center. On December 24, the issue of creating a Belarusian Soviet statehood was discussed at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). On December 25, People's Commissar for Nationalities Joseph Stalin held talks with Dmitry Zhilunovich and Alexander Myasnikov and informed them of the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) to support the creation of the BSSR. However, Stalin did not disclose the reasons for such a decision, saying only that the Central Committee decided "for many reasons, which are now out of the question, to agree with the Belarusian comrades on the formation of the Belarusian Soviet Republic." On December 27, at the last negotiations in Moscow with the participation of Stalin, the territory of the future state was designated (Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev, Smolensk, Vitebsk provinces).

The decision on the borders of the new state was adopted on the same day. The territory of the new state was divided into seven districts - Minsk, Smolensk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel, Grodno and Baranovichi. Minsk, Smolensk, Mogilev, Vitebsk and Grodno provinces, as well as several counties of the Suvalkov, Chernigov, Vilna and Kovno provinces, and with the exception of several counties of the Smolensk and Vitebsk provinces, were recognized as "the main core of the Belarusian Republic".

On December 30-31, a provisional government was being created. These days, a conflict occurred between Zhilunovich and Myasnikov related to Zhilunovich's desire to get the majority of seats in the interim government for representatives of Belnatsk and the Central Bureau of the Belarusian Communist Sections, but the conflict was settled thanks to Stalin's intervention. As a result, Belnatsky and the Central Bank of the Belarusian sections received 7 seats in the interim government, while representatives of the Regional Executive Committee of the Western Region and the Front and the North-Western Regional Committee - 9. At the same time, Zhilunovich was appointed chairman of the interim government.

On the evening of January 1, 1919, the "Manifesto of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Soviet Government of Belarus" was read on the radio. The manifesto was drawn up in a hurry, and only five members of the government (Zhilunovich, Chervyakov, Myasnikov, Ivanov, Reingold) first in Russian with subsequent translation into Belarusian. This date is considered the date of the proclamation of Soviet Belarus.

On January 3, 1919, the regional executive committee of the Western Region and the Front dissolved itself, transferring power to the provisional government of the SSR of Belarus. On January 5, 1919, the government of the SSRB moved from Smolensk to Minsk.

On January 16, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), it was decided to separate "from the Byelorussian Republic the provinces of Vitebsk, Smolensk and Mogilev, leaving two provinces - Minsk and Grodno" as part of Belarus. In addition, there were proposals to begin preparations for unification with Lithuania, and in the long run with Russia and other Soviet republics.

The decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was negatively received by the majority in the Central Executive Committee of the SSR of Belarus, however, in connection with the telegram of the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Ya. at provincial party conferences. In protest against the directive change in the territory of the republic, three people's commissars resigned from the government. In addition, such actions were unpopular on the ground as well - for example, the Nevelsk district conference, by 21 votes against 2, adopted a resolution against the transfer of the Vitebsk province to the direct subordination of the RSFSR.

On January 31, 1919, the independence of the SSR of Belarus was recognized by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR. On February 2, 1919, the First All-Belarusian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Red Army Deputies began its work in Minsk, which adopted the Constitution of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus on February 3. The congress was attended by 230 delegates, including 121 people from the Minsk province, 49 from Smolensk and none from Vitebsk; Y. Sverdlov was also present at the congress. At the congress, the Central Executive Committee of the SSRB was elected, which was headed by Myasnikov and which included only two representatives of Belnatsky. On February 27, 1919, the Byelorussian SSR merged with the Soviet Republic of Lithuania to form Litbel. Litbel ceased to exist due to the occupation of its territory by the troops of the Polish Republic during the Soviet-Polish war.

After the Red Army liberated a significant part of the territory of Belarus, on July 31, 1920, the independence of the republic was restored, and later its name changed to the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic. On the same day, the Declaration of Independence of the SSRB was published in the newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussia. The BSSR is one of the four republics that signed an agreement on the creation of the USSR in 1922.

