Belarus' Role In Wwii: A Historical Perspective

Belarus, or Belorussia, was the geographical centre of World War II in Europe, with Germany's invasion route to Moscow passing through the country. During the war, Belarus was a republic of the Soviet Union, with some Belarusian-speaking territories belonging to neighbouring Poland. Belarus was the site of partisan warfare, and it was here that the Germans first experimented with gas vans as a method of murder. The country was liberated from German occupation in 1944, but not before the Nazis had killed around a quarter of the region's population, including 500,000–550,000 Jews.

German invasion and occupation

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa. This invasion led to the German military occupation of Byelorussia, which lasted until August 1944 when the Soviets regained control of the region through Operation Bagration.

During the German invasion and occupation of Byelorussia, the local population suffered immensely. The Germans imposed a brutal regime, deporting around 380,000 people for slave labour and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. The ethnically Slavic Byelorussian population was intended to be exterminated, expelled, or enslaved as part of the German ethnic cleansing operation named Generalplan Ost. The Germans destroyed at least 5,295 Byelorussian settlements, and in more than 600 villages, such as Khatyn, the entire population was annihilated. In total, over two million people were killed in Belarus during the three years of Nazi occupation, amounting to around a quarter of the region's population. This figure includes the mass murder of 500,000 to 550,000 Jews as part of the Holocaust in Belarus.

In the early days of the occupation, a powerful and increasingly well-coordinated Soviet partisan movement emerged. Hiding in the woods and swamps, these partisans inflicted significant damage on German supply lines and communications. They disrupted railway tracks, bridges, telegraph wires, attacked supply depots, fuel dumps, and transports, and ambushed Axis soldiers. One of their most successful actions was the Asipovichy diversion on July 30, 1943, in which four German trains carrying supplies and Tiger tanks were destroyed. To counter this partisan activity, the Germans had to withdraw substantial forces from their front line.

In 1943, the German authorities allowed local collaborators to establish a regional government called the Belarusian Central Rada, which lasted until the Soviets retook control of the region. Following German military disasters at Stalingrad and Kursk, the Germans formed the collaborationist Belarusian Central Council (BCC) to garner local support for their anti-Soviet operations. The BCC, in turn, established the Belarusian Home Defence (BKA), which had a strength of 20,000 personnel and was active from February 23, 1944, to April 28, 1945.

Partisan warfare

During World War II, Belarus was the site of a significant partisan movement, which fought against the Nazi occupation of the country. The partisans consisted of both Soviet-formed irregular military groups and disparate independent groups, including Jewish, Polish, and nationalist Belarusian forces. The movement was highly effective, causing heavy damage to German supply lines and communications, and even temporarily restoring Soviet control in some areas. By the end of the war, there were over 374,000 partisans in Belarus, and they played a crucial role in the country's liberation.

Emergence of the Partisan Movement

The German invasion of the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941, and resulted in the occupation of Belarus, which was then part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The partisan movement emerged in response to this occupation, with the first partisan detachments formed mostly of Red Army personnel and local people. These early detachments carried out guerrilla warfare, hiding in the woods and swamps and targeting German supply lines and communications.

Coordination and Growth

Recognizing the strategic importance of Belarus, the Soviet authorities established the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement in May 1942 to coordinate partisan operations. By the end of 1941, more than 2,000 partisan detachments were operating in German-occupied territories, with over 90,000 personnel. The movement continued to grow, and by the summer of 1944, there were over 374,000 partisans in Belarus, organized into 1,255 units.

Tactics and Achievements

The partisans employed a range of tactics, including ambushes on Axis soldiers, attacks on supply depots and transports, and sabotage of railway tracks, bridges, and telegraph wires. One of their most notable successes was the Asipovichy diversion on July 30, 1943, in which four German trains carrying supplies and Tiger tanks were destroyed. They also played a crucial role in the liberation of Belarus, with upwards of 300,000 partisans taking part in Operation Bagration in 1944. By the end of the war, the partisans had assassinated about 500,000 members of the German military and their local collaborators, destroyed thousands of trains and bridges, and disrupted enemy communications.

Legacy

The Belarusian partisan movement played a significant role in the country's history and continues to shape its national identity. Many partisans later became prominent figures in the country's political and cultural life, and the movement is commemorated through memorials, museums, and reenactments. The legacy of the partisans has also been invoked by both the government and the opposition in their political rhetoric.

