The Great War and the Russian Revolution as factors in the formation of Belarusian statehood (1914–1919)

Abstract

Prerequisites for the inclusion of the ‘Belarusian issue’ in the sphere of international relations had begun to take shape only during the First World War. Until 1914, the Belarusian problems remained an internal Russian factor and the Belarusian lands were named in the official Russian terminology as the North-Western region of the Russian Empire. The chief demand of the supporters of the Belarusian ‘idea’ was national-cultural autonomy within the Russian state. The Soviet leaders were not Belarusians; it was simply due to military circumstances that they found themselves on Belarusian territory. The February Revolution and the fall of the autocracy in Russia gave a new powerful impetus to the development of the Belarusian national movement. The Belarusian researcher Alexandr Tikhomirov believes that ‘the rejection of the Brest-Litovsk treaty by leaders of the Belarusian national movement played a decisive role in the proclamation of the Belarusian People’s Republic and its independence from Russia’.