Western Belorussia

Western Belarus
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
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
Western Belorussia in 1925 shown in dark green and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic shown in light green
CountryBelarus, partly in Poland and Lithuania
AreaHistorical region
Today part ofGrodno, 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]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference eber was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Александр Локотко; Ольга Князева; Евгений Морозов; Ольга Изотова (2017). Mosaic of Belarus. Litres. p. 425. ISBN 978-5457636637.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Marjorie M. Whiteman, ed., Digest of International Law, Department of State Publication 7737, Washington, DC, 1964, Vol.3, p. 185-186 & 190.
  6. ^ Ronen, Yaël (2011). Transition from Illegal Regimes Under International Law. Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-521-19777-9.