Collaboration with the Nazis

During World War II, some Belarusians collaborated with the invading Axis powers. Many Belarusians wanted an independent nation and cooperated with the invaders, hoping that Nazi Germany would grant them independence after the war. However, the Belarusian organisations never had administrative control over the territory of Belarus, and the real power was held by the German civil and military administrations.

The Belarusian Central Council, presenting itself as a Belarusian governmental body, was formed in Minsk a few months before the Soviet Army retook Belarus. The Belarusian National Socialist Party was another collaborationist organisation formed before the war by a small group of Belarusian nationalists in Polish-controlled Western Belorussia. The group's leaders became advisers to the Germans during Operation Barbarossa.

Several other collaborationist public organisations were created and operated during the Nazi occupation in Belarus. These included the Belarusian People's Self-Assistance (BNS), a national charitable organisation founded in October 1941 as a successor to the Belarusian Red Cross. The BNS was involved in charitable, cultural, educational, and political activities, demanding complete autonomy for Belarus and the creation of a Belarusian government and army. The Belarusian Corps of Self-Defence (BKS), formed in June 1942, was a military formation of Belarusian collaborators tasked with assisting the German and local police in fighting partisans. The Belarusian Youth Union (SBM), modelled after the Hitlerjugend, was a youth organisation aimed at cultivating national self-consciousness and readiness to fight for Belarus, which they believed would be "restored" with German help. The Belarusian Trust Council, an advisory council of Belarusian public representatives, was established in June 1943, and the Belarusian Central Council, an advisory body for the Belarusian administration in the occupied territory, was formed in December 1943.

In April 1944, the Belarusian Regional Defense Corps, under Nazi guidance, had 21,628 members, and the German-organised Union of Belarusian Youths (UBY) had about 90,000 members. Upon liberation, the Soviets arrested nearly 100,000 Belarusians accused of aiding the invaders.

Some historians argue that Soviet partisans deliberately provoked German reprisals, contributing to the high death toll in Belarus. However, a 2017 study found that while partisan attacks against German personnel provoked reprisals, attacks targeting railroads resulted in fewer reprisals and fewer civilian deaths.

Soviet liberation

During World War Two, the territory that now forms the country of Belarus was divided between the Soviet Union and the Second Polish Republic. In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, including the Byelorussian SSR, and occupied the whole of modern-day Belarus by the end of August.

The German occupation of Belarus lasted from 1941 until 1944. During this time, the Nazis murdered between one and two million Soviet Jews. The Belarusian Central Rada, a regional government, was established by the Germans in 1943 to raise local support for their anti-Soviet operations.

In 1944, the Soviet Union launched Operation Bagration, a strategic offensive that liberated Belarus from German occupation by the end of August. More than 2.5 million Soviet troops went into action against the German Army Group Centre, which could only muster a strength of less than 800,000 men. The Germans were overwhelmed, losing almost 400,000 men. Minsk, the capital, was taken on 3 July 1944, trapping 100,000 Germans. Ten days later, the Red Army reached the pre-war Polish border.

The Soviet liberation of Belarus came at a high cost. Belarus lost a quarter of its pre-war population in World War Two, including practically its entire intellectual elite. About 9,200 villages and 1,200,000 houses were destroyed. The major towns of Minsk and Vitebsk lost over 80% of their buildings and city infrastructure.

The Holocaust in Belarus

On 3 July 1941, 2,000 Jewish members of the intelligentsia were marched to a forest and massacred in the first "selection" in Minsk. By 15 July 1941, all Jews were ordered to wear a yellow badge, and on 20 July, the creation of the Minsk Ghetto was announced. Within two years, it became the largest ghetto in the German-occupied Soviet Union, with over 100,000 Jews. The Nazis rounded up Jews and confined them to makeshift ghettos, where they were either killed or put to work for the Third Reich. The ghettos in Minsk, Bobruisk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel, and other cities held thousands of prisoners each.

The non-Jewish population of Belarus also suffered under Nazi occupation, with hundreds of thousands deported to Germany as slave labourers, villages and towns burned or destroyed, and millions starved to death. Overall, Belarus was devastated by the war, with half of its population either killed or forcibly displaced.

Frequently asked questions