A missionary, Rev. Robert P. Wilder, quoted in a contemporary New York Times article,[12] asserted that the cause of plague was native practices such as going bare-foot, the distrust of the natives about the government segregation camps; further, that houses have been shut up with corpses inside, and search parties have been going around to unearth them. The same article included reported rumours that the plague has been caused by grain hoarded for twenty years by the banias or grocers being sold in the market, while others felt it was Queen Victoria's curse for the daubing of her statue with tar.[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapekar_brothers
Following the forced abdication of Reza Shah in 1941, the British came to believe that Zahedi was planning a general uprising in cooperation with German forces, and as one of the worst grain-hoarders, was responsible for widespread popular discontent.[5][6][7] He was arrested in his own office by Fitzroy Maclean, who details the adventure in his 1949 memoir Eastern Approaches. On searching Zahidi's bedroom Maclean found "a collection of automatic weapons of German manufacture, a good deal of silk underwear, some opium, an illustrated register of the prostitutes of Isfahan," and correspondence from a local German agent.[5] Zahedi was flown out of the country and interned in Palestine.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazlollah_Zahedi
The Irish Famine of 1740–1741 (Irish: Bliain an Áir, meaning the Year of Slaughter) in the Kingdom of Ireland, is estimated to have killed between 13% and 20% of the 1740 population of 2.4 million people, which was a proportionately greater loss than during the Great Famine of 1845–1852.[1][2][3]
The famine of 1740–1741 was due to extremely cold and then dry weather in successive years, resulting in food losses in three categories: a series of poor grain harvests, a shortage of milk, and frost damage to potatoes.[4] At this time, grains, particularly oats, were more important than potatoes as staples in the diet of most workers.[citation needed]
Deaths from mass starvation in 1740–1741 were compounded by an outbreak of fatal diseases. The cold and its effects extended across Europe, but mortality was higher in Ireland because both grain and potatoes failed. This is now considered by scholars to be the last serious cold period at the end of the Little Ice Age of about 1400–1800.[citation needed]
The famine of 1740–1741 is different from the Great Famine of the 19th century. By the mid-19th century, potatoes made up a greater portion of Irish diets, with adverse consequences when the crop failed, causing famine from 1845 to 1852. The Great Famine differed by "cause, scale and timing" from the Irish Famine of 1740–1741. It was caused by an oomycete infection which destroyed much of the potato crop for several years running, a crisis exacerbated by the laissez-faire policies of the ruling British government, continued exportation of food, insufficient relief and rigid government regulations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Famine_(1740%E2%80%931741)
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Building_Steam_With_a_Grain_of_Salt&redirect=no
Hoards are very common in the Urnfield culture. The custom is abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age. They were often deposited in rivers and wet places like swamps. As these spots were often quite inaccessible, they most probably represent gifts to the gods. Other hoards contain either broken or miscast objects that were probably intended for reuse by bronze smiths. As Late Urnfield hoards often contain the same range of objects as earlier graves, some scholars interpret hoarding as a way to supply personal equipment for the hereafter. In the river Trieux, Côtes du Nord, complete swords were found together with numerous antlers of red deer that may have had a religious significance as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urnfield_culture#Hoards
Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae.[2] The roughly 41 species[3] are all endemic to North and Central America.[4] They are commonly known for their extensive tunneling activities and their ability to destroy farms and gardens.
The name "pocket gopher" on its own may refer to any of a number of genera within the family Geomyidae. These are the "true" gophers, but several ground squirrels in the distantly related family Sciuridae are often called "gophers", as well. The origin of the word "gopher" is uncertain; the French gaufre, meaning waffle, has been suggested, on account of the gopher tunnels resembling the honeycomb-like pattern of holes in a waffle;[5] another suggestion is that the word is of Muskogean origin.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher
The Boston bread riot was the last of a series of three riots by the poor of Boston in Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1710 and 1713, in response to food shortages and high bread prices. The riot ended with minimal casualties.
Riot
In the early 18th century, the city of Boston had very little arable land, and most grain had to be imported from surrounding towns or from abroad. It was common practice for the larger local grain merchants to hoard grain to drive up local prices, and to sell grain in more lucrative foreign markets such as Europe or the sugar plantations of the West Indies. On top of this, Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) interfered with foreign trade. By 1709, Boston was experiencing a serious food shortage and skyrocketing bread prices.
In April 1710, a group of men broke the rudder of a cargo ship belonging to merchant Andrew Belcher to stop its cargo of wheat from being shipped away and sold abroad. The next day, about 50 men attempted to force the ship's captain ashore, intending to loot the ship of its grain. They were arrested, but popular support for their cause resulted in them being released without charges.
In May 1713, a mob of more than 200 rioted on Boston Common, protesting high bread prices. The mob again attacked Belcher's ships, and this time they "broke into his warehouses looking for corn, and shot the lieutenant governor when he tried to interfere."[1]
See also
Notes
- Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. 1st Harper Perennial edition, HarperCollins. New York, NY. 1995, p. 51
- 1713 riots
- Riots and civil disorder in Massachusetts
- Food riots
- History of Boston
- 18th century in Boston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_bread_riot
 One-dollar bill (obverse) | |
| ISO 4217 | |
|---|---|
| Code | USD (numeric: 840) |
| Subunit | 0.01 |
| Unit | |
| Symbol | $, US$, U$ |
| Nickname | |
List | |
| Denominations | |
|---|---|
| Superunit | |
| 10 | Eagle |
| Subunit | |
| 1⁄10 | Dime |
| 1⁄100 | Cent |
| 1⁄1000 | Mill |
| Symbol | |
| Cent | ¢ |
| Mill | ₥ |
| Banknotes | |
| Freq. used | $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 |
| Rarely used | $2 (still printed); $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 (discontinued, still legal tender) |
| Coins | |
| Freq. used | 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
| Rarely used | 50¢, $1 (still minted); 1⁄2¢, 2¢, 3¢, 20¢, $2.50, $3, $5, $10, $20 (discontinued, still legal tender) |
| Demographics | |
| Date of introduction | April 2, 1792[1] |
| Replaced | Continental currency Various foreign currencies, including: Pound sterling Spanish dollar |
| User(s) | see § Formal (11), § Informal (11) |
| Issuance | |
| Central bank | Federal Reserve |
| Website | federalreserve |
| Printer | Bureau of Engraving and Printing |
| Website | www |
| Mint | United States Mint |
| Website | usmint |
| Valuation | |
| Inflation | 5% |
| Source | [2], March 2023 |
| Method | CPI |
| Pegged by | see § Pegged currencies |
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it into 100 cents, and authorized the minting of coins denominated in dollars and cents. U.S. banknotes are issued in the form of Federal Reserve Notes, popularly called greenbacks due to their predominantly green color.
The monetary policy of the United States is conducted by the Federal Reserve System, which acts as the nation's central bank.
The U.S. dollar was originally defined under a bimetallic standard of 371.25 grains (24.057 g) (0.7735 troy ounces) fine silver or, from 1837, 23.22 grains (1.505 g) fine gold, or $20.67 per troy ounce. The Gold Standard Act of 1900 linked the dollar solely to gold. From 1934, its equivalence to gold was revised to $35 per troy ounce. Since 1971, all links to gold have been repealed.[2]
The U.S. dollar became an important international reserve currency after the First World War, and displaced the pound sterling as the world's primary reserve currency by the Bretton Woods Agreement towards the end of the Second World War. The dollar is the most widely used currency in international transactions,[3] and a free-floating currency. It is also the official currency in several countries and the de facto currency in many others,[4][5] with Federal Reserve Notes (and, in a few cases, U.S. coins) used in circulation.
As of February 10, 2021, currency in circulation amounted to US$2.10 trillion, $2.05 trillion of which is in Federal Reserve Notes (the remaining $50 billion is in the form of coins and older-style United States Notes).[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar
| Garnet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General | |
| Category | Nesosilicate |
| Formula (repeating unit) | The general formula X3Y2(SiO4)3 |
| IMA symbol | Grt[1] |
| Crystal system | Isometric |
| Crystal class | |
| Space group | Ia3d |
| Identification | |
| Color | virtually all colors, blue is rare |
| Crystal habit | Rhombic dodecahedron or cubic |
| Cleavage | Indistinct |
| Fracture | conchoidal to uneven |
| Mohs scale hardness | 6.5–7.5 |
| Luster | vitreous to resinous |
| Streak | White |
| Diaphaneity | Can form with any diaphaneity, translucent is common |
| Specific gravity | 3.1–4.3 |
| Polish luster | vitreous to subadamantine[2] |
| Optical properties | Single refractive, often anomalous double refractive[2] |
| Refractive index | 1.72–1.94 |
| Birefringence | None |
| Pleochroism | None |
| Ultraviolet fluorescence | variable |
| Other characteristics | variable magnetic attraction |
| Major varieties | |
| Pyrope | Mg3Al2Si3O12 |
| Almandine | Fe3Al2Si3O12 |
| Spessartine | Mn3Al2Si3O12 |
| Andradite | Ca3Fe2Si3O12 |
| Grossular | Ca3Al2Si3O12 |
| Uvarovite | Ca3Cr2Si3O12 |
Garnets ( /ˈɡɑːrnɪt/) are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.
All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different species are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite. The garnets make up two solid solution series: pyrope-almandine-spessartine (pyralspite), with the composition range [Mg,Fe,Mn]3Al2(SiO4)3; and uvarovite-grossular-andradite (ugrandite), with the composition range Ca3[Cr,Al,Fe]2(SiO4)3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnet
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union had never been happy with private agriculture and saw collectivization as the best remedy for the problem. Lenin claimed, "Small-scale production gives birth to capitalism and the bourgeoisie constantly, daily, hourly, with elemental force, and in vast proportions."[6] Apart from ideological goals, Joseph Stalin also wished to embark on a program of rapid heavy industrialization which required larger surpluses to be extracted from the agricultural sector in order to feed a growing industrial workforce and to pay for imports of machinery (by exporting grain).[7] Social and ideological goals would also be served through the mobilization of the peasants in a co-operative economic enterprise that would provide social services to the people and empower the state. Not only was collectivization meant to fund industrialization, but it was also a way for the Bolsheviks to systematically exterminate the Kulaks and peasants in general in a back-handed manner. Stalin was incredibly suspicious of the peasants, viewing them as a major threat to socialism. Stalin's use of the collectivization process served to not only address the grain shortages, but his greater concern over the peasants' willingness to conform to the collective farm system and state mandated grain acquisitions.[8] He viewed this as an opportunity to punish the Kulaks as a class by means of collectivization.
Despite the initial plans, collectivization, accompanied by the bad harvest of 1932–1933, did not live up to expectations. Between 1929 and 1932 there was a massive fall in agricultural production resulting in famine in the countryside. Stalin and the CPSU blamed the prosperous peasants, referred to as 'kulaks' (Russian: fist), who were organizing resistance to collectivization. Allegedly, many kulaks had been hoarding grain in order to speculate on higher prices, thereby sabotaging grain collection. Stalin resolved to eliminate them as a class. The methods Stalin used to eliminate the kulaks were dispossession, deportation, and execution. The term "Ural-Siberian Method" was coined by Stalin, the rest of the population referred to it as the "new method". Article 107 of the criminal code was the legal means by which the state acquired grain.[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
The Soviet government responded to these acts by cutting off food rations to peasants and areas where there was opposition to collectivization, especially in Ukraine. For peasants that were unable to meet the grain quota, they were fined five-times the quota. If the peasant continued to be defiant the peasants' property and equipment would be confiscated by the state. If none of the previous measures were effective the defiant peasant would be deported or exiled. The practice was made legal in 1929 under Article 61 of the criminal code.[22] Many peasant families were forcibly resettled in Siberia and Kazakhstan into exile settlements, and most of them died on the way. Estimates suggest that about a million so-called 'kulak' families, or perhaps some 5 million people, were sent to forced labour camps.[50][51]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
On August 7, 1932, the Decree about the Protection of Socialist Property proclaimed that the punishment for theft of kolkhoz or cooperative property was the death sentence, which "under extenuating circumstances" could be replaced by at least ten years of incarceration. With what some called the Law of Spikelets ("Закон о колосках"), peasants (including children) who hand-collected or gleaned grain in the collective fields after the harvest were arrested for damaging the state grain production. Martin Amis writes in Koba the Dread that 125,000 sentences were passed for this particular offence in the bad harvest period from August 1932 to December 1933.
