Belarus: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Evidence of human occupation in Belarus goes back to the early Stone Age. Eastern Slavs were certainly here in the 6th to 8th centuries AD, during the Slav expansion. Many Belarusian towns became Tatar vassals after the Mongols defeated the region's Slav rulers in Kiev in 1240. During the 14th century the area was taken over by Lithuania, a 'hands-off' ruler that allowed Belarus to hang onto its Orthodox religion and its language, despite imposing serfdom on most of the locals. Over the next 400 years, Belarus became a cultural entity distinct from Russia and Ukraine. When Poland unified with Lithuania in 1569, Polish culture became much more prominent in Belarus and the Belarusian church was brought under the authority of the Vatican.

By the end of the 18th century, Poland was getting a bit doddery, so Russia stepped in and took charge of Belarus. Russia was determined to make Belarus part of the great fatherland: publishing in the Belarusian language was banned and the Russian Orthodox church instituted. During the 19th century Belarus started moving from agriculture to a more industrialised economy. In the 1860s the serfs were freed, but poverty in the countryside remained so high that 1.5 million people emigrated around the turn of the century. Since the Russians required Jews to live in designated areas - one of which was Belarus - the country's urban Jewish population increased dramatically during the 19th century, and in some towns more than half the population was Jewish. Most urban areas were largely populated by Jews and Russians, while the Belarusians remained on the land, having little political influence or access to resources.

Modern History

During WWI, many Russian-German battles took place in Belarus, and a lot of the country was destroyed. Germany took Belarus, but in 1921 the country was divided between Poland and Bolshevik Russia (which became the USSR the next year). The Soviet section of Belarus was subjected to purges and agricultural collectivisation during the 1930s, and its culture and independence were quashed. Thousands of Belarusians were executed, mostly in the forests outside Minsk.

When Poland was invaded by Germany and the USSR in 1939, the USSR took back the Polish section of Belarus. Unfortunately for the Belarusians, they were on the front line again when Germany invaded the USSR in 1941. The German occupation was savage and partisan resistance was widespread. In 1944 the Germans were driven out by the Red Army, but Belarus was trashed in the process: barely a stone was left standing in Minsk and a quarter of the country's population died. Many of the dead met their end in Nazi concentration camps or were deported and executed by the USSR.

The first post-war 5-year plan repaired a lot of the war damage, and Minsk developed into the industrial hub of the USSR. People moved into the city and many Russians immigrated to bolster the industrial workforce. Until 1980, Belarusian politicians walked a fine line between emphasising Belarus' nationhood and staying safe and warm in the Soviet family. That said, however, Belarus had a reputation for being one of the most rigidly communist of the Soviet republics.

When the Chornobyl (aka Chernobyl) nuclear power station in Ukraine melted down in 1986, Belarus was harder hit than the Ukraine itself. Around one-fifth of the country was seriously contaminated, and the tide of political opinion turned against continued membership in the Union. In 1988 the Belarusian Popular Front was formed to address issues raised by Chornobyl and the declining use of the Belarusian language. Nationalist sentiment grew in the following years, and on 27 July 1990 the republic issued a declaration of sovereignty within the USSR. On 25 August 1991 the Communist Party issued a declaration of full national independence.

Stanislau Shushkevich, a physicist who had campaigned against official negligence at Chornobyl, was the first head of state, pursuing a centrist line between the communist old guard and the reformist Popular Front. During the early 1990s, economic reform was slow and the communists re-established many ties with Russia, against Shushkevich's will. Shushkevich was removed in 1994 and, in Belarus' first direct presidential elections, replaced by Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko promised to reverse price rises, stop privatisation, halt corruption, smash organised crime and develop closer ties with Russia. Lukashenko's style of presidency was individualistic and authoritarian. He clashed frequently with the Supereme Soviet. A widely discredited 1996 referendum effectively stripped parliament of its powers.

Recent History

Since then, Lukashenko has made a habit of antagonising the West without provoking direct conflict, part of his unorthodox style of management. Opposition hopes were pinned on elections held in May 1999 and again in March 2006, but Lukashenko, through intimidation, bribes, arrests and what international observers called rigged elections, managed to hang on to power. Under his rule, Belarus has slipped from one of the most promising of the former Soviet republics to an inward-looking, corrupt backwater with a faltering economy.

Back to top ^