In February 1921, in April 1924 and December 1926, part of the territory of the RSFSR, namely: parts of Vitebsk (with Vitebsk), Smolensk (with Orsha), Gomel (with Gomel) provinces, were transferred to the Byelorussian SSR. Thus, the territory of the BSSR more than doubled, and its eastern border became generally consistent with the eastern border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania before the first partition of the Commonwealth [ ] .

On March 15, 1935, she was awarded the Order of Lenin for the successes in socialist construction and development of the national economy of the BSSR.

Before 1936 official languages republics along with Belarusian and Russian were Polish and Yiddish. The slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite! "was inscribed on the coat of arms of the BSSR in all 4 languages.

October 10, 1939 between the USSR and Republic of Lithuania Together, an agreement was concluded on the transfer of Vilna and part of the Vilna region from the BSSR to it. Representatives of the BSSR did not take part in the discussion of the terms of the agreement, nor in the negotiations, nor in the signing of the agreement.

Joined the BSSR

The formation of the BSSR was not easy. Despite the idea of ​​the right of nations to self-determination, proclaimed in the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, both the government of the RSFSR and the leaders of the North-Western Regional Committee of the RCP (b), the regional executive committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Western Region, considering Belarus a territorial unit (region) of the RSFSR, did not recognize Belarusians as an independent nation, and therefore, the principle of self-determination was not extended to them.

In this approach, the idea of ​​a global socialist revolution, which in the formation of nation-states, which means borders, saw an obstacle to its advancement.

However, the Belarusians had an opposite opinion on the issue of their statehood: for example, the Belarusian National Commissariat, created on January 31, 1918 under the People's Commissariat for National Affairs, advocated the creation of the BSSR. This idea was shared and supported by the Belarusian sections of the RCP (b), created by the Belarusians of Petrograd, Saratov, Moscow and other cities.

In December 1918, on the initiative of Belnatsky, under the chairmanship of D. Zhilunovich, a conference of the Belarusian sections of the RCP (b) was organized, and the Central Bureau of the Belarusian communist sections of the RCP (b) was elected. As a result of the conference, it was decided to create a Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Belarus, convene the All-Belarusian Congress of Communists and establish a national party center.

On December 24, 1918, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) announced the need to create the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, the formation of the government of Soviet Belarus, as well as its borders. The preparation of the Manifesto of the Provisional Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Government was entrusted to A. Chervyakov and D. Zhilunovich.

In Smolensk, December 30, 1918, the VI North-West Regional Conference of the RCP (b) declared itself the First Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus (CP (b) B), the Central Bureau (CP (b) B) was elected, and also a decree on the borders of Belarus, which included Minsk, Mogilev, Smolensk, Vitebsk and Grodno provinces with some adjacent territories populated mostly by Belarusians.

On January 1, 1919, the Manifesto on the proclamation of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was published, on January 7, the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of the BSSR moved to Minsk, on February 3, 1919, the Constitution was adopted.

On February 27, 1919, the BSSR is disbanded in such a way that the Smolensk, Mogilev and Vitebsk provinces are included in the RSFSR, while the rest of the territories of Soviet Belarus are united with the Lithuanian Soviet Republic into the so-called LitBel - the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, which existed until July 19, 1919 - before its occupation by Polish troops with the support of the German occupying garrisons.

With the onset of the Red Army and the liberation of the Belarusian lands, on July 31, 1920, Minsk again proclaims the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic, renamed in 1922, after the creation of the USSR, into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR).

In the 1920-1930s, the development of industry and agriculture was gaining momentum in Soviet Belarus. In addition to the food, light, chemical and woodworking industries, production building materials, mechanical engineering, textile production: "Gomselmash" - Gomel plant of agricultural engineering, garment factory "Znamya industrialization", "KIM" - a garment factory in Vitebsk, a flax plant in Orsha, a cement plant in Krichevsk, an auto repair plant in Mogilev, two stages of BelGRES, Glass plant in Gomel, 11 Peat plants. All this contributed to solving the problems of unemployment and agrarian overpopulation.