During the Famine of 1932–33 it's estimated that 7.8–11 million people died from starvation.[52] The implication is that the total death toll (both direct and indirect) for Stalin's collectivization program was on the order of 12 million people.[51] It is said that in 1945, Joseph Stalin confided to Winston Churchill at Yalta that 10 million people died in the course of collectivization.[53]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
Siberia
Since the second half of the 19th century, Siberia had been a major agricultural region within Russia, espеcially its southern territories (nowadays Altai Krai, Omsk Oblast, Novosibirsk Oblast, Kemerovo Oblast, Khakassia, Irkutsk Oblast). Stolypin's program of resettlement granted a lot of land for immigrants from elsewhere in the empire, creating a large portion of well-off peasants and stimulating rapid agricultural development in the 1910s. Local merchants exported large quantities of labelled grain, flour, and butter into central Russia and Western Europe.[54] In May 1931, a special resolution of the Western-Siberian Regional Executive Committee (classified "top secret") ordered the expropriation of property and the deportation of 40,000 kulaks to "sparsely populated and unpopulated" areas in Tomsk Oblast in the northern part of the Western-Siberian region.[55] The expropriated property was to be transferred to kolkhozes as indivisible collective property and the kolkhoz shares representing this forced contribution of the deportees to kolkhoz equity were to be held in the "collectivization fund of poor and landless peasants" (фонд коллективизации бедноты и батрачества).
It has since been perceived by historians such as Lynne Viola as a Civil War of the peasants against the Bolshevik Government and the attempted colonization of the countryside.[56]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union
Coordinates: 51.9000°N 37.9000°E
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2014) |
The Central Black Earth Region, Central Chernozem Region or Chernozemie (Russian: Центрально-черноземная область, Центральная черноземная область, Центрально-черноземная полоса[1]) is a segment of the Eurasian Black Earth belt that lies within Central Russia and comprises Voronezh Oblast, Lipetsk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast, Tambov Oblast, Oryol Oblast and Kursk Oblast. Between 1928 and 1934, these regions were briefly united into Central Black Earth Oblast, with the centre in Voronezh.
The Black Earth Region is famous for its high quality soil, called Chernozem (Black Earth). Although its importance has been primarily agricultural, the Chernozem Region was developed by the Soviets as an industrial region based on iron ores of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly.
The area contains a biosphere nature reserve called Central Black Earth Nature Reserve (42 km2 (16 sq mi)). It was created in 1935 within the Kursk and Belgorod oblasts. A prime specimen of forest steppe in Europe, the nature reserve consists of typical virgin land (tselina) steppes and deciduous forests.
Juozas Vareikis was the First Secretary of Communist Party's Regional Committee for the Central Black Earth Region (1928–1934).
History
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On May 14, 1928, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and Government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic passed a directive on the formation of the Central Black Earth Oblast[2] using the territory of the former Voronezh, Kursk, Oryol and Tambov Governorate Governorates with its centre as the city of Voronezh.
On July 16, 1928 the composition of the Central Black Earth Oblast was determined and on July 30 of the same year its districts were founded. Later, from 1929 to 1933, these districts were revised several times.
On June 3, 1929 the centre of the region, Voronezh, was designated as an independent administrative unit directly subordinate to the regional Congress of Soviets and its executive committee.
On September 16, 1929 the Voronezh Okrug was abolished and its territory was split among the newly founded Stary Oskol and Usman Okrugs.
See also
References
- Agriculture in the Black Sea Region Archived October 31, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
| Authority control: National |
|---|
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Black_Earth_Region
Kulak (/ˈkuːlæk/; Russian: кула́к; plural: кулаки́, kulakí, 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul (Ukrainian: куркуль) or golchomag (Azerbaijani: qolçomaq, plural: qolçomaqlar), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned over 8 acres (3.2 hectares) of land towards the end of the Russian Empire. In the early Soviet Union, particularly in Soviet Russia and Azerbaijan, kulak became a vague reference to property ownership among peasants who were considered hesitant allies of the Bolshevik Revolution.[1] In Ukraine during 1930–1931, there also existed a term of pidkurkulnyk (almost wealthy peasant); these were considered "sub-kulaks".[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak
The Stolypin agrarian reforms were a series of changes to Imperial Russia's agricultural sector instituted during the tenure of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. Most, if not all, of these reforms were based on recommendations from a committee known as the "Needs of Agricultural Industry Special Conference," which was held in Russia between 1901–1903 during the tenure of Minister of Finance Sergei Witte.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolypin_reform
The terms enemy of the people and enemy of the nation are designations for the political opponents and for the social-class opponents of the power group within a larger social unit, who, thus identified, can be subjected to political repression.[1] In political praxis, the term enemy of the people implies that political opposition to the ruling power group renders the people in opposition into enemies acting against the interests of the greater social unit, e.g. the political party, society, the nation, etc.
In the 20th century, the politics of the Soviet Union (1922–1991) much featured the term enemy of the people to discredit any opposition, especially during the régime of Stalin (r. 1924–1953), when it was often applied to Trotsky.[2][3] In the 21st century, the former U.S. president Donald Trump (r. 2017–2021) regularly used the enemy of the people term against critical politicians and journalists.[4][5]
Like the term enemy of the state, the term enemy of the people originated and derives from the Latin: hostis publicus, a public enemy of the Roman Empire. In literature, the term enemy of the people features in the title of the stageplay An Enemy of the People (1882), by Henrik Ibsen, and is a theme in the stageplay Coriolanus (1605), by William Shakespeare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_of_the_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Class_enemies&redirect=no
Kulak originally referred to former peasants in the Russian Empire who became wealthier during the Stolypin reform of 1906 to 1914, which aimed to reduce radicalism amongst the peasantry and produce profit-minded, politically conservative farmers. During the Russian Revolution, kulak was used to chastise peasants who withheld grain from the Bolsheviks.[3] According to Marxist–Leninist political theories of the early 20th century, the kulaks were considered class enemies of the poorer peasants.[4][5] Vladimir Lenin described them as "bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten themselves during famines",[6] declaring revolution against them to liberate poor peasants, farm laborers, and proletariat (the much smaller class of urban and industrial workers).[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak
Soviet terminology divided the Russian peasants into three broad categories:
- Bednyak, or poor peasants.
- Serednyak, or mid-income peasants.
- Kulak, the higher-income farmers who had larger farms.
In addition, they had a category of batrak, landless seasonal agricultural workers for hire.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak
The Red Terror (Russian: Красный террор, romanized: krasnyj terror) in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions which was carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It officially started in early September 1918 and lasted until 1922.[2][3]
Arising after assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin and Petrograd Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky in retaliation for Bolshevik atrocities, the latter of which was successful, the Red Terror was modeled on the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution,[4] and sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power.[5] More broadly, the term is usually applied to Bolshevik political repression throughout the Civil War (1917–1922),[6][7][8] as distinguished from the White Terror carried out by the White Army (Russian and non-Russian groups opposed to Bolshevik rule) against their political enemies, including the Bolsheviks.
| Part of the Russian Civil War | |
 Propaganda poster in Petrograd, 1918: "Death to the Bourgeoisie and its lapdogs – Long live the Red Terror"[1] | |
| Native name | Красный террор / Красный терроръ Krasnyy terror |
|---|---|
| Date | August 1918 – February 1922 |
| Duration | 3–4 years |
| Location | Soviet Russia |
| Motive | Political repression |
| Target | Anti-Bolshevik groups, clergy, rival socialists, counter-revolutionaries, peasants, and dissidents |
| Organized by | Cheka |
| Deaths | 50,000–200,000 (possibly more) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror
| Mass repression in the Soviet Union |
|---|
| Economic repression |
| Political repression |
| Ideological repression |
| Ethnic repression |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror
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The White movement (Russian: pre–1918 Бѣлое движеніе / post–1918 Белое движение, tr. Beloye dvizheniye, IPA: [ˈbʲɛləɪ dvʲɪˈʐenʲɪɪ])[a] also known as the Whites (Бѣлые / Белые, Beliye), was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the communist Bolsheviks, also known as the Reds, in the Russian Civil War (1917–1923) and that to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945). The movement's military arm was the White Army (Бѣлая армія / Белая армия, Belaya armiya), also known as the White Guard (Бѣлая гвардія / Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya) or White Guardsmen (Бѣлогвардейцы / Белогвардейцы, Belogvardeytsi).
During the Russian Civil War, the White movement functioned as a big-tent political movement representing an array of political opinions in Russia united in their opposition to the Bolsheviks—from the republican-minded liberals and Kerenskyite social democrats on the left through monarchists and supporters of a united multinational Russia to the ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds on the right.
Following the military defeat of the Whites, remnants and continuations of the movement remained in several organizations, some of which only had narrow support, enduring within the wider White émigré overseas community until after the fall of the European communist states in the Eastern European Revolutions of 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990–1991. This community-in-exile of anti-communists often divided into liberal and the more conservative segments, with some still hoping for the restoration of the Romanov dynasty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_movement
In the Russian context after 1917, "White" had three main connotations which were:
- Political contra-distinction to "the Reds", whose Red Army supported the Bolshevik government.
- Historical reference to absolute monarchy, specifically recalling Russia's first Tsar, Ivan III (reigned 1462–1505),[5] at a period when some styled the ruler of Muscovy Albus Rex ("the White King").[6]
- The white uniforms of Imperial Russia worn by some White Army soldiers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_movement
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The White movement (Russian: pre–1918 Бѣлое движеніе / post–1918 Белое движение, tr. Beloye dvizheniye, IPA: [ˈbʲɛləɪ dvʲɪˈʐenʲɪɪ])[a] also known as the Whites (Бѣлые / Белые, Beliye), was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the communist Bolsheviks, also known as the Reds, in the Russian Civil War (1917–1923) and that to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945). The movement's military arm was the White Army (Бѣлая армія / Белая армия, Belaya armiya), also known as the White Guard (Бѣлая гвардія / Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya) or White Guardsmen (Бѣлогвардейцы / Белогвардейцы, Belogvardeytsi).
During the Russian Civil War, the White movement functioned as a big-tent political movement representing an array of political opinions in Russia united in their opposition to the Bolsheviks—from the republican-minded liberals and Kerenskyite social democrats on the left through monarchists and supporters of a united multinational Russia to the ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds on the right.
Following the military defeat of the Whites, remnants and continuations of the movement remained in several organizations, some of which only had narrow support, enduring within the wider White émigré overseas community until after the fall of the European communist states in the Eastern European Revolutions of 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990–1991. This community-in-exile of anti-communists often divided into liberal and the more conservative segments, with some still hoping for the restoration of the Romanov dynasty.
Structure and ideology
In the Russian context after 1917, "White" had three main connotations which were:
- Political contra-distinction to "the Reds", whose Red Army supported the Bolshevik government.
- Historical reference to absolute monarchy, specifically recalling Russia's first Tsar, Ivan III (reigned 1462–1505),[5] at a period when some styled the ruler of Muscovy Albus Rex ("the White King").[6]
- The white uniforms of Imperial Russia worn by some White Army soldiers.
Ideology
Above all, the White movement emerged as opponents of the Red Army.[7] The White Army had the stated aim to keep to reverse the October Revolution and remove the Bolsheviks from power before a constituent assembly (dissolved by the Bolsheviks in January 1918) can be convened.[8] They worked to remove Soviet organizations and functionaries in White-controlled territory.[9]
Overall, the White Army was nationalistic[10] and rejected ethnic particularism and separatism.[11] The White Army generally believed in a united multinational Russia and opposed separatists who wanted to create nation-states.[12] British parliamentary influential leader Winston Churchill (1874–1965) personally warned General Anton Denikin (1872–1947), formerly of the Imperial Army and later a major White military leader, whose forces effected pogroms and persecutions against the Jews:
[M]y task in winning support in Parliament for the Russian Nationalist cause will be infinitely harder if well-authenticated complaints continue to be received from Jews in the zone of the Volunteer Armies.[13]
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Aside from being anti-Bolshevik and anti-communist[14] and patriotic, the Whites had no set ideology or main leader.[15] The White Armies did acknowledge a single provisional head of state in a Supreme Governor of Russia in a Provisional All-Russian Government, but this post was prominent only under the leadership in the war campaigns during 1918–1920 of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, formerly of the previous Russian Imperial Navy.[16]
The movement had no set foreign policy. Whites differed on policies toward the German Empire in its extended occupation of western Russia, the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine on the Eastern Front in the closing days of the World War, debating whether or not to ally with it. The Whites wanted to keep from alienating any potential supporters and allies and thus saw an exclusively monarchist position as a detriment to their cause and recruitment. White-movement leaders, such as Anton Denikin, advocated for Russians to create their own government, claiming the military could not decide in Russians' steads.[17] Admiral Alexander Kolchak succeeded in creating a temporary wartime government in Omsk, acknowledged by most other White leaders, but it ultimately disintegrated after Bolshevik military advances.[18]
Some warlords who were aligned with the White movement, such as Grigory Semyonov and Roman Ungern von Sternberg, did not acknowledge any authority but their own. Consequently, the White movement had no unifying political convictions, as members could be monarchists, republicans,[19] rightists, or Kadets.[20] Among White Army leaders, neither General Lavr Kornilov nor General Anton Denikin were monarchists, yet General Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel was a monarchist willing to soldier for a republican Russian government. Moreover, other political parties supported the anti-Bolshevik White Army, among them the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and others who opposed Lenin's Bolshevik coup in October 1917. Depending on the time and place, those White Army supporters might also exchange right-wing allegiance for allegiance to the Red Army.
