Второй Всебелорусский конгресс (июнь 1944): забытая страница истории наших восточных соседей

Abstract

The second All-Belarusian Congress (after the First Congress in 1917, which laid the foundations of the Belarusian national statehood) was held in Minsk on June 27, 1944 on the eve of Soviet Army invasion in the capital of Belarus (‘liberation’ of Minsk from Nazi occupation). In Soviet historiography, this Congress was treated unambiguously negative as a criminal ‘gathering’ of Hitler’s henchmen. Official historiography of Soviet Belarus ignored this event. Several generations of citizens grew up in the post-war decades who had no idea about the Second Congress, its decisions and speeches that were voiced from the tribune. The task of overcoming this ignorance is still relevant which, of course, does not exclude the development of modern critical thinking about political and ideological positions of the national movement leaders of that dramatic era. This problem is connected with concurrent need to revise the view at the Second All-Belarusian Congress, which was dominant in science and political journalism of Eastern European countries, particularly in Polish historical literature – until 1989 in Polish emigre circles and in the last decades in Polen itself. Here this Congress was well know (down to the smallest detail in the memory of eyewitnesses of what happened in June 1944) and discussed openly. Irreconcilable contradictions between Poland and Belarus and anti-Polish sentiment of the Congress were often emphasized. Allegedly, Congrees participants were more concerned about the imaginary ‘Polish threat’ rather than salvation of their country from the Nazi and Soviet occupation in those tragic days (the last days of their stay in the native land). Based on the sources found in archives and examined by the author, primarily the full transcript of the Congress, we can imagine that the content and emotional speeches of Congress delegates (chairman Yauhim Kipel, head of the Belarusian Central Rada Radoslav Austroysky / Ostrovsky, Archbishop of Mogilev and Minsk – Filafey, General Constance Ezavitov, Master M. Shkelionk and culture referent – Nadzeiya Mizkevich) were aimed at protecting the Belarusian national statehood and culture against the threat of degeneration in the USSR. Great moral value in the perspective of revival of the Belarusian state and political activities in the strategy of the Belarusian emigration in the postwar world had Declaration ‘On breakup with the Bolshevik Moscow’ passed by the Congress. The myth engrafted by communist propaganda that the Second All-Belarusian Congress was initiated by the Nazi occupants of Belarus should be dispelled in today’s public consciousness. In fact, the leaders of the Belarusian national movement managed to convene Congress in spite of resistance, prohibitions and unwillingness of the occupation authorities (which is why it only became possible in the last days before the entrance of the Soviet Army in Minsk). Belarussians were the only peoples of the former Soviet Union (who found themselves ‘between a rock and a hard place’ of rivaling forces during the Second World War – Nazi Germany and the Kremlin), who managed to articulate their national objectives and claims primarily related to public integrity and independence of Belarus at the level of the national congress. The very date of the Second All-Belarusian Congress (June 27th) signifies an important additional perspective, which should be considered in the history of the peoples of Eastern Europe of 1944. It turns out that you can do a lot in the last minute. The trail of All-Belarusian Congress, conducted in emergency circumstances, should not be erased from the memory of the Belarusian people and the international community. Comparative analysis of the Congress delegates’ speeches and those of leaders of Belarusian Popular Front ‘Adrazhenne / Renaissance’ that were made in Minsk at the turn of 1980–1990s (for example, at a rally in memory of victims of Stalin’s repression in Minsk on November 1, 1987) shows that there is a political relay race passing from the First to the Second All-Belarusian Congress, to the Belarusian emigration of 1940–1950s (especially to international ‘Promethean League of Atlantic Charta’, speaking also on behalf of the Belarusian people), to democratic forces of the country, entered the historical arena in the era of perestroika.