In just three five-year plans, industrial production has grown 3 times, and taking into account Western Belarus - 8.1 times. Before World War II, the BSSR produced 33% of the all-Union production of plywood, 27% of matches and 10% of machine tools.

In March 1924, a decision was made by the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and approved by the VI Extraordinary Congress of Soviets of the BSSR on the transfer of 15 counties and individual volosts of the Vitebsk, Gomel and Smolensk provinces to the BSSR. The territory of the BSSR increased to 110.584 km², the population - up to 4.2 million people.

In the mid-1920s, Belarusianization was actively carried out in the BSSR - a set of measures to expand the scope of the Belarusian language and develop Belarusian culture. On December 4, 1926, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Nikolai Shvernik informed the Gomel provincial and city committees of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks about the accession of the Gomel and Rechitsa districts to the BSSR.

Thus, decisions on expanding the borders of the BSSR and joining the eastern Belarusian lands to it were made in Moscow. The territory of the BSSR increased by 15,727 km², and the population - by 649 thousand people. Thus, the idea that Belarus is a systemic part of the Russian world has very weighty territorial and human grounds.

According to the results Brest Peace On March 3, 1918, part of the Belarusian lands was taken away by the legionnaires of Jozef Pilsudski. Until 1939 Belarusians were a divided border. Poland included 4.5 million Belarusians, who in their overwhelming majority lived in villages (more than 80% of the population of Western Belarus was engaged in agriculture).

Several land reforms were carried out in Poland (1920, 1921 and 1925), during which a significant amount of land, mainly the land of the former royal treasury, was sold. They were received by large Polish landowners, whose plots ranged from 50 to 500 hectares. The average Belarusian peasant had a yard of 7 hectares of land.

From Poland to Western Belarus, the government resettled the so-called. "siegemen" - military and civilians who received 15-45 hectares of land free of charge or with big discounts. In fact, they were colonists, the backbone of Polish power in the region.

The standard of living of the Belarusians living in the territory of the Polish “sprout watercress” was the lowest in the Second Rzeczpospolita.

About 55 thousand Belarusian peasant farms had plots of a little more than 1 ha, with an average peasant family of 6-7 people, and accounted for about 10% of the population, being the poorest part of it, with extremely low technological possibilities for managing. 15% of households did not have cattle, a third did not have horses, more than 6% of peasants did not have any livestock.

In the early 1930s, farm laborers and poor peasants accounted for about 70%. People had to pay taxes, work off duties, pay interest on bank loans, pay fines that the Polish administration regularly imposed, pay low prices for essential industrial and consumer goods.

All this led to a low culture of agriculture and, as a result, frequent crop failures. As a result, the peasants reached the pre-war level only by 1929, but in the early 1930s economic crisis. As a result of the crisis of 1932 in Poland, the agriculture of Western Belarus fell into decay, and 78 thousand people emigrated.

The Polish government closed the Belarusian media. If in 1927 there were 23 legal Belarusian newspapers and magazines, then in 1930 - 12, and in 1932 - only 6. Before the arrival of the Polish authorities, 500 Belarusian schools operated here, in 1928 - 27, in 1936 - only 16, and by 1939 already everything Belarusian schools were converted to Polish.

According to official Polish data, which can rightly be considered underestimated, 13% of children in Western Belarus did not attend school, and by 1939 35% of the population were illiterate. At the same time, in Eastern Belarus, by 1939, 106 newspapers and magazines were published, 23 higher and 96 secondary special educational institutions illiteracy was almost completely eradicated.

It is worth noting that out of 500 Orthodox churches located in Western Belarus, 300 were converted into churches. When during the war the population had weapons in their hands, the Poles in Western Polesie and Volhynia were almost completely massacred.

And today, when people in Poland write about the “Volyn Massacre”, it is useful to recall what the Polish policy was in relation to the occupied territories, including Polish concentration camps, for example, in Bereza-Kartuzskaya, in which several dozen Belarusians died.

