Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia
The Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia, alternatively referred to as the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and White Russia or simply Litbel, was a Soviet republic that existed within the parts of the territories of modern Belarus and Lithuania for approximately five months during the Lithuanian–Soviet War and the Polish–Soviet War in 1919. The Litbel republic was created in February 1919 formally through the merger of the short-lived Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belorussia.
Often described as a puppet state of Soviet Russia, during its brief existence the SSR LiB government had limited authority over the territories it claimed. By August 1919, the SSR LiB had lost control over all of its claimed territories, as the Polish Army and, to a lesser extent, Lithuanian Army advanced.
History
Background
After the end of World War I in November 1918, Soviet Russia began a westward offensive following the retreating German Army. It attempted to spread the global proletarian revolution and sought to establish Soviet republics in Eastern Europe. By the end of December 1918, Bolshevik forces reached Lithuania. The Bolsheviks saw the Baltic states as a barrier or a bridge into Western Europe, where they could join the German and the Hungarian Revolutions.The Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania was proclaimed on 16 December 1918 and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belorussia was established on 1 January 1919. On 16 January 1919, as the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party issued two resolutions affecting the two new Soviet republics of the western frontier; one calling for the unification of Soviet Lithuania and Soviet Belorussia and the other calling for the transfer of the Vitebsk Governorate, the Smolensk Governorate and the Mogilev Governorate from the Belorussian Soviet republic to Soviet Russia. On 22 January 1919 Adolph Joffe arrived in Minsk, as the representative of the Moscow centre with a mission to bring order among the infighting Bolshevik leadership in Belorussia. The Belorussian Bolshevik leaders rejected the notion of merger with Lithuania and the detachment of the three eastern Belorussian governorates from the SSRB. They protested to the RCP Central Committee and decried that Joffe was incompetent.
Minsk and Vilna congresses
The was held in Minsk 2–3 February 1919. The Central Executive Committee of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic was represented at the congress by its chairman Yakov Sverdlov. Prior to the opening of the congress the Belorussian Soviet leadership had, under pressure from the RCP, agreed to the bifurcation of their republic. At the congress the delegations from Mogilev, Smolensk, Vitebsk withdrew from the proceedings, demanding that their governorates be re-integrated in the RSFSR. The congress subsequently determined that the territory of the SSRB would be limited to the Minsk Governorate and the Grodno Governorate. Effectively, considering the ongoing war, this move left the SSRB government in control of just six uyezds of Minsk Governorate.Sverdlov held a speech calling for unity between Soviet Belorussia and Soviet Lithuania, which he stated was a necessity to combat the 'White Army-Belorussian-Lithuanian government'. He argued that a united Lithuanian-Belorussian state was a necessity to counter national-chauvinistic tendencies. As Sverdlov's proposal won majority support, the congress tasked the Central Executive Committee of the SSRB to work for unification with the Lithuanian soviet republic.
In a similar vein, the First Congress of Soviets of Lithuania, which met in Vilna from 18 to 20 February 1919 and was attended by 220 delegates, examined the report of the Lithuanian Provisional Worker-Peasant Government on the question of union with Belorussia. The congress agreed on union of the Lithuanian and Belorussian soviet republics and their federation with the Russian Soviet republic. The resolution of the Vilna congress read "eenly conscious of our inseparable bond with all the Soviet Socialist Republics, the congress instructs the Workers' and Peasants' Government of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia to inaugurate negotiations forthwith with the workers' and peasants' governments of the R.S.F.S.R., Latvia, the Ukraine and Estonia with a view to constituting all these republics into a single R.S.F.S.R."
Founding of the SSR LiB
On 27 February 1919, a Central Executive Committee of the Lithuanian Soviet Republic and the Central Executive Committees of the SSRB held a joint meeting in Vilna. The meeting elected the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Lithuania and Belorussia it with Kazimierz Cichowski at its helm. Furthermore, the meeting founded the Council of People's Commissars of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia as the government cabinet for the new united Soviet republic, headed by Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas. The local communist leaders managed to resist the imposition that Joffe would become the head of the republic, albeit he remained in the area as the representative of the Moscow centre.Kapilyev notes that unlike their predecessors, this government was not labelled 'Provisional'. The 27 February 1919 meeting reluctantly accepted separation of the Mogilev, Smolensk and Vitebsk governorates from Belorussia. Vilna became the capital the new Lithuanian-Belorussian republic. However, most SSR LiB government institutions would be based in Minsk or Smolensk. At the time of its founding, the territories under the control of the new republic in the Minsk, Vilna and Kovno governorates had a combined population of about 4 million people.
