The Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (SSR LiB), alternatively referred to as the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and White Russia or simply Litbel or 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

left|thumb|300px|Frontlines as of February 27, 1919

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 (SSRB) was established on 1 January 1919. On 16 January 1919, as the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) 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<!-- not explicitly named in reference, but evident from context --> 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<!-- ref says he was sent by 'the Kremlin', not entirely sure if party rep or govt rep, or both --> with a mission to bring order among the infighting Bolshevik leadership in Belorussia. The Central Executive Committee of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR) was represented at the congress by its chairman Yakov Sverdlov. 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.

A unification congress of the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belorussia (Old Occupation) and the Communist Party (Bolshevik) 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.

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 Defense Council stayed in Minsk.

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.

Fall of Minsk and Bobruisk

On 8 August 1919, Polish forces seized Minsk. By September 1919 Polish-Soviet front had stabilized on along the line of the Western Dvina–Ptsich–Berezina rivers. Klishevsky was named as the provisional secretary of the Belorussian Military Revolutionary Committee. Participation of A. Trofimov of the in the Belorussian Military Revolutionary Committee was foreseen. De facto Russian was the predominant language in public affairs, notably being the language of the Red Army soldiers. 91 out of the 100 members of the Central Executive Committee were communists. The Central Executive Committee elected a Presidium with Kazimierz Cichowski as its chairman and Józef Unszlicht as its deputy chairman. --><!-- "Deputy Chairman", but of what? -->

  • Commissar for Labor: Semyon Dimanstein (Vaclovas Biržiška, who had been the People's Commissar for Education in the Lithuanian soviet government, was named Deputy Commissar for Education)
  • Commissar for Finance: Yitzhak Weinstein-Branovsky

Defense Council

The SSR LiB Defense Council formed on 19 April 1919, included Mickevičius-Kapsukas (chairman) Unszlicht and Kalmanovich. The SSR LiB Defense Council worked under the guidance of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belorussia, which had Mickevičius-Kapsukas as its chairman and Knorin as its secretary.

Prominent participants in the activities of the SSR LiB Defense Council included Waclaw Bogucki, , , Aleksa-Angarietis, Doletsky and Ivanov. On 16 April 1919 the Rechitsky Uyezd of Minsk Governorate was transferred to the RSFSR.

Economy

The economy of the short-lived republic was in distress. Filipp Mironov served as acting commander until 9 June 1919.

Culture

As the Red Army had seized Vilna, the Moscow centre directed much of the Jewish Commissariat (Evkom) staff to move to the new Litbel capital to win over the Yiddishist intelligentsia there. Daniel Charney, under supervisor of Commissar , was charged with overseeing Yiddish-language cultural activities; attempting to reorganize a central Soviet Yiddish library (gathering materials from expropriated archives), publishing Yiddish language educational and cultural periodicals and absorbing the Vilna Troupe into an SSR LiB Yiddish state theatre.

Historiography

Puppet, paper or buffer state?

Different historians have provided different explanations as to why the SSR LiB was founded. Jan Zaprudnik emphasized that the creation of the Litbel republic was a move done by Soviet Russia in the view of territorial competition with Poland over Lithuania and Belorussia. Borzęcki argues that there were no ethnic Belorussians in the Litbel government.

Nicholas Vakar argued that the Litbel republic represented a compromise between separatists, federalists, and supporters of a Lithuanian-Belorussian state. Smith affirms that as the Vilnius region was ethnically diverse and contested between competing nationalisms, by creating a joint Litbel republic the Soviet leadership could avoid assigning Vilna to neither Lithuania nor Belorussia. Smith (1999) also highlights the possibility of nostalgia over the Grand Duchy of Lithuania having functioned as a rationale for Litbel, noting that as of 1915 the idea of a Lithuanian-Belorussian union had championed by Belorussian nationalists with German backing and that such a union could have been perceived as having a potential to attract support from nationalist trends. Smith argues that the SSR LiB might have been retained as a formality until 1921.