On March 25, 1918, representatives of national parties and movements announced the creation of an independent Belarusian People's Republic (BPR). After the departure of the German troops, its territory was occupied by the Red Army. On January 1, 1919, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus was proclaimed in Smolensk.

Since February 1919, the territory of Belarus became the scene of the Soviet-Polish war, during which Polish troops in August 1919 they occupied Minsk. The Red Army returned to Minsk in July 1920, and in 1921 a Soviet-Polish peace treaty was signed in Riga, under the terms of which West Side modern Belarus went to Poland. In its eastern part, Soviet power was established and the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was formed, which became part of the USSR on December 30, 1922.

In the 1920s-1930s, a policy of industrialization and collectivization was carried out on the territory of Soviet Belarus, new branches of industry and agriculture were formed. The language reform of 1933 strengthened the Russification policy. In the years Stalinist repressions tens of thousands of representatives of the intelligentsia, cultural and creative elite, peasants were shot or exiled to Siberia and Central Asia. Part of the intelligentsia emigrated.

Western Belarus, which went to Poland under the Treaty of Riga in 1921, was reunited with the BSSR in 1939, after the defeat of Poland.

Already at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War In 1941-1945, the territory of Belarus was occupied by German troops. Partisan struggle was organized in the occupied territories, there was an underground. In 1943, an advisory body was created under the German occupation administration - the Belarusian Central Rada, which was entrusted with propaganda and some police functions. In the summer of 1944 Belarus was liberated by the Red Army.

According to data updated in 2001, every third inhabitant of Belarus died during the war years. In total, during the Great Patriotic War, German troops burned and destroyed 9,200 settlements. Of these, over 5,295 were destroyed along with all or part of the population during the period of punitive operations. The victims of the three-year policy of genocide and "scorched earth" in Belarus were 2.230 million people.

The role of Belarus in the fight against the invaders and the sacrifices made on the altar of victory over fascism gave her the right to take her place among the founding states of the UN.

Belarus became one of the first 4 Soviet republics that signed the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR on December 30, 1922.

In March 1924 and December 1926, parts of Vitebsk (with Vitebsk), Smolensk (with Orsha), Gomel (with Gomel) provinces were transferred to the Byelorussian SSR. This decision was made at a meeting of the Politburo on November 29, 1923. These lands were defined as "related to it (BSSR) in domestic, ethnographic and economic relations."
The decree was signed by Joseph Stalin.

Initially, it was planned to transfer the BSSR to the entire province, but, according to the 1920 census, the majority of the population in them was Russian.

As a result of the first enlargement, the territory of the BSSR more than doubled, the population increased from 1.6 million to 4.2 million people.

As a result of the second consolidation, the population of the republic increased by 650 thousand people and amounted to a total of about 5 million people. The eastern border of the BSSR began to correspond to the eastern border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania before the first partition of the Commonwealth.

Tarashkevitsa and the Belarusian language

The Belarusian language was normalized during the years Soviet power. In 1918, a teacher at Petrograd University, Bronislav Tarashkevich, prepared the first grammar of the Belarusian language, normalizing spelling for the first time.

So the so-called tarashkevitsa appeared - language norm, later adopted in the Belarusian emigration.

In 1933, Tarashkevice was opposed by the grammar of the Belarusian language, which was created as a result of the language reforms of the 1930s. It was fixed and used in Belarus until 2005, when it was partially unified with tarashkevitsa.

In the 1920s, on the official coat of arms of the BSSR, the phrase "Proletarians of all countries unite!" was written in four languages: Russian, Polish, Yiddish and Tarashkevice.

In addition to the Belarusian language and tarashkevitsa, there is another form of existence of the Belarusian speech - trasyanka. It is a mixture of Russian and Belarusian languages, it is found everywhere in Belarus even now. Among its linguistic counterparts is surzhik (a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian), common in Ukraine and in the southern regions of Russia.

Belarusian oil

On August 6, 1958, by order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, on the left bank of the Western Dvina, not far from Polotsk, construction began on a large industrial complex - the Novopolotsk oil refinery.

