Belarus and Russia compared

Entangled histories

11 events in which either nation’s sourced chronicle names the other — including under earlier names of the same state. Each is the same record, with the same sources, as on its own chronicle; nothing here was written for this page.

1. 1772-1795

   Partitions of Poland and Russian annexation

   In three partitions Russia, Prussia and Austria divided the Commonwealth; Russia took most of the Belarusian lands, and after 1795 all of Belarus was ruled by the Russian Empire.

   Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · The Commonwealth, Partition and the Russian Empire · History of Belarus, Belarus

2. 1839

   Suppression of the Uniate Church and Russification

   The Uniate (Greek Catholic) Church was abolished and absorbed into Russian Orthodoxy, part of a sustained imperial policy of Russification that discouraged the Belarusian language and name.

   Religion · from the Belarus chronicle · The Commonwealth, Partition and the Russian Empire · History of Belarus

3. 1 Jan 1919

   Founding of the Byelorussian SSR

   As the Germans withdrew, the Bolsheviks announced the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic; in 1922 it became one of the four founding republics of the Soviet Union.

   Formation · from the Belarus chronicle · People's Republic, Soviet Republic and Terror · Belarus: The emergence of the Belorussian S.S.R.

4. 18 Mar 1921

   Treaty of Riga partitions Belarus

   The treaty ending the Polish-Soviet War divided Belarus between Poland and Soviet Russia along the line of the first partition; western Belarus went to Poland and the east became the Byelorussian SSR.

   War & Rupture · from the Belarus chronicle · People's Republic, Soviet Republic and Terror · Belarus: The emergence of the Belorussian S.S.R.

5. 1937-1941

   Stalinist terror and Kurapaty

   Amid forced collectivisation, the NKVD carried out mass executions of Belarusians at Kurapaty near Minsk between 1937 and 1941; the mass graves, revealed in 1988, became the emblem of Soviet repression in Belarus.

   Catastrophe · from the Belarus chronicle · People's Republic, Soviet Republic and Terror · Kurapaty (1937-1941): NKVD Mass Killings in Soviet Belarus

6. 17 Sep 1939

   Reunification of western Belarus

   Following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the German invasion of Poland, Soviet forces entered eastern Poland and western Belarus was annexed to the Byelorussian SSR, reuniting the Belarusian lands.

   Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · Reunification, the Nazi Catastrophe and Soviet Belarus · Belarus: The emergence of the Belorussian S.S.R., History of Belarus

7. 8 Dec 1991

   Belavezha Accords dissolve the USSR

   In the Belavezha forest in Belarus, part of the UNESCO-listed Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, including Stanislau Shushkevich, signed accords declaring that the USSR had ceased to exist and founding the Commonwealth of Independent States.

   Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · Chernobyl, Independence and the Lukashenka Era · Belavezha Agreement (1991), Bialowieza Forest (Belovezhskaya Pushcha), Belarus: The emergence of the Belorussian S.S.R.

8. 25 Aug 1991

   Independence of Belarus

   After declaring sovereignty on 27 July 1990, the Supreme Soviet gave the declaration constitutional force on 25 August 1991 in the wake of the Moscow coup, proclaiming the independent Republic of Belarus.

   Independence · from the Belarus chronicle · Chernobyl, Independence and the Lukashenka Era · Declaration of State Sovereignty of Belarus (1990), Belarus: The emergence of the Belorussian S.S.R.

9. 1994

   Lukashenka elected president

   Alyaksandr Lukashenka won Belarus's first presidential election on an anti-corruption platform and went on to consolidate authoritarian rule and forge ever-deeper ties with Russia.

   Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · Chernobyl, Independence and the Lukashenka Era · Alexander Lukashenko

10. 8 Dec 1999

    Treaty on the Union State with Russia

    Lukashenka and Yeltsin signed a Treaty on the Creation of a Union State, a blueprint for deep Russian-Belarusian integration that has bound the two countries ever closer.

    Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · Chernobyl, Independence and the Lukashenka Era · Treaty on the Creation of a Union State, Alexander Lukashenko

11. Aug-Sep 2020

    Disputed election and mass protests

    Lukashenka's claimed landslide re-election sparked the largest protests in Belarusian history; the EU declared the vote neither free nor fair and refused to recognise his mandate, while he held on with Russian support.

    Politics & Power · from the Belarus chronicle · Chernobyl, Independence and the Lukashenka Era · Belarus: Declaration by the High Representative on the so-called 'inauguration' of Lukashenko, Alexander Lukashenko