Belarusian People’s Republic
벨라루스 인민공화국
The Belarusian state proclaimed in Minsk by its Rada under German occupation in 1918, also known as the Belarusian Democratic Republic. Established by the Second Constituent Charter of 9 March and declared independent by the Third Charter of 25 March, it never governed the whole of Belarus. When the Red Army entered Minsk in December 1918 its government moved to Lithuania and from 1919 went into exile, and the state disappeared when the Polish–Soviet War divided the Belarusian lands. Its Rada still exists as a government in exile.
In depth
After the February Revolution Belarusians debated whether to seek autonomy within the Russian Republic or independence. The idea of a new state was put forward at the First All-Belarusian Congress in December 1917, which the Bolsheviks dispersed. On 21 February 1918, a few hours before German troops occupied Minsk, the executive committee of the Congress’s Rada declared itself the authority in the region by its First Constituent Charter and set up the People’s Secretariat under Ivan Varonka. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March, the Rada established the People’s Republic by its Second Charter, and on 25 March its Third Charter proclaimed independence, claiming the whole of the Mogilev Governorate and the Belarusian parts of the Minsk, Grodno, Vilna, Vitebsk and Smolensk Governorates. The Rada then had 77 members: 36 elected at the Congress plus representatives of the Vilnius Belarusians, of the Russian, Polish and Jewish minorities, and of local governments and cities. That same day it telegraphed Wilhelm II asking for help in strengthening its independence “in union with the German Empire”; the telegram plunged the Rada into a severe crisis, and some socialists left the People’s Secretariat. Germany never recognised the republic. Its symbols were the white-red-white flag and the Pahonia, taken from the arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and according to the English-language source between 150 and 350 schools were founded.
When the Germans withdrew in December 1918 and the Red Army entered Minsk, the Rada moved via Vilnius and Hrodna to Kaunas. Prime Minister Anton Luckievič led a delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919; the English-language source states that Estonia (October 1919) and Finland (December 1919) officially recognised the republic, while the Russian-language source holds that none of its missions abroad obtained legal recognition. According to the historian Oleg Łatyszonek about 11,000 people served in its army. On 11 November 1920 Vaclau Lastouski’s government signed a cooperation treaty with Lithuania, and the Slutsk uprising broke out at the end of that year. In October 1925 the All-Belarusian Political Conference in Berlin decided that the government in exile should hand its powers to the government of Soviet Byelorussia and dissolve, but the Rada’s chairman Piotra Krečeŭski refused to accept it, and the Rada stayed in exile without ever officially recognising Soviet Byelorussia. Many leaders who returned to Soviet Byelorussia, Lastouski among them, were repressed in the 1930s. The Rada moved to West Germany in 1945, and as of 2026 it is the oldest existing government in exile. Since the late 1980s the Belarusian national democratic opposition has celebrated 25 March as Freedom Day.