The plant was built "by the whole world", in the USSR the All-Union shock Komsomol construction was announced.

The place was not chosen by chance. The proximity of the western borders made it possible to export to the countries of Western Europe, the plant could provide oil to the western regions of the USSR, and the nearby Polotsk served as a convenient transportation hub.

Initially, the plant's capacity was designed to process 6 million tons of crude oil per year.

February 9, 1963 in Novopolotsk (the city was "born construction") received the first Belarusian gasoline. NAFTAN is still the largest oil refinery in Belarus.

fertilizers

During the years of Soviet power, Belarus became one of the largest producers and exporters of potash fertilizers in the world. In 1958, the development of the Starobinskoye potash deposit discovered in 1949 began in the Belarusian Polesie.

Soligorsk, the only "city of miners" in Belarus, was also built here.

In the 1980s, Belaruskali occupied 17% of the world market for potash fertilizers.

The enterprise survived the collapse of the Union with complications, but today, according to the International Fertilizer Association, Belaruskali produces a seventh of the world's potash fertilizers, exporting its products to more than 70 countries.

Giants

Belarus is still famous for its giant cars. The name "BelAZ" has become a household name. Soviet children called any very large trucks that way.

The first mining dump truck appeared in the USSR in 1951. It was the predecessor of the BelAZ MAZ-525, produced at the Minsk Automobile Plant from 1951 to 1959. After, until 1967 - at BelAZ. The carrying capacity of the machine was 25 tons. For the first time, a 12-cylinder diesel engine, power steering, planetary gears in the rear wheel hubs appeared on it. A hydraulic clutch was installed between the engine and the clutch.

The rear wheels of the MAZ-525 with a diameter of 172 cm were rigidly attached to the body, without suspension.

In 1965, the production of a radically new dump truck, BelAZ-540, one of the best mining dump trucks in the world, began at the Belarusian Automobile Plant in Zhodino. This giant became the first owner of the Quality Mark and was a real breakthrough in technological thought. BelAZ-540 was the first car produced in the USSR with a hydropneumatic wheel suspension, combined power steering and body lift hydraulic systems.

In BelAZ-540, a screw steering mechanism, a hydromechanical transmission, a pneumohydraulic suspension of the rear and front axles and a welded box-section frame were used.

By 1986, BelAZ produced up to 6000 vehicles per year (half of their world production).

BelAZ trucks remain the largest vehicles on the territory of the former Soviet Union They operate in almost 50 countries around the world.

Appliances

During the years of the USSR, Belarus was one of the main manufacturers of high-quality electronics and household appliances. The transistor radios of the Speedola family, produced at the Minsk Radio Plant since 1960, have become cult. Their mass production began in 1962.

The Minsk Radio Plant also produced Horizontal TVs, which were among the most popular in the USSR.

Belarus was famous for Soviet time and their refrigerators produced at the Minsk plant. Here, for the first time in the USSR, two-chamber refrigerators, freezers and polyurethane foam insulation were developed. Belarusian Refrigerators were exported to more than 10 countries in Europe and Asia. The first refrigerator was released in 1962.

An interesting fact: in 1959-1961, Lee Harvey Oswald, the only official suspect in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, worked at the Minsk Radio Plant as a turner.

In Minsk he met his wife Maria Prusakova. In Soviet Belarus, the Oswalds had a daughter, June. They left Minsk on May 22, 1962. Less than a year and a half was left before the events due to which Lee Harvey would become famous. After the death of her husband, Marina Oswald will be on the cover of Time magazine.

Bialowieza Forest

Speaking of Belarus, one cannot fail to mention Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The reserve was established by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on January 4, 1940. Until now, it is one of the largest tourist centers of the Republic of Belarus. The state border between Poland and Belarus passes through Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

On December 8, 1991, in the government residence of Viskuli, which is located on the territory of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed a document that went down in history as the "Belovezhskaya Agreement". He stated: "The Union of the SSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist." The current president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, regrets the collapse of the USSR even today, which he emphasizes in every second interview.