Unlike the Bolsheviks, the White Armies did not share a single ideology, methodology, or political goal. They were led by conservative generals with different agendas and methods, and for the most part they operated quite independently of each other, with little coordination or cohesion. The composition and command structure of White armies also varied, some containing hardened veterans of World War I, others more recent volunteers. These differences and divisions, along with their inability to offer an alternative government and win popular support, prevented the White armies from winning the Civil War.[21][22]
Structure
White Army
The Volunteer Army in South Russia became the most prominent and the largest of the various and disparate White forces.[7] Starting off as a small and well-organized military in January 1918, the Volunteer Army soon grew. The Kuban Cossacks joined the White Army and conscription of both peasants and Cossacks began. In late February 1918, 4,000 soldiers under the command of General Aleksei Kaledin were forced to retreat from Rostov-on-Don due to the advance of the Red Army. In what became known as the Ice March, they traveled to Kuban in order to unite with the Kuban Cossacks, most of whom did not support the Volunteer Army. In March, 3,000 men under the command of General Viktor Pokrovsky joined the Volunteer Army, increasing its membership to 6,000, and by June to 9,000. In 1919 the Don Cossacks joined the Army. In that year between May and October, the Volunteer Army grew from 64,000 to 150,000 soldiers and was better supplied than its Red counterpart.[23] The White Army's rank-and-file comprised active anti-Bolsheviks, such as Cossacks, nobles, and peasants, as conscripts and as volunteers.
The White movement had access to various naval forces, both seagoing and riverine, especially the Black Sea Fleet.
Aerial forces available to the Whites included the Slavo-British Aviation Corps (S.B.A.C.).[24] The Russian ace Alexander Kazakov operated within this unit.
Administration
The White movement's leaders and first members[25] came mainly from the ranks of military officers. Many came from outside the nobility, such as generals Mikhail Alekseev and Anton Denikin, who originated in serf families, or General Lavr Kornilov, a Cossack.
The White generals never mastered administration;[26] they often utilized "prerevolutionary functionaries" or "military officers with monarchististic inclinations" for administering White-controlled regions.[27]
The White Armies were often lawless and disordered.[8] Also, White-controlled territories had multiple different and varying currencies with unstable exchange-rates. The chief currency, the Volunteer Army's ruble, had no gold backing.[28]
Ranks and insignia
Theatres of operation
The Whites and the Reds fought the Russian Civil War from November 1917 until 1921, and isolated battles continued in the Far East until 1923. The White Army—aided by the Allied forces (Triple Entente) from countries such as Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Italy and the United States and (sometimes) the Central Powers forces such as Germany and Austria-Hungary—fought in Siberia, Ukraine, and the Crimea. They were defeated by the Red Army due to military and ideological disunity, as well as the determination and increasing unity of the Red Army.
The White Army operated in three main theatres:
Southern front
White organising in the South started on 15 November 1917, (Old Style) under General Mikhail Alekseev (1857–1918). In December 1917, General Lavr Kornilov took over the military command of the newly named Volunteer Army until his death in April 1918, after which General Anton Denikin took over, becoming head of the "Armed Forces of the South of Russia" in January 1919.
The Southern Front featured massive-scale operations and posed the most dangerous threat to the Bolshevik Government. At first it depended entirely upon volunteers in Russia proper, mostly the Cossacks, among the first to oppose the Bolshevik Government. On 23 June 1918, the Volunteer Army (8,000–9,000 men) began its so-called Second Kuban Campaign with support from Pyotr Krasnov. By September, the Volunteer Army comprised 30,000 to 35,000 members, thanks to mobilization of the Kuban Cossacks gathered in the North Caucasus. Thus, the Volunteer Army took the name of the Caucasus Volunteer Army. On 23 January 1919, the Volunteer Army under Denikin oversaw the defeat of the 11th Soviet Army and then captured the North Caucasus region. After capturing the Donbas, Tsaritsyn and Kharkiv in June, Denikin's forces launched an attack towards Moscow on 3 July, (N.S.). Plans envisaged 40,000 fighters under the command of General Vladimir May-Mayevsky storming the city.
After General Denikin's attack upon Moscow failed in 1919, the Armed Forces of the South of Russia retreated. On 26 and 27 March 1920, the remnants of the Volunteer Army evacuated from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, where they merged with the army of Pyotr Wrangel.
Eastern (Siberian) front
The Eastern Front started in spring 1918 as a secret movement among army officers and right-wing socialist forces. In that front, they launched an attack in collaboration with the Czechoslovak Legions, who were then stranded in Siberia by the Bolshevik Government, who had barred them from leaving Russia, and with the Japanese, who also intervened to help the Whites in the east. Admiral Alexander Kolchak headed the eastern White Army and a provisional Russian government. Despite some significant success in 1919, the Whites were defeated being forced back to Far Eastern Russia, where they continued fighting until October 1922. When the Japanese withdrew, the Soviet army of the Far Eastern Republic retook the territory. The Civil War was officially declared over at this point, although Anatoly Pepelyayev still controlled the Ayano-Maysky District at that time. Pepelyayev's Yakut revolt, which concluded on 16 June 1923, represented the last military action in Russia by a White Army. It ended with the defeat of the final anti-communist enclave in the country, signalling the end of all military hostilities relating to the Russian Civil War.
Northern and Northwestern fronts
Headed by Nikolai Yudenich, Evgeni Miller, and Anatoly Lieven, the White forces in the North demonstrated less co-ordination than General Denikin's Army of Southern Russia. The Northwestern Army allied itself with Estonia, while Lieven's West Russian Volunteer Army sided with the Baltic nobility. Authoritarian support led by Pavel Bermondt-Avalov and Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz played a role as well. The most notable operation on this front, Operation White Sword, saw an unsuccessful advance towards the Russian capital of Petrograd in the autumn of 1919.
Post-Civil War
The defeated anti-Bolshevik Russians went into exile, congregating in Belgrade, Berlin, Paris, Harbin, Istanbul, and Shanghai. They established military and cultural networks that lasted through World War II (1939–1945), e.g., the Russian community in Harbin and the Russian community in Shanghai. Afterward, the White Russians' anti-Communist activists established a home base in the United States, to which numerous refugees emigrated.
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Moreover, in the 1920s and the 1930s the White Movement established organisations outside Russia, which were meant to depose the Soviet Government with guerrilla warfare, e.g., the Russian All-Military Union, the Brotherhood of Russian Truth, and the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists, a far-right anticommunist organization founded in 1930 by a group of young White emigres in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Some White émigrés adopted pro-Soviet sympathies and were termed "Soviet patriots". These people formed organizations such as the Mladorossi, the Eurasianists, and the Smenovekhovtsy. A Russian cadet corps was established to prepare the next generation of anti-Communists for the "spring campaign"—a hopeful term denoting a renewed military campaign to reclaim Russia from the Soviet Government. In any event, many cadets volunteered to fight for the Russian Corps during the Second World War, when some White Russians participated in the Russian Liberation Movement.[29]
After the war, active anti-Soviet combat was almost exclusively continued by the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists. Other organizations either dissolved, or began concentrating exclusively on self-preservation and/or educating the youth. Various youth organizations, such as the Russian Scouts-in-Exteris, promoted providing children with a background in pre-Soviet Russian culture and heritage. Some supported Zog I of Albania during the 1920s and a few independently served with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. White Russians also served alongside the Soviet Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang and the Islamic rebellion in Xinjiang in 1937.
Prominent people
- Mikhail Alekseyev
- Vladimir Antonov
- Nicholas Savich Bakulin
- Pavel Bermondt-Avalov
- Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz
- Anton Denikin
- Mikhail Diterikhs
- Mikhail Drozdovsky
- Alexander Dutov
- Dmitrii Fedotoff-White
- Ivan Ilyin
- Nikolay Iudovich Ivanov
- Alexey Kaledin
- Vladimir Kappel
- Alexander Kolchak
- Lavr Kornilov
- Pyotr Krasnov
- Mikhail Kvetsinsky
- Alexander Kutepov
- Anatoly Lieven
- Konstantin Mamontov
- Sergey Markov
- Vladimir May-Mayevsky
- Evgeny Miller
- Konstantin Petrovich Nechaev
- Viktor Pokrovsky
- Leonid Punin
- Aleksandr Rodzyanko
- Grigory Semyonov
- Andrei Shkuro
- Roman von Ungern-Sternberg
- Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel
- Sergei Wojciechowski
- Nikolai Yudenich
- Vladimir Kappel
Related movements
After the February Revolution, in western Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declared themselves independent, but they had substantial Communist or Russian military presence. Civil wars followed, wherein the anti-communist side may be referred to as White Armies, e.g. the White Guard-led, partially conscripted army in Finland (valkoinen armeija) who fought against Soviet Russia-sponsored Red Guards. However, since they were nationalists, their aims were substantially different from the Russian White Army proper; for instance, Russian White generals never explicitly supported Finnish independence. The defeat of the Russian White Army made the point moot in this dispute. The countries remained independent and governed by non-Communist governments.
See also
- Russian State (1918–1920)
- 1st Infantry Brigade (South Africa)
- Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
- Basmachi movement
- Czechoslovak Legions
- Estonian War of Independence
- Finnish Civil War
- Grand Orient of Russia's Peoples
- Great Siberian Ice March
- Italian Legione Redenta
- Russian All-Military Union
- Russian diaspora
- Red Terror
- Soviet–Ukrainian War
- White Terror (Russia)
- Ukrainian War of Independence
Notes
- The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds.
References
Footnotes
Then there occurred another story which has become traumatic, this one for the Russian nationalist psyche. At the end of the year 1918, after the Russian Revolution, the Chinese merchants in the Russian Far East demanded the Chinese government to send troops for their protection, and Chinese troops were sent to Vladivostok to protect the Chinese community: about 1600 soldiers and 700 support personnel.
It was Ivan III (1462–1505) who is well known as the first one to present himself as a tsar to foreigners, though it must be accepted that his use of the title was very sparse.
[...] the brief mention that the Muscovite ruler is by some called 'the White King' ('albus rex').
Soon after landing we started to recruit for the Slavo-British Aviation Corps (S.B.A.C.) [...].
- [1] Archived 2018-12-10 at the Wayback Machine Oleg Beyda, 'Iron Cross of the Wrangel's Army': Russian Emigrants as Interpreters in the Wehrmacht, Journal of Slavic Military Studies 27, no. 3 (2014): 430–448.
Bibliography
- Kenez, Peter (1980). "The Ideology of the White Movement". Soviet Studies. 32 (32): 58–83. doi:10.1080/09668138008411280.
- Kenez, Peter (1977). Civil War in South Russia, 1919–1920: The Defeat of the Whites. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Kenez, Peter (1971). Civil War in South Russia, 1918: The First Year of the Volunteer Army. Berkeley: University of California Press.
External links
- Anti-Bolshevik Russia in pictures
- Museum and Archives of the White Movement
- (in Russian) Memory and Honour Association
- (in Russian) History of the White Movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_movement
Republic of Belarus
| |
|---|---|
| Anthem: Дзяржаўны гімн Рэспублікі Беларусь (Belarusian) Dziaržaŭny Himn Respubliki Biełaruś Государственный гимн Республики Беларусь (Russian) Gosudarstvennyy gimn Respubliki Belarus "State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus" | |
.svg) | |
| Capital and largest city | Minsk 53°55′N 27°33′E |
| Official languages | |
| Recognized minority languages | |
| Ethnic groups (2019)[1] |
|
| Religion (2020)[2] |
|
| Demonym(s) | Belarusian |
| Government | Unitary presidential republic under an authoritarian dictatorship[3][4] |
| Alexander Lukashenko (disputed)[5][6] | |
| Roman Golovchenko[7] | |
| Legislature | National Assembly |
| Council of the Republic | |
| House of Representatives | |
| Formation | |
| 987 | |
| 10th century | |
| 1236 | |
| 9 March 1918 | |
| 25 March 1918 | |
| 27 July 1990 | |
• Independence from USSR | 25 August 1991 |
| 15 March 1994 | |
| 8 December 1999 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 207,595 km2 (80,153 sq mi) (84th) |
• Water (%) | 1.4% (2.830 km2 or 1.093 sq mi)b |
| Population | |
• 2022 estimate | 9,255,524[8] (96th) |
• Density | 45.8/km2 (118.6/sq mi) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2022 estimate |
• Total |  $201.97 billion[9] (73rd) |
• Per capita |  $21,710[9] (71st) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2022 estimate |
• Total | $79.7 billion[9] (74th) |
• Per capita | $8,570[9] (82nd) |
| Gini (2019) |  25.3[10]low |
| HDI (2021) | 0.808[11] very high · 60th |
| Currency | Belarusian ruble (BYN) |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (MSK[12]) |
| Date format | dd.mm.yyyy |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +375 |
| ISO 3166 code | BY |
| Internet TLD | |
Website belarus.by | |
| |
.svg)
Belarus,[b] officially the Republic of Belarus,[c] is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Covering an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) and with a population of 9.2 million, Belarus is the 13th-largest and the 20th-most populous country in Europe. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into seven regions. Minsk is the capital and largest city.
