In the First World War (1914–1918), the territory of Belarus once again became the scene of active hostilities: in 1915 the German territories occupied the western territories of modern Belarus, from which 432 industrial facilities and a number of educational institutions were dismantled or exported to Russia. Also, 29 enterprises were taken out of the frontline Minsk, Mogilev and Vitebsk provinces, and in the summer of 1915, in areas under threat of occupation, they destroyed crops and agricultural stocks and paid compensation to peasants at government rates. A number of educational institutions were also evacuated from Belarus to Russia and Ukraine. In the territory occupied by the Germans, the Belarusian People’s Committee was organized.
The war led to inflation, a significant use of female and child labor, and in the front line the civilian population mobilized for military work (for example, at the end of 1916, 219.3 thousand men and women were mobilized in the Minsk province). The western lands occupied by the Germans in 1915 (about 50 thousand square kilometers) were divided into the military administrative district of Ober-Ost, the military operational strip and Brest. The territories occupied in 1915 were subordinated to the German military command, which introduced a number of restrictions for the local population (passports with fingerprints even for children, a pass system when leaving the place of residence): the officers of the German army were given control of the landowner estates whose owners fled to Russia. An occupation currency, the Oberost-ruble, was also issued.
The population of the territory occupied in 1915 was taxed with a head-tax (8 marks in 1917 per person from 15 to 60 years), on industry and commerce. They also practiced requisitioning of agricultural products, prohibiting the killing of livestock and poultry without a special permit (the permission involved the transfer of some meat to the authorities). In 1915, forced paid work was introduced for women aged 18–45 years and men between 16 and 50 years old. The German occupying authorities tried to develop the local forest industry — in 1915, 7 sawmills began to work in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. At the same time, the German occupation authorities opened a number of Belarusian, Lithuanian and Jewish schools, where compulsory German studies were also introduced (it was forbidden to teach children in Russian).
Belarus during the Civil War
On December 5, 1917, the First All-Belarusian Congress began its work, at which issues of Belarusian statehood were discussed. Participants of the congress were divided into supporters of the Great Belarusian Rada (supporters of independence) and the Belarusian Regional Committee (supporters of broad autonomy within Russia). The participants of the congress made a compromise decision to create the All-Belarusian Council of Peasants, Soldiers and Workers’ Deputies. The All-Belarusian Council was to prepare the convocation of the Constituent Assembly to resolve the issue of the state system of Belarus. However, already on December 18, the Council of People’s Commissars of the Western Region and the Front decided to disperse the congress.
On March 25, 1918, representatives of the Belarusian national movement under German occupation announced the creation of an independent Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR).
After the departure of the German troops, the territory in which the BNR structures functioned was occupied by the Red Army without resistance, the BNR government was forced to emigrate to Vilna.
In November — December 1920, the Belarusian Social Revolutionaries led the Slutsk uprising under the slogan of restoring the BNR.
Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus
In November 1918 – February 1919, the Red Army carried out the Belarusian operation to occupy the Belarusian territories left by Germany. There was no consensus among the communists about the expediency of creating a separate Belarusian Soviet republic. Representatives of the Oblast Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the Western Region spoke against the creation of the Belarusian Soviet state. “Oblastniki” is the considered territory of Belarus as part of the RSFSR. Their views were influenced by the idea of the world socialist revolution, and in the self-determination of peoples and with the formation of national states they saw an obstacle on their way. They argued that Belarusians are not an independent nation, and therefore the principle of self-determination does not suit them. Belarussian communist organizations (Belnatsky and Belarusian sections under the RCP (b)), later supported by the leadership of the RSDLP (b), spoke in favor.
The government of Soviet Belorussia was created at the VI Conference of the RSDLP (b) Organizations of the North-Western Region of Russia, held in Smolensk on December 30-31, 1918 . In the same place, in Smolensk, on January 1, 1919, it was proclaimed the formation of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus (SSRB) within the RSFSR. On January 8, 1919, the SSRB government moved from Smolensk to Minsk, after the German occupation forces had left Minsk.
January 31, 1919 SSRB left the RSFSR, and its independence officially recognized the government of Soviet Russia. At the same time, on January 16, at a plenary session of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.), A decision was made to separate the Vitebsk, Smolensk and Mogilyov provinces from the Belarusian Republic, which were transferred to the RSFSR. The SSRB remained two provinces – Minsk and Grodno.
On February 2, 1919, the First All-Belarusian Congress of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Red Army Deputies’ Council met in Minsk, which adopted the Constitution of the SSRB on February 3.
On February 27, 1919, the SSRB merged with the Lithuanian SSR in the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, which existed until July 17, 1919.
In Soviet and modern Belarusian historiography, January 1, 1919 is considered the date of the first proclamation of the BSSR.
At the end of January 1919, the Soviet-Polish war began . On August 8, Polish troops occupied Minsk. In July of the following year, the city was repulsed by the Red Army. According to the results of the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, the territories of Western Belarus, located east of the Curzon Line, where the Belarusian population prevailed, departed to Poland.