BELARUSIANS AND UKRAINIANS IN ANTI-SOVIET LOCAL ARMED CONFLICTS ON THE TERRITORY OF SOVIET BELARUS (1920–1930S)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2520-2626/2021.28.15
Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of anti-Soviet resistance in Belarus in the 1920s and 1930s. For the last twenty years this topic has been silenced in the official scientific publications of the Republic of Belarus. Most documents on armed anti-Soviet resistance are kept in the KGB archives, to which a researcher in the Republic of Belarus has limited access. The author analyzes the participation of the Belarusian population in anti-Soviet local armed conflicts. The vast majority of actions of the Bolshevik government brutally violated the traditional way of life, which caused outrage among the Belarusian population, which grew into armed forms of protection of property and dignity. On the basis of archival materials the activity of insurgent detachments is revealed. In the period 1919–1923, 1925–26, 1930–1931. the actions of armed peasants and intellectuals in Soviet Belarus had a clear political context.
For the purposes of the insurgent detachments, anti-Soviet units, which fought for the elimination of Soviet power, and Belarusian national units, which sought to create an independent Belarusian state, are nominated - these are the organizations “Biloruske bratstvo”, “Za Batkivshchynu”, “Zelenyy Dub”. They had a military structure, interacted with each other, enjoyed the broad support of the population. They were attended not only by Belarusians but also by Ukrainians, both of local origin and those who found themselves in Belarus. The article shows the fighting destiny of the insurgent leaders Mefodiy Karatkevich, Vasil Shevchenko, Mikhail Bakun, Fyodor Shatsko. On the part of the Soviet authorities, the main method of combating the insurgent movement was to use force. The author concludes that a fairly large part of the population of Belarus did not perceive the Soviet state as their own and interpreted the Bolshevik government as aggressive and not legitimate. The massive anti-Soviet armed resistance ended both under the influence of the transition to a new economic policy and the forced destruction of the most conscious and hardworking part of the Belarusian population.
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