Between the medieval period and the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917, different states arose competing for legitimacy amid the Civil War, ultimately ending in the rise of the Byelorussian SSR, which became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. After the Polish-Soviet War, Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland. Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939, when some lands of the Second Polish Republic were reintegrated into it after the Soviet invasion of Poland, and were finalized after World War II.[14][15][16] During World War II, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a quarter of its population and half of its economic resources.[17] The republic was home to a widespread and diverse anti-Nazi insurgent movement which dominated politics until well into the 1970s, overseeing Belarus' transformation from an agrarian to industrial economy. In 1945, the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union.
The parliament of the republic proclaimed the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990, and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus declared independence on 25 August 1991.[18] Following the adoption of a new constitution in 1994, Alexander Lukashenko was elected Belarus's first president in the country's first and only free election after independence, serving as president ever since.[19] Lukashenko heads a highly centralized authoritarian government.[20][4] Belarus ranks low in international measurements of freedom of the press and civil liberties. It has continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. In 2000, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, forming the Union State.
Belarus is a developing country, ranking 60th on the Human Development Index.[21] The country has been a member of the United Nations since its founding and has joined the CIS, the CSTO, the EAEU, the OSCE, and the Non-Aligned Movement. It has shown no aspirations of joining the European Union but nevertheless maintains a bilateral relationship with the bloc and also participates in two EU projects, the Baku Initiative and the Eastern Partnership. Belarus suspended its participation in the latter on 28 June 2021, after the EU imposed more sanctions against the country.[22][23]
Etymology
The name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus', i.e., White Rus'. There are several claims to the origin of the name White Rus'.[24] An ethno-religious theory suggests that the name used to describe the part of old Ruthenian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that had been populated mostly by Slavs who had been Christianized early, as opposed to Black Ruthenia, which was predominantly inhabited by pagan Balts.[25] An alternative explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local Slavic population.[24] A third theory suggests that the old Rus' lands that were not conquered by the Tatars (i.e., Polotsk, Vitebsk and Mogilev) had been referred to as White Rus'.[24] A fourth theory suggests that the color white was associated with the west, and Belarus was the western part of Rus in the 9th to 13th centuries.[26]
The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, thus Belarus is often referred to as White Russia or White Ruthenia. The name first appeared in German and Latin medieval literature; the chronicles of Jan of Czarnków mention the imprisonment of Lithuanian grand duke Jogaila and his mother at "Albae Russiae, Poloczk dicto" in 1381.[27] The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the late-16th century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey, who was known for his close contacts with the Russian royal court.[28] During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[29]
The term Belorussia (Russian: Белору́ссия, the latter part similar but spelled and stressed differently from Росси́я, Russia) first rose in the days of the Russian Empire, and the Russian Tsar was usually styled "the Tsar of All the Russias", as Russia or the Russian Empire was formed by three parts of Russia—the Great, Little, and White.[30] This asserted that the territories are all Russian and all the peoples are also Russian; in the case of the Belarusians, they were variants of the Russian people.[31]
After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the term White Russia caused some confusion, as it was also the name of the military force that opposed the red Bolsheviks.[32] During the period of the Byelorussian SSR, the term Byelorussia was embraced as part of a national consciousness. In western Belarus under Polish control, Byelorussia became commonly used in the regions of Białystok and Grodno during the interwar period.[33]
The term Byelorussia (its names in other languages such as
English being based on the Russian form) was only used officially until
1991. Officially, the full name of the country is Republic of Belarus (Рэспубліка Беларусь, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus 
listen (help·info)).[34][35] In Russia, the usage of Belorussia is still very common.[36]
In Lithuanian, besides Baltarusija (White Russia), Belarus is also called Gudija.[37][38] The etymology of the word Gudija is not clear. By one hypothesis the word derives from the Old Prussian name Gudwa, which, in turn, is related to the form Żudwa, which is a distorted version of Sudwa, Sudovia. Sudovia, in its turn, is one of the names of the Yotvingians. Another hypothesis connects the word with the Gothic Kingdom that occupied parts of the territory of modern Belarus and Ukraine in the 4th and 5th centuries. The self-naming of Goths was Gutans and Gytos, which are close to Gudija. Yet another hypothesis is based on the idea that Gudija in Lithuanian means "the other" and may have been used historically by Lithuanians to refer to any people who did not speak Lithuanian.[39]
History
Early history
From 5000 to 2000 BC, the Bandkeramik predominated in what now constitutes Belarus, and the Cimmerians as well as other pastoralists roamed through the area by 1,000 BC. The Zarubintsy culture later became widespread at the beginning of the 1st millennium. In addition, remains from the Dnieper–Donets culture were found in Belarus and parts of Ukraine.[40] The region was first permanently settled by Baltic tribes in the 3rd century. Around the 5th century, the area was taken over by the Slavs. The takeover was partially due to the lack of military coordination of the Balts, but their gradual assimilation into Slavic culture was peaceful in nature.[41] Invaders from Asia, among whom were the Huns and Avars, swept through c. 400–600 AD, but were unable to dislodge the Slavic presence.[42]
Kievan Rus'
In the 9th century the territory of modern Belarus became part of Kievan Rus', a vast East Slavic state ruled by the Rurikid dynasty. Upon the death of Kievan Rus' ruler Yaroslav I the Wise in 1054, the state split into independent principalities.[43] The Battle on the Nemiga River in 1067 was one of the more notable events of the period, the date of which is considered the founding date of Minsk.
Many early Rus' principalities were virtually razed or severely affected by a major Mongol invasion in the 13th century, but the lands of modern-day Belarus avoided the brunt of the invasion and eventually joined the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[44] There are no sources of military seizure, but the annals affirm the alliance and united foreign policy of Polotsk and Lithuania for decades.[45] Trying to avoid the Tatar Yoke, the Principality of Minsk sought protection from Lithuanian princes further north and in 1242, the Principality of Minsk became a part of the expanding Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania resulted in an economic, political and ethno-cultural unification of Belarusian lands.[46] Of the principalities held by the duchy, nine of them were settled by a population that would eventually become the Belarusians.[47] During this time, the duchy was involved in several military campaigns, including fighting on the side of Poland against the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410; the joint victory allowed the duchy to control the northwestern borderlands of Eastern Europe.[48]
The Muscovites, led by Ivan III of Moscow, began military campaigns in 1486 in an attempt to incorporate the former lands of Kievan Rus', specifically the territories of modern-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.[49]
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
On 2 February 1386, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland were joined in a personal union through a marriage of their rulers.[50] This union set in motion the developments that eventually resulted in the formation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, created in 1569 by the Union of Lublin.[51][52]
The Lithuanian nobles were forced to seek rapprochement with the Poles because of a potential threat from Muscovy. To strengthen their independence within the format of the union, three editions of the Statutes of Lithuania were issued in the second half of the 16th century. The third Article of the Statutes established that all lands of the duchy will be eternally within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and never enter as a part of other states. The Statutes allowed the right to own land only to noble families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Anyone from outside the duchy gaining rights to a property would actually own it only after swearing allegiance to the Grand Duke of Lithuania (a title dually held by the King of Poland). These articles were aimed to defend the rights of the Lithuanian nobility within the duchy against Polish and other nobles of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[citation needed]
In the years following the union, the process of gradual Polonization of both Lithuanians and Ruthenians gained steady momentum. In culture and social life, both the Polish language and Catholicism became dominant, and in 1696, Polish replaced Ruthenian as the official language, with Ruthenian being banned from administrative use.[53] However, the Ruthenian peasants continued to speak their native language. Also, the Belarusian Byzantine Catholic Church was formed by the Poles in order to bring Orthodox Christians into the See of Rome. The Belarusian church entered into a full communion with the Latin Church through the Union of Brest in 1595, while keeping its Byzantine liturgy in the Church Slavonic language.
The Statutes were initially issued in the Ruthenian language alone and later also in Polish. Around 1840 the Statutes were banned by the Russian tsar following the November Uprising. Ukrainian lands used them until 1860s.[citation needed]
Russian Empire
The union between Poland and Lithuania ended in 1795 with the Third Partition of Poland by Imperial Russia, Prussia, and Austria.[54] The Belarusian territories acquired by the Russian Empire under the reign of Catherine II[55] were included into the Belarusian Governorate (Russian: Белорусское генерал-губернаторство) in 1796 and held until their occupation by the German Empire during World War I.[56]
Under Nicholas I and Alexander III the national cultures were repressed. Policies of Polonization[57] changed by Russification,[58] which included the return to Orthodox Christianity of Belarusian Uniates. Belarusian language was banned in schools while in neighboring Samogitia primary school education with Samogitian literacy was allowed.[59]
In a Russification drive in the 1840s, Nicholas I prohibited use of the Belarusian language in public schools, campaigned against Belarusian publications and tried to pressure those who had converted to Catholicism under the Poles to reconvert to the Orthodox faith. In 1863, economic and cultural pressure exploded in a revolt, led by Konstanty Kalinowski (also known as Kastus). After the failed revolt, the Russian government reintroduced the use of Cyrillic to Belarusian in 1864 and no documents in Belarusian were permitted by the Russian government until 1905.[60]
During the negotiations of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Belarus first declared independence under German occupation on 25 March 1918, forming the Belarusian People's Republic.[61][62] Immediately afterwards, the Polish–Soviet War ignited, and the territory of Belarus was divided between Poland and Soviet Russia.[63] The Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic exists as a government in exile ever since then; in fact, it is currently the world's longest serving government in exile.[64]
Early states and interwar period
.jpg)
Sitting, left to right:
Aliaksandar Burbis, Jan Sierada, Jazep Varonka, Vasil Zacharka.
Standing, left to right:
Arkadź Smolič, Pyotra Krecheuski, Kastus Jezavitau, Anton Ausianik, Liavon Zayats.
The Belarusian People's Republic was the first attempt to create an independent Belarusian state under the name "Belarus". Despite significant efforts, the state ceased to exist, primarily because the territory was continually dominated by the German Imperial Army and the Imperial Russian Army in World War I, and then the Bolshevik Red Army. It existed from only 1918 to 1919 but created prerequisites for the formation of a Belarusian state. The choice of name was probably based on the fact that core members of the newly formed government were educated in tsarist universities, with corresponding emphasis on the ideology of West-Russianism.[65]
The Republic of Central Lithuania was a short-lived political entity, which was the last attempt to restore Lithuania in the historical confederacy state (it was also supposed to create Lithuania Upper and Lithuania Lower). The republic was created in 1920 following the staged rebellion of soldiers of the 1st Lithuanian–Belarusian Division of the Polish Army under Lucjan Żeligowski. Centered on the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilna (Lithuanian: Vilnius, Polish: Wilno), for 18 months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area.[66] After a variety of delays, a disputed election took place on 8 January 1922, and the territory was annexed to Poland. Żeligowski later in his memoir which was published in London in 1943 condemned the annexation of the Republic by Poland, as well as the policy of closing Belarusian schools and general disregard of Marshal Józef Piłsudski's confederation plans by Polish ally.[67]
In January 1919 a part of Belarus under Bolshevik Russian control was declared the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia (SSRB) for just two months, but then merged with the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) to form the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (SSR LiB), which lost control of its territories by August.
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was created in July 1920.
The contested lands were divided between Poland and the Soviet Union after the war ended in 1921, and the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922.[61][68] In the 1920s and 1930s, Soviet agricultural and economic policies, including collectivization and five-year plans for the national economy, led to famine and political repression.[69]
The western part of modern Belarus remained part of the Second Polish Republic.[70][citation needed][71] After an early period of liberalization, tensions between increasingly nationalistic Polish government and various increasingly separatist ethnic minorities started to grow, and the Belarusian minority was no exception.[72][73] The polonization drive was inspired and influenced by the Polish National Democracy, led by Roman Dmowski, who advocated refusing Belarusians and Ukrainians the right for a free national development.[74] A Belarusian organization, the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union, was banned in 1927, and opposition to Polish government was met with state repressions.[72][73] Nonetheless, compared to the (larger) Ukrainian minority, Belarusians were much less politically aware and active, and thus suffered fewer repressions than the Ukrainians.[72][73] In 1935, after the death of Piłsudski, a new wave of repressions was released upon the minorities, with many Orthodox churches and Belarusian schools being closed.[72][73] Use of the Belarusian language was discouraged.[75] Belarusian leadership was sent to Bereza Kartuska prison.[76]
World War II
In 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Poland, marking the beginning of World War II. The Soviets invaded and annexed much of eastern Poland, which had been part of the country since the Peace of Riga two decades earlier. Much of the northern section of this area was added to the Byelorussian SSR, and now constitutes West Belarus.[14][15][16][77] The Soviet-controlled Byelorussian People's Council officially took control of the territories, whose populations consisted of a mixture of Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews, on 28 October 1939 in Białystok. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The defense of Brest Fortress was the first major battle of Operation Barbarossa.
