Administrative division of the Byelorussian SSR (green) before World War II with territories annexed by the USSR from Poland in 1939 (marked in shades of orange), overlaid with territory of present-day Belarus
Western Belorussia in 1925 shown in dark green and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic shown in light green
Country
Belarus, partly in Poland and Lithuania
Area
Historical region
Today part of
Grodno, Brest, Minsk (partially) and Vitsebsk (partially); Podlaskie Voivodeship (partially), Southeastern Lithuania including Vilnius
Western Belorussia or Western Belarus (Belarusian: Заходняя Беларусь, romanized: Zachodniaja Biełaruś; Polish: Zachodnia Białoruś; Russian: Западная Белоруссия, romanized: Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of modern-day Belarus which belonged to the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period. For twenty years before the 1939 invasion of Poland, it was the northern part of the Polish Kresy macroregion.[1] Following the end of World War II in Europe, most of Western Belorussia was ceded to the Soviet Union by the Allies, while some of it, including Białystok, was given to the Polish People's Republic. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Western Belorussia formed the western part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Today, it constitutes the west of modern Belarus.[2]
Created by the USSR after the conquest of Poland, the new western provinces of Byelorussian SSR acquired from Poland included Baranavichy, Belastok, Brest, Vileyka and the Pinsk Regions.[3] They were reorganized one more time after the Soviet liberation of Belarus into the contemporary western provinces of Belarus which include all of Grodno and Brest regions, as well as parts of today's Minsk and Vitebsk regions. Vilnius[4][5] was returned by the USSR to the Republic of Lithuania which soon after that became the Lithuanian SSR.[6]
^Anna M. Cienciala (2004). "The Rebirth of Poland". History 557: Poland and Soviet Russia: 1917-1921. The Bolshevik Revolution, the Polish-Soviet War, and the Establishment of the Polish-soviet Frontier (Lecture Notes 11 B). University of Kansas. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 31 July 2016 – via Internet Archive.
^Cite error: The named reference eber was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Александр Локотко; Ольга Князева; Евгений Морозов; Ольга Изотова (2017). Mosaic of Belarus. Litres. p. 425. ISBN 978-5457636637.
^Algimantas P. Gureckas, Lithuania's Boundaries and Territorial Claims between Lithuania and Neighboring States, New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law, New York Law School, New York, 1991, Vol.12, Numbers 1 & 2, p. 126-128.
^Marjorie M. Whiteman, ed., Digest of International Law, Department of State Publication 7737, Washington, DC, 1964, Vol.3, p. 185-186 & 190.
^Ronen, Yaël (2011). Transition from Illegal Regimes Under International Law. Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-521-19777-9.
and 18 Related for: Western Belorussia information
WesternBelorussia or Western Belarus (Belarusian: Заходняя Беларусь, romanized: Zachodniaja Biełaruś; Polish: Zachodnia Białoruś; Russian: Западная Белоруссия...
Poland was portrayed by the Soviet propaganda as the "liberation of WesternBelorussia and Ukraine". Many ethnic Belarusians welcomed unification with the...
The Communist Party of WesternBelorussia (Polish: Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Białorusi, KPZB; Belarusian: Камуністычная партыя Заходняй Беларусі...
Soviets eventually introduced complete Sovietization policies in WesternBelorussia and Western Ukraine, including compulsory collectivization throughout the...
contrast to the largely-Catholic westernBelorussia. Historically dominated politically by the peasantry, eastern Belorussia was a stronghold of the Belarusian...
earlier which marked the beginning of World War II. The territories of WesternBelorussia were annexed and incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. The Soviet-controlled...
Treaty of Riga, Belarus was split into Eastern Belorussia (under Soviet occupation) and WesternBelorussia (under Polish occupation), and causing 350,000-450...
Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and WesternBelorussia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 32–33. ISBN 0-691-09603-1...
(1972). Belorussia under Soviet Rule, 1917–1957. University Press of Kentucky. Marples, David R. (1985). "Western Ukraine and WesternBelorussia Under Soviet...
occupation during World War II, and its territory was expanded after WesternBelorussia was ceded by Poland following the war. Belarus became an independent...
Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and WesternBelorussia (1988). Lower, Wendy. Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust...
to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, communist governments for Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were formed and immediately...
intelligence operations. The Red Army was organised in several fronts. The Western Front facing the Poles had more than 700,000 soldiers in August. However...
since the Ruthenian nobility were attracted by both the glamour of the Western culture and the Polish political order where the magnates became the unrestricted...
operated as the autonomous Communist Party of Western Ukraine (KPZU) and Communist Party of WesternBelorussia (KPZB); substantial growth in membership was...
advocating contrary approaches: restoration of Poland based on its former western territories one side and, alternatively, restoration of Poland based on...
WesternBelorussia and 405,000 Jews in the Eastern part of present-day Belarus. The territories of WesternBelorussia in 1941 and modern-day Western Belarus...
Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and WesternBelorussia. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691096032...
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