A unification congress of the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belorussia and the Communist Party of Belorussia was held in Vilna 4–6 March 1919, merging the two parties under the name of the former. On the agrarian front, the party unification congress decided against the break-up of confiscated estates. Rather than partitioning the estates for redistribution to smallholder and landless peasants the party unification congress opted for the conversion of the estates into collective state farms, a decision that soured relationships between the peasantry and the party.
Evacuation to Minsk
As the Polish army advanced towards Vilna, the Council of People's Commissars set up the Defense Council of the SSR LiB. The situation in Vilna was chaotic, with the SSR LiB government holding as many as 16 meetings between 8 April and 15 April 1919. Local Polish populations supported the Polish army offensive on Vilna, which lasted from 17 to 21 April 1919.The SSR LiB government was evacuated to Dvinsk on 21 April 1919. The loss of the Litbel capital undermined morale of the communist movement in the region. The Litbel republic made three unsuccessful attempts to retake Vilna from the Polish army. On 28 April 1919 the government was moved to Minsk. Minsk was named the new capital of the republic. However the evacuation had not been done in an orderly manner, much of the materials and staff of the government institutions had been left behind in Vilna. Once in Minsk the People's Commissariats would not embark on setting up new institutions, rather they assimilated the existing structures of the Minsk Provincial Revolutionary Committee into their own commissariats.
Evacuation to Bobruisk
In May 1919, with the Polish forces advancing on Minsk, the Council of People's Commissars and some People's Commissariats withdrew to Bobruisk. On 30 May 1919 the SSR LiB Central Executive Committee signed a treaty with the RSFSR government, remitting management of the SSR LiB military and economic affairs to the RSFSR government. The Defense Council stayed in Minsk. However, by mid-June the SSR LiB had lost control of even the peripheries of the city. A number of anti-Soviet rebellions occurred in various parts of the lands claimed by the SSR LiB, with green armies taking hold of lands.On June 1, 1919, the Military-Political Union of Soviet Republics was announced at a festive meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in Moscow. A delegation of SSR LiB attended the meeting. The union would consist of the RSFSR, SSR LiB, the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic and the Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic - per the decree issued at the meeting the republics would have a unified military organization and command, and the National Councils of Economy and Transportation and People's Commissariats of Labour of the Soviet republics would be merged. Subsequently, the SSR LiB army was merged into the RSFSR armed forces on June 7, 1919. On June 21, 1919, the SSR LiB Central Executive Committee issued a statement praising the Military-Political Union, calling a first step towards the unification of all Soviet republics.
On 13 July 1919, Joseph Stalin, who had arrived to supervise the Western Front, proposed dissolving the SSR LiB Defense Council and Council of People's Commissars. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belorussia opposed Stalin's proposition, arguing that the move would spell the end for the republic. The RCP Orgburo agreed to delay the disbanding of the SSR LiB Council of People's Commissars, but called for disbanding the Defense Council. On 17 July 1919, at a joint meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the SSRLiB, the Minsk Soviet and the Central Council of Trade Unions took the decision to dissolve the Defense Council. At this point Polish forces controlled about 75% of the territories claimed by SSR LiB.
On 19 July 1919, the Central Executive Committee of SSR LiB decided to create Provisional Minsk Governorate Revolutionary Committee, entrusting it the authority to manage affairs in unoccupied territories. The Council of People's Commissars ceased to function, with the Minsk Governorate Revolutionary Committee taking over its functions. The SSR LiB People's Commissariats, now based in Bobruisk, were rebranded as departments of the Minsk Governorate Revolutionary Committee. Nevertheless, the People's Commissariats maintained the orientation that they would function as government institutions for unoccupied parts of SSR LiB.