The Byelorussian SSR was the hardest-hit Soviet republic in World War II; it remained in Nazi hands until 1944. The German Generalplan Ost called for the extermination, expulsion, or enslavement of most or all Belarusians for the purpose of providing more living space in the East for Germans.[78] Most of Western Belarus became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941, but in 1943 the German authorities allowed local collaborators to set up a client state, the Belarusian Central Council.[79]
During World War II, Belarus was home to a variety of guerrilla movements, including Jewish, Polish, and Soviet partisans. Belarusian partisan formations formed a large part of the Soviet partisans,[80] and in the modern day these partisans have formed a core part of the Belarusian national identity, with Belarus continuing to refer to itself as the "partisan republic" since the 1970s.[81][82] Following the war, many former Soviet partisans entered positions of government, among them Pyotr Masherov and Kirill Mazurov, both of whom were First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. Until the late 1970s, the Belarusian government was almost entirely composed of former partisans.[83] Numerous pieces of media have been made about the Belarusian partisans, including the 1985 film Come and See and the works of authors Ales Adamovich and Vasil Bykaŭ.
The German occupation in 1941–1944 and war on the Eastern Front devastated Belarus. During that time, 209 out of 290 towns and cities were destroyed, 85% of the republic's industry, and more than one million buildings. After the war, it was estimated that 2.2 million local inhabitants had died and of those some 810,000 were combatants—some foreign. This figure represented a staggering quarter of the prewar population. In the 1990s some raised the estimate even higher, to 2.7 million.[84] The Jewish population of Belarus was devastated during the Holocaust and never recovered.[17][85][86] The population of Belarus did not regain its pre-war level until 1971.[85]
Post-war
After the war, Belarus was among the 51 founding member states of the United Nations Charter and as such it was allowed an additional vote at the UN, on top of the Soviet Union's vote. Vigorous postwar reconstruction promptly followed the end of the war and the Byelorussian SSR became a major center of manufacturing in the western USSR, creating jobs and attracting ethnic Russians.[citation needed] The borders of the Byelorussian SSR and Poland were redrawn, in accord with the 1919-proposed Curzon Line.[56]
Joseph Stalin implemented a policy of Sovietization to isolate the Byelorussian SSR from Western influences.[85] This policy involved sending Russians from various parts of the Soviet Union and placing them in key positions in the Byelorussian SSR government. After Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev continued his predecessor's cultural hegemony program, stating, "The sooner we all start speaking Russian, the faster we shall build communism."[85]
Soviet Belarusian communist politician Andrei Gromyko, who served as Soviet foreign minister (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1988), was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he was replaced by Eduard Shevardnadze.[87] In 1986, the Byelorussian SSR was contaminated with most (70%) of the nuclear fallout from the explosion at the Chernobyl power plant located 16 km beyond the border in the neighboring Ukrainian SSR.[88][89]
By the late 1980s, political liberalization led to a national revival, with the Belarusian Popular Front becoming a major pro-independence force.[90][91]
Independence
In March 1990, elections for seats in the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR took place. Though the opposition candidates, mostly associated with the pro-independence Belarusian Popular Front, took only 10% of the seats,[92] Belarus declared itself sovereign on 27 July 1990 by issuing the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic.[93]
Mass protests erupted in April 1991 and became known as the 1991 Belarusian strikes. With the support of the Communist Party, the country's name was changed to the Republic of Belarus on 25 August 1991.[92] Stanislau Shushkevich, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, met with Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine on 8 December 1991 in Białowieża Forest to formally declare the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.[92]
Lukashenko era
A national constitution was adopted in March 1994 in which the functions of prime minister were given to the President of Belarus. A two-round election for the presidency on 24 June 1994 and 10 July 1994[35] catapulted the formerly unknown Alexander Lukashenko into national prominence. He garnered 45% of the vote in the first round and 80%[92] in the second, defeating Vyacheslav Kebich who received 14% of the vote.
Lukashenko was officially re-elected in 2001, in 2006, in 2010, in 2015 and again in 2020, although none of those elections were considered free or fair nor democratic.[94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103]
Amnesty International,[104] and Human Rights Watch[105] have criticized Lukashenko's violations of human rights.
The 2000s saw a number of economic disputes between Belarus and its primary economic partner, Russia. The first one was the 2004 Russia–Belarus energy dispute when Russian energy giant Gazprom ceased the import of gas into Belarus because of price disagreements. The 2007 Russia–Belarus energy dispute centered on accusations by Gazprom that Belarus was siphoning oil off of the Druzhba pipeline that runs through Belarus. Two years later the so-called Milk War, a trade dispute, started when Russia wanted Belarus to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and through a series of events ended up banning the import of dairy products from Belarus.
In 2011, Belarus suffered a severe economic crisis attributed to Lukashenko's government's centralized control of the economy, with inflation reaching 108.7%.[106] Around the same time the 2011 Minsk Metro bombing occurred in which 15 people were killed and 204 were injured. Two suspects, who were arrested within two days, confessed to being the perpetrators and were executed by shooting in 2012. The official version of events as publicised by the Belarusian government was questioned in the unprecedented wording of the UN Security Council statement condemning "the apparent terrorist attack" intimating the possibility that the Belarusian government itself was behind the bombing.[107]
Mass protests erupted across the country following the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential election,[108] in which Lukashenko sought a sixth term in office.[109] Neighbouring countries Poland and Lithuania do not recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus and the Lithuanian government has allotted a residence for main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and other members of the Belarusian opposition in Vilnius.[110][111][112][113][114] Neither is Lukashenko recognized as the legitimate president of Belarus by the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom nor the United States.[115][116][117][118] The European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States have all imposed sanctions against Belarus because of the rigged election and political oppression during the ongoing protests in the country.[119][120] Further sanctions were imposed in 2022 following the country's role in the invasion of Ukraine.[121][122] These include not only corporate offices and individual officers of government but also private individuals who work in the state-owned enterprise industrial sector.[123] Norway and Japan have joined the sanctions regime which aims to isolate Belarus from the international supply chain. Most major Belarusian banks are also under restrictions.[123]
Geography
Belarus lies between latitudes 51° and 57° N, and longitudes 23° and 33° E. Its extension from north to south is 560 km (350 mi), from west to east is 650 km (400 mi).[124] It is landlocked, relatively flat, and contains large tracts of marshy land.[125] About 40% of Belarus is covered by forests.[126][127] The country lies within two ecoregions: Sarmatic mixed forests and Central European mixed forests.[128]
Many streams and 11,000 lakes are found in Belarus.[125] Three major rivers run through the country: the Neman, the Pripyat, and the Dnieper. The Neman flows westward towards the Baltic sea and the Pripyat flows eastward to the Dnieper; the Dnieper flows southward towards the Black Sea.[129]
The highest point is Dzyarzhynskaya Hara (Dzyarzhynsk Hill) at 345 metres (1,132 ft), and the lowest point is on the Neman River at 90 m (295 ft).[125] The average elevation of Belarus is 160 m (525 ft) above sea level.[130] The climate features mild to cold winters, with January minimum temperatures ranging from −4 °C (24.8 °F) in southwest (Brest) to −8 °C (17.6 °F) in northeast (Vitebsk), and cool and moist summers with an average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F).[131] Belarus has an average annual rainfall of 550 to 700 mm (21.7 to 27.6 in).[131] The country is in the transitional zone between continental climates and maritime climates.[125]
Natural resources include peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas, granite, dolomite (limestone), marl, chalk, sand, gravel, and clay.[125] About 70% of the radiation from neighboring Ukraine's 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster entered Belarusian territory, and about a fifth of Belarusian land (principally farmland and forests in the southeastern regions) was affected by radiation fallout.[132] The United Nations and other agencies have aimed to reduce the level of radiation in affected areas, especially through the use of caesium binders and rapeseed cultivation, which are meant to decrease soil levels of caesium-137.[133][134]
Belarus borders five countries: Latvia to the north, Lithuania to the northwest, Poland to the west, Russia to the north and the east, and Ukraine to the south. Treaties in 1995 and 1996 demarcated Belarus's borders with Latvia and Lithuania, and Belarus ratified a 1997 treaty establishing the Belarus-Ukraine border in 2009.[135] Belarus and Lithuania ratified final border demarcation documents in February 2007.[136]
Government and politics
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Belarus, by constitution, is a presidential republic with separation of powers, governed by a president and the National Assembly. However, Belarus has often been described as "Europe's last dictatorship" and president Alexander Lukashenko as "Europe's last dictator"[137] by some media outlets, politicians and authors due to its authoritarian government.[138][139][140][141] Belarus has been considered an autocracy where power is ultimately concentrated in the hands of the president, elections are not free and judicial independence is weak.[142] The Council of Europe removed Belarus from its observer status since 1997 as a response for election irregularities in the November 1996 constitutional referendum and parliament by-elections.[143][144] Re-admission of the country into the council is dependent on the completion of benchmarks set by the council, including the improvement of human rights, rule of law, and democracy.[145]
The term for each presidency is five years. Under the 1994 constitution, the president could serve for only two terms as president, but a change in the constitution in 2004 eliminated term limits.[146] Alexander Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus since 1994. In 1996, Lukashenko called for a controversial vote to extend the presidential term from five to seven years, and as a result the election that was supposed to occur in 1999 was pushed back to 2001. The referendum on the extension was denounced as a "fantastic" fake by the chief electoral officer, Viktar Hanchar, who was removed from the office for official matters only during the campaign.[147] The National Assembly is a bicameral parliament comprising the 110-member House of Representatives (the lower house) and the 64-member Council of the Republic (the upper house).[148]
The House of Representatives has the power to appoint the prime minister, make constitutional amendments, call for a vote of confidence on the prime minister, and make suggestions on foreign and domestic policy.[149] The Council of the Republic has the power to select various government officials, conduct an impeachment trial of the president, and accept or reject the bills passed by the House of Representatives. Each chamber has the ability to veto any law passed by local officials if it is contrary to the constitution.[150]
The government includes a Council of Ministers, headed by the prime minister and five deputy prime ministers.[151] The members of this council need not be members of the legislature and are appointed by the president. The judiciary comprises the Supreme Court and specialized courts such as the Constitutional Court, which deals with specific issues related to constitutional and business law. The judges of national courts are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Council of the Republic. For criminal cases, the highest court of appeal is the Supreme Court. The Belarusian Constitution forbids the use of special extrajudicial courts.[150]
Elections
Neither the pro-Lukashenko parties, such as the Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party and the Republican Party of Labour and Justice nor the People's Coalition 5 Plus opposition parties, such as the Belarusian People's Front and the United Civil Party of Belarus, won any seats in the 2004 elections. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ruled that the elections were unfair because opposition candidates were arbitrarily denied registration and the election process was designed to favor the ruling party.[152]
In the 2006 presidential election, Lukashenko was opposed by Alaksandar Milinkievič, who represented a coalition of opposition parties, and by Alaksandar Kazulin of the Social Democrats. Kazulin was detained and beaten by police during protests surrounding the All Belarusian People's Assembly. Lukashenko won the election with 80% of the vote; the Russian Federation and the CIS deemed the vote open and fair[153] while the OSCE and other organizations called the election unfair.[154]
After the December completion of the 2010 presidential election, Lukashenko was elected to a fourth straight term with nearly 80% of the vote in elections. The runner-up opposition leader Andrei Sannikov received less than 3% of the vote; independent observers criticized the election as fraudulent. When opposition protesters took to the streets in Minsk, many people, including some presidential candidates, were beaten and arrested by the riot police.[155] Many of the candidates, including Sannikov, were sentenced to prison or house arrest for terms which are mainly and typically over four years.[156][157] Six months later amid an unprecedented economic crisis, activists utilized social networking to initiate a fresh round of protests characterized by wordless hand-clapping.[158]
In the 2012 parliamentary election, 105 of the 110 members elected to the House of Representatives were not affiliated with any political party. The Communist Party of Belarus won 3 seats, and the Agrarian Party and Republican Party of Labour and Justice, one each.[159] Most non-partisans represent a wide scope of social organizations such as workers' collectives, public associations, and civil society organizations, similar to the composition of the Soviet legislature.[160]
In the 2020 presidential election, Lukashenko won again with official results giving him 80% of the vote, leading to mass protests. The European Union and the United Kingdom did not recognise the result and the EU imposed sanctions.[161]
Foreign relations
The Byelorussian SSR was one of the two Soviet republics that joined the United Nations along with the Ukrainian SSR as one of the original 51 members in 1945.[162] Belarus and Russia have been close trading partners and diplomatic allies since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Belarus is dependent on Russia for imports of raw materials and for its export market.[163]
The union of Russia and Belarus, a supranational confederation, was established in a 1996–99 series of treaties that called for monetary union, equal rights, single citizenship, and a common foreign and defense policy. However, the future of the union has been placed in doubt because of Belarus's repeated delays of monetary union, the lack of a referendum date for the draft constitution, and a dispute over the petroleum trade.[163][164] Belarus was a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).[165] Belarus has trade agreements with several European Union member states (despite other member states' travel ban on Lukashenko and top officials),[166] including neighboring Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.[167] Travel bans imposed by the European Union have been lifted in the past in order to allow Lukashenko to attend diplomatic meetings and also to engage his government and opposition groups in dialogue.[168]
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Bilateral relations with the United States are strained; the United States had not had an ambassador in Minsk since 2007 and Belarus never had an ambassador in Washington since 2008.[169][170] Diplomatic relations remained tense, and in 2004, the United States passed the Belarus Democracy Act, which authorized funding for anti-government Belarusian NGOs, and prohibited loans to the Belarusian government, except for humanitarian purposes.[171] Sino-Belarusian relations have improved,[172] strengthened by the visit of President Lukashenko to China in October 2005.[173] Belarus also has strong ties with Syria,[174] considered a key partner in the Middle East.[175] In addition to the CIS, Belarus is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (previously the Eurasian Economic Community), the Collective Security Treaty Organisation,[167] the international Non-Aligned Movement since 1998,[176] and the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). As an OSCE member state, Belarus's international commitments are subject to monitoring under the mandate of the U.S. Helsinki Commission.[177] Belarus is included in the European Union's Eastern Partnership program, part of the EU's European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which aims to bring the EU and its neighbours closer in economic and geopolitical terms.[178] However, Belarus suspended its participation in the Eastern Partnership program on 28 June 2021, after the EU imposed more sanctions against the country.[22][23]
