FORMOWANIE SIĘ GRANIC POLITYCZNYCH BIAŁORUSI W XX WIEKU
Journal Title: Przegląd Wschodni - Year 2014, Vol 13, Issue 51
Abstract
The article presents changes in the administrative and political borders of Belarus in the 20th century. The point of departure for textual-cartographic analysis is the situation prior to the First World War, when the lands inhabited by Belarusians were an integral part of the centralized and despotic Russian Empire. At the time, they did not possess a shred of autonomy. Following this, a detailed account is presented of the turbulent and inconsistent period from 1914–1920, during which, as a result of the Russo-German war, the Russian Revolution, as well as the Polish-Soviet War, the political and administrative borders of Belarusian lands changed many times over. The territorial effects of the treaty signed in Riga (1921) are also discussed. This treaty divided the ethnic territory of Belarus, but simultaneously stabilized the political situation until 1939. The next part of the article is dedicated to the geopolitical repercussions connected to the Second World War, which influenced the multiple shifting of political borders on Belarusian lands. They were a consequence of many factors, including the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the German invasion of the USSR and finally, the defeat of Nazi Germany and establishment of the eastern Polish border along the Curzon line. This phenomenon is separately discussed in the sense of geographical-historical changes on the Polish-Belarusian, Russian-Belarusian, Ukrainian-Belarusian and Lithuanian-Belarusian borders. It is underlined that most all decisions concerning border transformations on lands inhabited by Belarusians came to be decided in Moscow, though partially in Berlin and Warsaw. This was due to the fact that during the whole 20th century, Belarus was never the master of its political destiny and other external factors determined its borders. The formation of the Belarusian state was merely the consequence of the fall of the Soviet empire. Nonetheless, border shifts on the territory of Belarus during the last hundred years have played a significant geopolitical role in the region.
Authors and Affiliations
Piotr Eberhardt
Keywords
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