FAQHistory - Билеты по истории Беларуси - 3.2 - текст песни, слова, перевод, видео

2. Belarus in the conditions of the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920. Results of the Riga Peace

The beginning of the war. In November 1918, the Polish state was revived. The government of J. Pilsudski advocated the restoration of the territory of the state within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as of 1772, which meant the desire to return the territories of Belarus and Lithuania, where Soviet power had already been established, to Poland. In February 1919, Polish troops launched an offensive in the directions of Vilna - Minsk and Kobrin - Pinsk, and the Polish-Soviet war began. By the summer of 1919 Polish troops occupied significant territory of Belarus. The Red Army abandoned Vilna, Brest, and Minsk. The threat of capture loomed over Gomel. And only on the line of the Berezina River did the front stabilize. This situation remained until the spring of 1920.

Occupation regime. On the occupied territory of Belarus, the Polish authorities restored landownership, in cultural life they pursued a policy of Polonization and a system of measures to assimilate the Belarusian people. Belarusian schools and cultural institutions were closed. Many figures of the Belarusian national movement, a number of teachers of Belarusian schools were arrested and sent to Polish prisons and concentration camps.

During the years of Polish occupation, Soviet power was maintained in the “Rudobel Republic”. In January 1920, a Polish punitive expedition burned the village of Rudobelka, but the occupiers failed to suppress the partisan movement. During the fight against the Polish intervention 20, the name of the national hero Grandfather Talash became famous. At the age of 74, he organized and led a partisan detachment of about 300 people operating in the territory of Belarusian Polesie.

Military operations on the Polish-Soviet front in 1920. In March 1920 Polish troops launched a new offensive. Within Belarus, they managed to create a fivefold superiority over the Red Army troops. The Red Army was able to stop the Polish offensive, and in July 1920 launched a counteroffensive. As a result, Minsk was liberated.

In August 1920, Brest was liberated from the Polish occupiers. Soviet troops moved further to the West, into the territory of Poland with the aim of spreading the world proletarian revolution. Red Army troops reached the outskirts of Warsaw. Due to a lack of forces, poor material support, uncoordinated actions, as well as the negative reaction of the Polish population, the Red Army troops were defeated. Under the threat of encirclement, they were forced to retreat from the territory of not only Poland, but also Western Belarus, with heavy losses.

On July 31, 1920, in Minsk, liberated from Polish invaders, the Declaration of Independence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus (SSRB) was adopted. The second proclamation of the SSRB took place on the territory of Belarus.

The Riga Peace Treaty and its consequences for Belarus. In conditions when Polish troops occupied a significant part of Belarus as a result of a counteroffensive, the Soviet government was forced to negotiate peace. They took place in Riga between the RSFSR and Ukraine, on the one hand, and Poland, on the other.

According to the Riga Peace Treaty of March 18, 1921, a significant part of the territory of Belarus - 113 thousand km2 with a population of more than 4 million people - became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Only six districts of the Minsk province remained in the BSSR - Minsk, Borisovsky, Bobruisk, Igumensky, Mozyr and Slutsky, in which 1.6 million people lived. The border with Poland was 30 km west of Minsk. The Vitebsk and Gomel provinces, the western districts of the Smolensk province remained part of the RSFSR.