Military
Lieutenant General Viktor Khrenin heads the Ministry of Defence,[179] and Alexander Lukashenko (as president) serves as Commander-in-Chief.[150] The armed forces were formed in 1992 using parts of the former Soviet Armed Forces on the new republic's territory. The transformation of the ex-Soviet forces into the Armed Forces of Belarus, which was completed in 1997, reduced the number of its soldiers by 30,000 and restructured its leadership and military formations.[180]
Most of Belarus's service members are conscripts, who serve for 12 months if they have higher education or 18 months if they do not.[181] Demographic decreases in the Belarusians of conscription age have increased the importance of contract soldiers, who numbered 12,000 in 2001.[182] In 2005, about 1.4% of Belarus's gross domestic product was devoted to military expenditure.[183]
Belarus has not expressed a desire to join NATO but has participated in the Individual Partnership Program since 1997,[184] and Belarus provided refueling and airspace support for the ISAF mission in Afghanistan.[185] Belarus first began to cooperate with NATO upon signing documents to participate in their Partnership for Peace Program in 1995.[186] However, Belarus cannot join NATO because it is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Tensions between NATO and Belarus peaked after the March 2006 presidential election in Belarus.[187]
Human rights and corruption
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Belarus's Democracy Index rating is the lowest in Europe, the country is labelled as "not free" by Freedom House,[188] as "repressed" in the Index of Economic Freedom, and in the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, Belarus is ranked 153th out of 180 countries for 2022.[189] The Belarusian government is also criticized for human rights violations and its persecution of non-governmental organisations, independent journalists, national minorities, and opposition politicians.[104][105] Lukashenko announced a new law in 2014 that will prohibit kolkhoz workers (around 9% of total work force) from leaving their jobs at will—a change of job and living location will require permission from governors. The law was compared with serfdom by Lukashenko himself.[190][191] Similar regulations were introduced for the forestry industry in 2012.[192] Belarus is the only European country still using capital punishment having carried out executions in 2011.[193]
The judicial system in Belarus lacks independence and is subject to political interference.[194] Corrupt practices such as bribery often took place during tender processes, and whistleblower protection and national ombudsman are lacking in Belarus's anti-corruption system.[195]
On 1 September 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights declared that its experts received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of people who were arrested during the protests following the presidential election. The experts also received reports of violence against women and children, including sexual abuse and rape with rubber batons.[196] At least three detainees suffered injuries indicative of sexual violence in Okrestino prison in Minsk or on the way there. The victims were hospitalized with intramuscular bleeding of the rectum, anal fissure and bleeding, and damage to the mucous membrane of the rectum.[197] In an interview from September 2020 Lukashenko claimed that detainees faked their bruises, saying, "Some of the girls there had their butts painted in blue".[198]
On 23 May 2021, Belarusian authorities forcibly diverted a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius in order to detain opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich along with his girlfriend; in response, the European Union imposed stricter sanctions on Belarus.[199] In May 2021, Lukashenko threatened that he will flood the European Union with migrants and drugs as a response to the sanctions.[200] In July 2021, Belarusian authorities launched a hybrid warfare by human trafficking of migrants to the European Union.[201] Lithuanian authorities and top European officials Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell condemned the usage of migrants as a weapon and suggested that Belarus could be subject to further sanctions.[202] In August 2021, Belarusian officials, wearing uniforms, riot shields and helmets, were recorded on camera near the Belarus–Lithuania border pushing and urging the migrants to cross the European Union border.[203] Following the granting of humanitarian visas to an Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya and her husband, Poland also accused Belarus for organizing a hybrid warfare as the number of migrants crossing the Belarus–Poland border sharply increased multiple times when compared to the 2020 statistics.[204][205] Illegal migrants numbers also exceeded the previous annual numbers in Latvia.[206] On 2 December 2021, the United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada imposed new sanctions on Belarus.[207]
Administrative divisions
Belarus is divided into six regions called oblasts (Belarusian: вобласць; Russian: область), which are named after the cities that serve as their administrative centers: Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Mogilev, Minsk, and Vitebsk.[208] Each region has a provincial legislative authority, called a region council (Belarusian: абласны Савет Дэпутатаў; Russian: Областной Совет депутатов), which is elected by its residents, and a provincial executive authority called a region administration (Belarusian: абласны выканаўчы камітэт; Russian: областной исполнительный комитет), whose chairman is appointed by the president.[209] The Regions are further subdivided into 118 raions, commonly translated as districts (Belarusian: раён; Russian: район).[208] Each raion has its own legislative authority, or raion council, (Belarusian: раённы Савет Дэпутатаў; Russian: районный Совет депутатов) elected by its residents, and an executive authority or raion administration appointed by oblast executive powers.[126] The city of Minsk is split into nine districts and enjoys special status as the nation's capital at the same administration level as the oblasts.[210] It is run by an executive committee and has been granted a charter of self-rule.[211]
Local government
Local government in Belarus is administered by administrative-territorial units (Belarusian: адміністрацыйна-тэрытарыяльныя адзінкі; Russian: административно-территориальные единицы), and occurs on two levels: basic and primary. At the basic level are 118 raions councils and 10 cities of oblast subordination councils, which are supervised by the governments of the oblasts.[212] At the primary level are 14 cities of raion subordination councils, 8 urban-type settlements councils, and 1,151 village councils.[213][214] The councils are elected by their residents, and have executive committees appointed by their executive committee chairs. The chairs of executive committees for raions and city of oblast subordinations are appointed by the regional executive committees at the level above; the chairs of executive committees for towns of raion subordination, settlements and villages are appointed by their councils, but upon the recommendation of the raion executive committees.[212] In either case, the councils have the power to approve or reject a nonimee for executive committee chair.
Settlements without their own local council and executive committee are called territorial units (Belarusian: тэрытарыяльныя адзінкі; Russian: территориальные единицы). These territorial units may also be classified as a city of regional or raion subordination, urban-type settlement or rural settlement, but whose government is administered by the council of another primary or basic unit.[215] In October 1995, a presidential decree abolished the local governments of cities of raion subordination and urban-type settlements which served as the administrative center of raions, demoting them from administrative-territorial units to territorial units.[216]
As for 2019, the administrative-territorial and territorial units include 115 cities, 85 urban-type settlements, and 23,075 rural settlements.[217]
Economy
Belarus is a developing country. However, its 60th place ranking in the United Nations' Human Development Index places it in the category of states with; "very high" human development. It is one of the most equal countries in the world,[218] with one of the lowest Gini-coefficient measures of national resource distribution, and it’s ranks 82nd in GDP per capita .Belarus has trade relations with over 180 countries. The main trading partners are Russia, which accounts for about 45% of Belarusian exports and 55% of imports, and the EU countries, which account for 25% of exports and 20% of imports.[219] In 2019 the share of manufacturing in GDP was 31%, over two-thirds of this amount falls on manufacturing industries. The number of people employed in the industry is 34.7% of the working population.[220] The growth rate is much lower than for the economy as a whole—about 2.2% in 2021. At the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarus was one of the world's most industrially developed states by percentage of GDP as well as the richest CIS member-state.[221] In 2015, 39.3% of Belarusians were employed by state-controlled companies, 57.2% were employed by private companies (in which the government has a 21.1% stake) and 3.5% were employed by foreign companies.[222] The country relies on Russia for various imports, including petroleum.[223][224] Important agricultural products include potatoes and cattle byproducts, including meat.[225] In 1994, Belarus's main exports included heavy machinery (especially tractors), agricultural products, and energy products.[226]
Economically, Belarus involved itself in the CIS, Eurasian Economic Community, and Union with Russia.[227]
In the 1990s, however, industrial production plunged due to decreases in imports, investment, and demand for Belarusian products from its trading partners.[228] GDP only began to rise in 1996;[229] the country was the fastest-recovering former Soviet republic in the terms of its economy.[230] In 2006, GDP amounted to US$83.1 billion in purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars (estimate), or about $8,100 per capita.[225] In 2005, GDP increased by 9.9%; the inflation rate averaged 9.5%.[225]
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, under Lukashenko's leadership, Belarus has maintained government control over key industries and eschewed the large-scale privatizations seen in other former Soviet republics.[231]
Due to its failure to protect labor rights, including passing laws forbidding unemployment or working outside of state-controlled sectors,[232] Belarus lost its EU Generalized System of Preferences status on 21 June 2007, which raised tariff rates to their prior most favored nation levels.[233] Belarus applied to become a member of the World Trade Organization in 1993.[234]
The labor force consists of more than four million people, among whom women hold slightly more jobs than men.[222] In 2005, nearly a quarter of the population was employed by industrial factories. Employment is also high in agriculture, manufacturing sales, trading goods, and education. The unemployment rate, according to government statistics, was 1.5% in 2005. There were 679,000 unemployed Belarusians, two-thirds of whom were women. The unemployment rate has been in decline since 2003, and the overall rate of employment is the highest since statistics were first compiled in 1995.[222]
The currency of Belarus is the Belarusian ruble. The currency was introduced in May 1992 to replace the Soviet ruble and it has undergone redenomination twice since then. The first coins of the Republic of Belarus were issued on 27 December 1996.[235] The ruble was reintroduced with new values in 2000 and has been in use ever since.[236] As part of the Union of Russia and Belarus, both states have discussed using a single currency along the same lines as the Euro. This led to a proposal that the Belarusian ruble be discontinued in favor of the Russian ruble (RUB), starting as early as 1 January 2008. The National Bank of Belarus abandoned pegging the Belarusian ruble to the Russian rouble in August 2007.[237]
On 23 May 2011, the ruble depreciated 56% against the United States dollar. The depreciation was even steeper on the black market and financial collapse seemed imminent as citizens rushed to exchange their rubles for dollars, euros, durable goods, and canned goods.[238] On 1 June 2011, Belarus requested an economic rescue package from the International Monetary Fund.[239][240] A new currency, the new Belarusian ruble (ISO 4217 code: BYN)[241] was introduced in July 2016, replacing the Belarusian ruble in a rate of 1:10,000 (10,000 old ruble = 1 new ruble). From 1 July until 31 December 2016, the old and new currencies were in parallel circulation and series 2000 notes and coins could be exchanged for series 2009 from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2021.[241] This redenomination can be considered an effort to fight the high inflation rate.[242][243] On 6 October 2022, Lukashenka has banned price increases to combat rise of food prices.[244] In January 2023, Belarus legalized copyright infringement of media and intellectual property created by "unfriendly" foreign nations.[245]
The banking system of Belarus consists of two levels: Central Bank (National Bank of the Republic of Belarus) and 25 commercial banks.[246]
Demographics
According to the 2019 census the population was 9.41 million[247] with ethnic Belarusians constituting 84.9% of Belarus's total population.[247] Minority groups include: Russians (7.5%), Poles (3.1%), and Ukrainians (1.7%).[247] Belarus has a population density of about 50 people per square kilometre (127 per sq mi); 70% of its total population is concentrated in urban areas.[248] Minsk, the nation's capital and largest city, was home to 1,937,900 residents in 2015.[249] Gomel, with a population of 481,000, is the second-largest city and serves as the capital of the Gomel Region. Other large cities are Mogilev (365,100), Vitebsk (342,400), Grodno (314,800) and Brest (298,300).[250]
Like many other Eastern European countries, Belarus has a negative population growth rate and a negative natural growth rate. In 2007, Belarus's population declined by 0.41% and its fertility rate was 1.22,[251] well below the replacement rate. Its net migration rate is +0.38 per 1,000, indicating that Belarus experiences slightly more immigration than emigration. As of 2015, 69.9% of Belarus's population is aged 14 to 64; 15.5% is under 14, and 14.6% is 65 or older. Its population is also aging; the median age of 30–34 is estimated to rise to between 60 and 64 in 2050.[252] There are about 0.87 males per female in Belarus.[251] The average life expectancy is 72.15 (66.53 years for men and 78.1 years for women).[251] Over 99% of Belarusians aged 15 and older are literate.[251]
Largest cities or towns in Belarus
Source? | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Region | Pop. |
| |||||
 Minsk  Gomel |
1 | Minsk | Minsk Region | 1,992,685 | .jpg) Mogilev  Vitebsk | ||||
| 2 | Gomel | Gomel Region | 536,938 | ||||||
| 3 | Mogilev | Mogilev Region | 383,313 | ||||||
| 4 | Vitebsk | Vitebsk Region | 378,459 | ||||||
| 5 | Grodno | Grodno Region | 373,547 | ||||||
| 6 | Brest | Brest Region | 350,616 | ||||||
| 7 | Babruysk | Mogilev Region | 216,793 | ||||||
| 8 | Baranavichy | Brest Region | 179,000 | ||||||
| 9 | Barysaw | Minsk Region | 142,681 | ||||||
| 10 | Pinsk | Brest Region | 137,960 | ||||||
Religion and languages
According to the census of November 2011, 58.9% of all Belarusians adhered to some kind of religion; out of those, Eastern Orthodoxy made up about 82%: Eastern Orthodox in Belarus are mainly part of the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, though a small Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church also exists.[253] Roman Catholicism is practiced mostly in the western regions, and there are also different denominations of Protestantism.[254][255] Minorities also practice Greek Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and neo-paganism. Overall, 48.3% of the population is Orthodox Christian, 41.1% is not religious, 7.1% is Roman Catholic and 3.3% follows other religions.[253]
Belarus's Catholic minority is concentrated in the western part of the country, especially around Grodno, consisting in a mixture of Belarusians and the country's Polish and Lithuanian minorities.[256] President Lukashenko has stated that Orthodox and Catholic believers are the "two main confessions in our country".[257]
Belarus was once a major center of European Jews, with 10% of the population being Jewish. But since the mid-20th century, the number of Jews has been reduced by the Holocaust, deportation, and emigration, so that today it is a very small minority of less than one percent.[258] The Lipka Tatars, numbering over 15,000, are predominantly Muslims. According to Article 16 of the Constitution, Belarus has no official religion. While the freedom of worship is granted in the same article, religious organizations deemed harmful to the government or social order can be prohibited.[208]
Belarus's two official languages are Russian and Belarusian;[259] Russian is the most common language spoken at home, used by 70% of the population, while Belarusian, the official first language, is spoken at home by 23%.[260] Minorities also speak Polish, Ukrainian and Eastern Yiddish.[261] Belarusian, although not as widely used as Russian, is the mother tongue of 53.2% of the population, whereas Russian is the mother tongue of only 41.5%.[260]
Culture
Arts and literature
The Belarusian government sponsors annual cultural festivals such as the Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk,[262] which showcases Belarusian performers, artists, writers, musicians, and actors. Several state holidays, such as Independence Day and Victory Day, draw big crowds and often include displays such as fireworks and military parades, especially in Vitebsk and Minsk.[263] The government's Ministry of Culture finances events promoting Belarusian arts and culture both inside and outside the country.
Belarusian literature[264] began with 11th- to 13th-century religious scripture, such as the 12th-century poetry of Cyril of Turaw.[265]
By the 16th century, Polotsk resident Francysk Skaryna translated the Bible into Belarusian. It was published in Prague and Vilnius sometime between 1517 and 1525, making it the first book printed in Belarus or anywhere in Eastern Europe.[266] The modern era of Belarusian literature began in the late 19th century; one prominent writer was Yanka Kupala. Many Belarusian writers of the time, such as Uładzimir Žyłka, Kazimir Svayak, Yakub Kolas, Źmitrok Biadula, and Maksim Haretski, wrote for Nasha Niva, a Belarusian-language paper published that was previously published in Vilnius but now is published in Minsk.[267]
After Belarus was incorporated into the Soviet Union, the Soviet government took control of the Republic's cultural affairs. At first, a policy of "Belarusianization" was followed in the newly formed Byelorussian SSR. This policy was reversed in the 1930s, and the majority of prominent Belarusian intellectuals and nationalist advocates were either exiled or killed in Stalinist purges.[268] The free development of literature occurred only in Polish-held territory until Soviet occupation in 1939. Several poets and authors went into exile after the Nazi occupation of Belarus and would not return until the 1960s.[266]
The last major revival of Belarusian literature occurred in the 1960s with novels published by Vasil Bykaŭ and Uladzimir Karatkievich. An influential author who devoted his work to awakening the awareness of the catastrophes the country has suffered, was Ales Adamovich. He was named by Svetlana Alexievich, the Belarusian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2015, as "her main teacher, who helped her to find a path of her own".[269]
Music in Belarus largely comprises a rich tradition of folk and religious music. The country's folk music traditions can be traced back to the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 19th century, Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko composed operas and chamber music pieces while living in Minsk. During his stay, he worked with Belarusian poet Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich and created the opera Sialanka (Peasant Woman). At the end of the 19th century, major Belarusian cities formed their own opera and ballet companies. The ballet Nightingale by M. Kroshner was composed during the Soviet era and became the first Belarusian ballet showcased at the National Academic Vialiki Ballet Theatre in Minsk.[270][better source needed]
After the Second World War, music focused on the hardships of the Belarusian people or on those who took up arms in defense of the homeland. During this period, Anatoly Bogatyrev, creator of the opera In Polesye Virgin Forest, served as the "tutor" of Belarusian composers.[271] The National Academic Theatre of Ballet in Minsk was awarded the Benois de la Dance Prize in 1996 as the top ballet company in the world.[271] Rock music has become increasingly popular in recent years, though the Belarusian government has attempted to limit the amount of foreign music aired on the radio in favor of traditional Belarusian music. Since 2004, Belarus has been sending artists to the Eurovision Song Contest.[272][273]
Marc Chagall was born in Liozna (near Vitebsk) in 1887. He spent the World War I years in Soviet Belarus, becoming one of the country's most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde and was a founder of the Vitebsk Arts College.[274][275]
Dress
The traditional Belarusian dress originates from the Kievan Rus' period. Due to the cool climate, clothes were designed to conserve body heat and were usually made from flax or wool. They were decorated with ornate patterns influenced by the neighboring cultures: Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Russians, and other European nations. Each region of Belarus has developed specific design patterns.[276] One ornamental pattern common in early dresses currently decorates the hoist of the Belarusian national flag, adopted in a disputed referendum in 1995.[277]
Cuisine
Belarusian cuisine consists mainly of vegetables, meat (particularly pork), and bread. Foods are usually either slowly cooked or stewed. Typically, Belarusians eat a light breakfast and two hearty meals later in the day. Wheat and rye bread are consumed in Belarus, but rye is more plentiful because conditions are too harsh for growing wheat. To show hospitality, a host traditionally presents an offering of bread and salt when greeting a guest or visitor.[278]
Sport
| This article or section appears to be slanted towards recent events. (November 2020) |
Belarus has competed in the Olympic Games since the 1994 Winter Olympics as an independent nation. Receiving heavy sponsorship from the government, ice hockey is the nation's second most popular sport after football. The national football team has never qualified for a major tournament; however, BATE Borisov has played in the Champions League. The national hockey team finished fourth at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics following a memorable upset win over Sweden in the quarterfinals and regularly competes in the World Championships, often making the quarterfinals. Numerous Belarusian players are present in the Kontinental Hockey League in Eurasia, particularly for Belarusian club HC Dinamo Minsk, and several have also played in the National Hockey League in North America. The 2014 IIHF World Championship was hosted in Belarus and the 2021 IIHF World Championship was supposed to be co-hosted in Latvia and Belarus but it was cancelled due to widespread protests and security concerns. The 2021 UEC European Track Championships in cycling was also cancelled because Belarus was not considered a safe host.
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Darya Domracheva is a leading biathlete whose honours include three gold medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics.[279] Tennis player Victoria Azarenka became the first Belarusian to win a Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open in 2012.[280] She also won the gold medal in mixed doubles at the 2012 Summer Olympics with Max Mirnyi, who holds ten Grand Slam titles in doubles.
Other notable Belarusian sportspeople include cyclist Vasil Kiryienka, who won the 2015 Road World Time Trial Championship, and middle-distance runner Maryna Arzamasava, who won the gold medal in the 800m at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics. Andrei Arlovski, who was born in Babruysk, Byelorussian SSR, is a current UFC fighter and the former UFC heavyweight champion of the world.
Belarus is also known for its strong rhythmic gymnasts. Noticeable gymnasts include Inna Zhukova, who earned silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Liubov Charkashyna, who earned bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and Melitina Staniouta, Bronze All-Around Medalist of the 2015 World Championships. The Belorussian senior group earned bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
Telecommunications
- Country code: .by
The state telecom monopoly, Beltelecom, holds the exclusive interconnection with Internet providers outside of Belarus. Beltelecom owns all the backbone channels that linked to the Lattelecom, TEO LT, Tata Communications (former Teleglobe), Synterra, Rostelecom, Transtelekom and MTS ISPs. Beltelecom is the only operator licensed to provide commercial VoIP services in Belarus.[281]
World Heritage Sites
Belarus has four UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites: the Mir Castle Complex, the Nesvizh Castle, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha (shared with Poland), and the Struve Geodetic Arc (shared with nine other countries).[282]
See also
Notes
- Belarusian: Рэспубліка Беларусь, romanized: Respublika Bielarus; Russian: Республика Беларусь, tr. Respublika Belarus.
References
- Клоков В. Я. Великий освободительный поход Красной Армии. (Освобождение Западной Украины и Западной Белоруссии).-Воронеж, 1940.
- Минаев В. Западная Белоруссия и Западная Украина под гнетом панской Польши.—М., 1939.
- Трайнин И.Национальное и социальное освобождение Западной Украины и Западной Белоруссии.—М., 1939.—80 с.
- Гiсторыя Беларусі. Том пяты.—Мінск, 2006.—с. 449–474
Unlike his predecessor, Lukashenka consolidated authoritarian rule. He censored state media, closed Belarus's only independent radio station [...].
officially the [EU] sanctions were reduced as a 'reward' for the 2015 presidential elections being peaceful and non-violent, despite the fact that these elections were just as non-democratic as any previous election in Belarus
unanimous agreement among serious scholars that... Lukashenko's 2015 election occurred within an authoritarian context.
unanimous agreement among serious scholars that... Lukashenko's 2015 election occurred within an authoritarian context.
However, the vote was marred by allegations of widespread fraud. These suspicions appeared to be confirmed by data from a limited number of polling stations that broke ranks with the government and identified opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya as the clear winner.
"I am the last dictator in Europe," Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has told Reuters in a rare interview.
Tharoor, Ishaan. "Analysis | Can people power topple Europe's 'last dictator'?". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 24 August 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
"Profile: Alexander Lukashenko". BBC News. BBC. 9 January 2007. Archived from the original on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
'..an authoritarian ruling style is characteristic of me [Lukashenko]'
Levitsky, Steven; Way, Lucan A. (2010). "The Evolution of Post-Soviet Competitive Authoritarianism". Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. Problems of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 203. ISBN 9781139491488. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
Unlike his predecessor, Lukashenka consolidated authoritarian rule. He censored state media, closed Belarus's only independent radio station [...].
Treisman, Rachel (16 August 2020). "One Week After Election, Belarus Sees Giant Protests Against 'Europe's Last Dictator'". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
...German Foreign Minister's branding him 'Europe's last dictator'
- "Belarus – UNESCO World Heritage Centre". Archived from the original on 21 April 2006. Retrieved 26 March 2006.
Bibliography
- Birgerson, Susanne Michele (2002). After the Breakup of a Multi-Ethnic Empire. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-96965-7.
- Minahan, James (1998). Miniature Empires: A Historical Dictionary of the Newly Independent States. Greenwood. ISBN 0-313-30610-9.
- Olson, James Stuart; Pappas, Lee Brigance; Pappas, Nicholas C. J. (1994). Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-27497-5.
- Plokhy, Serhii (2001). The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924739-0.
- Richmond, Yale (1995). From Da to Yes: Understanding the East Europeans. Intercultural Press. ISBN 1-877864-30-7.
- Vauchez, André; Dobson, Richard Barrie; Lapidge, Michael (2001). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. Routledge. ISBN 1-57958-282-6.
- Zaprudnik, Jan (1993). Belarus: At a Crossroads in History. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-1794-0.[dead link]
Further reading
- Bennett, Brian M. The Last Dictatorship in Europe: Belarus under Lukashenko (Columbia University Press, 2011)
- Frear, Matthew. Belarus Under Lukashenka: Adaptive Authoritarianism (Routledge, 2015)
- Korosteleva, Elena A. (June 2016). "The European Union and Belarus: Democracy Promotion by Technocratic Means?" Democratization 23: 4 pp. 678–698. doi:10.1080/13510347.2015.1005009.
- Levy, Patricia; Spilling, Michael (2009). Belarus. New York: Benchmark Books. ISBN 978-0-7614-3411-5.
- Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivitch; Bealby, John Thomas (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 555, 556.
- Marples, David. 'Our Glorious Past': Lukashenka's Belarus and the Great Patriotic War (Columbia University Press, 2014)
- Parker, Stewart. The Last Soviet Republic: Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus (Trafford Publishing, 2007)
- Rudling, Pers Anders. The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906–1931 (University of Pittsburgh Press; 2014) 436 pages
- Ryder, Andrew (1998). Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Routledge. ISBN 1-85743-058-1.
- Silitski, Vitali & Jan Zaprudnik (2010). The A to Z of Belarus. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9781461731740.
- Snyder, Timothy (2004). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999
- Szporluk, Roman (2000). Russia, Ukraine, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union. Hoover Institution Press. ISBN 0-8179-9542-0.
- Treadgold, Donald; Ellison, Herbert J. (1999). Twentieth Century Russia. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3672-4.[permanent dead link]
- Vakar, Nicholas Platonovich. Belorussia: The Making of a Nation: A Case Study (Harvard UP, 1956).
- Vakar, Nicholas Platonovich. A Bibliographical Guide to Belorussia (Harvard UP, 1956)
External links
- Website of the Republic of Belarus Archived 15 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine by BelTA news agency
- Belarus. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
- Belarus at Curlie
- FAO Country Profiles: Belarus
- Belarus
- Countries in Europe
- Eastern European countries
- Landlocked countries
- Member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States
- Member states of the United Nations
- Member States of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
- Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union
- Republics
- Russian-speaking countries and territories
- States and territories established in 1991
- States and territories established in the 980s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus
The Russian Civil War (Russian: Гражданская война в России, tr. Grazhdanskaya voyna v Rossii; 7 November 1917 — 16 June 1923)[1] was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the monarchy and the new republican government's failure to maintain stability, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the RSFSR and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War
Soviet grain procurement crisis of 1928
The Soviet grain procurement crisis of 1928, sometimes referred to as "the crisis of NEP," was a pivotal economic event which took place in the Soviet Union beginning in January 1928 during which the quantities of wheat, rye, and other cereal crops made available for purchase by the state fell to levels regarded by planners as inadequate to support the needs of the country's urban population. Failure of the state to make successful use of the price system to generate sufficient grain sales was met with a regimen of increasingly harsh administrative sanctions against the Soviet peasantry. The state of national emergency which followed led to the termination of the New Economic Policy and spurred a move towards the collectivization of agriculture in 1929.
History
Background
The Russian Revolution of November 1917 ushered in a period of civil war and economic dislocation, in which the ruling All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) (VKP) made use of forced grain requisitions (Russian: prodrazvyorstka), trading to the peasantry currency with little purchasing power for an underdeveloped consumer goods market.[1] Viewed by most Soviet contemporaries as a temporary wartime expedient, this system of "War Communism" was extremely unpopular with Russia's grain-producing peasantry and the cause of a massive wave of unrest and revolts that threatened to fatally destabilize the government.[2]
This force-based system of War Communism was abandoned in the spring of 1921 with the adoption of the so-called "New Economic Policy" (NEP), under which a stable, gold-based currency was restored and a return made to the market system. Instead of forced requisitions of all marketable surpluses, a food tax (Russian: prodnalog) was implemented which necessitated peasant households providing a limited portion of their production to the state, after which households would be free to sell its remaining surplus not needed for household survival on the open market.[3] By 1924 this system of prodnalog had been replaced by a money tax, with Soviet state grain requisitions accomplished via buying and selling.[4]
Although the return to the market system in agriculture was ideologically problematic for many Bolsheviks, the years from 1922 to 1926 were successful in practical terms, with total agricultural production by the peasant-based economy fully returning to pre-revolutionary levels.[5] Production of cereal grains approximated pre-war figures, potato production greatly exceeded such figures, and livestock populations, gravely impacted during the war, returned to normalcy for pigs and sheep while the count of horses was slowly and steadily restored.[6]
The period of War Communism saw Soviet cities largely depopulated when former peasants returned en masse to their native villages amidst the ongoing economic collapse. This trend was reversed under NEP and industrial facilities were restored and restarted, approaching the pre-war levels of output during the second half of the 1920s.[7] Further growth of the economy and improvement of living conditions, it was felt by Soviet planners, would require new investment in factory facilities and capital goods. With access to world capital markets severely restricted to the revolutionary Soviet regime, these funds that would need to be generated by the state either through a loosening of the backing of the gold-based currency, a raising in the level of taxation of the largely rural population, or some combination of these factors.
Communist Party penetration of the countryside remained weak, amounting to an average of 1 rural Communist for every 6 village soviets[8] — a mere 0.52% of the rural population vs. 1.78% of the total population in 1927.[9] Moreover, these rural Communists, who took leading roles in village soviets and cooperatives, included a disproportionate number of comparatively well-to-do peasants — a social group, party and non-party, which dominated local administration.[10] This persistent strength of so-called "kulaks" in the Soviet countryside further contributed to the dissatisfaction with the economic status quo on the part of many members of the largely urban Communist Party.
From the end of 1926 demand among planners and party activists for a new program of mass industrialization that would modernize the largely peasant country.[11] Although NEP was seen at the time as a permanent structure throughout 1927, the 15th Congress of the VKP(b), held in Moscow in December 1927, acceded to this sentiment, approving a new program for the industrialization of the USSR — an acceleration which would ultimately prove incompatible with a small peasantry freely exchanging a comparatively small fraction of its production in the marketplace.[12]
Collectivization of agriculture was held by the Communists to be the essential corollary of any successful industrial campaign, it being faithfully maintained that collective organization would eliminate the inefficiencies inherent in capitalist agriculture, thereby expanding production and making a greater quantity of grain available to the state for conversion to capital goods.
Goods shortage
Throughout the early years of the Russian revolution the peasantry faced a shortage of basic farm and household items, including agricultural implements, construction material, cloth, and finished consumer goods.[13] This marked a continuation of the wartime situation, in which industrial production had been moved from a consumer orientation to fulfillment of the military needs of the state in the war against the German empire.[13] The Bolshevik regime had never been able to catch up with pent up demand, and state and cooperative supplies remained spotty, while the prices demanded by private traders remained high.[13]
A so-called Scissors Crisis had developed in the early years of the New Economic Policy as prices of consumer goods escalated while market prices of agricultural products fell.[13] Early in 1927 the Communist Party decided to address the disparity by lowering the selling prices of industrial goods by approximately 10%.[13] Although this pricing decision was meant to undercut the high prices charged by private traders, in practice it only exacerbated the miserable supply situation as goods were snapped up from the market, leaving the inventories of state supply agents barren.[14] Those goods which were available tended to be committed to larger towns, located along railway lines, rather than to smaller villages deep in the countryside.[13]
The net result of this situation was a goods famine that provided an inadequate incentive for peasants to participate in grain sales to state grain purchasing agents, who had little of practical value to offer the peasantry in exchange.[13]
Emergence of the crisis
The Soviet economic year (October 1 to September 30) 1925/26 had generated state grain procurement of 8.4 million tons.[15] This was far exceeded in 1926/27, when a post-revolutionary record harvest of 76.8 million tons resulted in a state procurement of 10.6 million tons at stable prices.[15] No upward price adjustment had been necessary owing to the massive size of the harvest, which resulted in a supply glut.[16] Expectations for the coming year were raised accordingly, with planned procurement for the coming economic year 1927/28 exceeding quantities obtained during the previous year of record harvest.[17]
In addition to planned establishment of a new state grain reserve of 819,000 tons, economic planners sought increased quantities of grain for export to the European market as a means of generating the foreign currency needed for purchase of capital goods from abroad.[18]
Calls for an official policy of centrally-planned industrialization had emanated from the Left Opposition headed by Leon Trotsky throughout the middle 1920s, with an explicit criticism levied in a September 1927 program of a "frank and open drift to the Right," to accommodation with the most wealthy segment of the peasantry to the detriment of national industrialization and further development of a socialist economy.[19] This demand was easy to ignore when grain was readily available to the state on the market and unused factory capacity remained to be restarted. However, late in 1927 the pervasive optimism associated with the boom period of NEP began to dissipate.[19]
A severe slump in state grain collections began in October 1927, following the new harvest of wheat and rye.[18] This trend continued in November and December, with planned total procurements for the quarter of 7 million tons missed by a massive 2.1 million tons.[18] This quantity was not only insufficient for creation of the planned grain reserve and the meeting of export targets, but was viewed by planners as insufficient for the feeding of the nation's cities and the members of the Red Army.[18] Reasons for the decline set off a fierce debate in the ranks of the VKP(b).[18] Party leader Joseph Stalin depicted the shortfall as political in nature, the result of "sabotage" by the rich peasantry in an effort to force the state to raise grain procurement prices.[20] This Stalin likened to blackmail — forcing the state to abandon its industrialization plans in favor of filling their own pockets with the proceeds of sales to the market.[21] Stalin's joint leader of the party during previous years, Nikolai Bukharin, regarded this perspective as a "fairy tale," instead arguing that rather than hoarding and speculation the cause of grain supply difficulties was a poor harvest, combined with insufficiently attractive procurement prices that deterred sales to state grain collectors.[21]
The crisis in grain collections caused a split of the top leadership of the Communist Party, with a majority of party activists rallying around Stalin, who had now begun vigorously espousing the virtues of rapid industrialization previously associated with Trotsky and the Left Opposition.[22] Only a minority supported Bukharin and his call for continued social peace between the state and the peasantry and his criticism of those who would "neglect a sense of moderation, to skip over necessary stages" on the slow and measured path to industrial development.[22]
Stalin and the rapid industrializers retained effective control over the VKP(b), controlling 6 of 9 seats of the party's Political Bureau, which handled matters of day-to-day governance, with Bukharin able to muster the support of Alexei Rykov and Mikhail Tomsky in favor of a moderate pace of industrialization and social peace.[23] Behind the scenes Stalin organized diligently, obliquely criticizing moderates in speeches to groups of party activists and with his new right-hand man, Viacheslav Molotov maintaining effective control of the official party daily newspaper, Pravda, and efforts being made to take over editorial control of the party's monthly theoretical magazine, Bolshevik.[24]
See also
- Collectivization in the Soviet Union
- Hyperinflation in early Soviet Russia
- Prodrazvyorstka
- Ural-Siberian method
Footnotes
- Carr, Foundations of a Planned Economy, Vol. 2, pg. 61.
Further reading
- Beermann, R. (July 1967). "The Grain Problem and Anti-Speculation Laws". Soviet Studies. 19 (1): 127–129. doi:10.1080/09668136708410574. JSTOR 149237.
- Carr, Edward Hallett; Davies, Robert William (1971). A History of Soviet Russia: Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926-1929: Volume 2. London: Macmillan. OCLC 466005889.
- Conquest, Robert (1986). The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivisation and the Terror-Famine. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 9780195051803.
- Davies, Robert William (1980). The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia: Volume 1: The Socialist Offensive: The Collecitivisation of Soviet Agriculture, 1929-1930. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9780333465936.
- Davies, Robert William (1980). The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia: Volume 2: The Soviet Collective Farm, 1929-1930. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9780333465943.
- Heinzen, James W. (2004). Inventing a Soviet Countryside: State Power and the Transformation of Rural Russia, 1917-1929. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 9780822942153.
- Hughes, James (Spring 1994). "Capturing the Russian Peasantry: Stalinist Grain Procurement Policy and the "Ural-Siberian Method"". Slavic Review. 53 (1): 76–103. doi:10.2307/2500326. JSTOR 2500326. S2CID 161585977.
- Hughes, James (1991). Stalin, Siberia, and the crisis of the New Economic Policy. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521380393. Excerpt.
- Lewin, Moshe (1968). Russian Peasants and Soviet Power: A Study of Collectivization. London: George Allen and Unwin. OCLC 236785.
- Lewin, Moshe (October 1966). "Who Was the Soviet Kulak?". Soviet Studies. 18 (2): 189–212. doi:10.1080/09668136608410527. JSTOR 149521.
- Viola, Lynne (1987). The Best Sons of the Fatherland: Workers in the Vanguard of Soviet Collectivization. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195042627.
- Viola, Lynne; Danilov, V.P.; Ivnitskii, N.A.; Kozlov, Denis, eds. (2005). The War against the Peasantry, 1927-1930: The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside. Translated by Shabad, Steven. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300106121.
- Narkiewicz, Olga A. (October 1968). "Soviet Administration and the Grain Crisis of 1927-1928". Soviet Studies. 20 (2): 235–245. doi:10.1080/09668136808410648. JSTOR 150021.
- Nove, Alec (1992) [1969]. An Economic History of the USSR (3rd ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 9780140157741.
- Thorniley, Daniel (1988). The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Rural Communist Party, 1927-39. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312013608.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_grain_procurement_crisis_of_1928
Category:Economic crises
Subcategories
This category has the following 10 subcategories, out of 10 total.
*
- Financial crises (12 C, 120 P)
A
- Economic crises in Argentina (4 P)
B
- Economic crises in Brazil (9 P)
D
- Dot-com bubble (97 P)
E
- Economic crises in Europe (2 C, 14 P)
S
- Sovereign default (1 C, 8 P)
U
- Economic crises in the United States (4 C, 24 P)
W
- Works about economic crises (2 C)
Pages in category "Economic crises"
The following 29 pages are in this category, out of 29 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.
0–9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Economic_crises
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