Byelorussian Central Council


The Byelorussian Central Council or the Byelorussian Central Rada was a Byelorussian representative body with limited governmental functions during World War II in German-occupied Byelorussia. It was established by Nazi Germany within Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1943–44, following a requests by collaborationist Belarusian politicians hoping to create an independent Belarusian state with support of Nazi Germany.

Background

Immediately after the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, the mass persecution of Jews by the forward units of Einsatzgruppe B began under the command of the SS functionary Arthur Nebe. Jews were massacred and ghettos were formed in dozens of towns with the participation of Byelorussian collaborators who were given various prominent roles. The Belarusian Auxiliary Police was established and deployed to murder operations particularly in February–March 1942.
Following Germany's rapid conquest, the Generalbezirk Weißruthenien district of RKO was formed which included the western and central parts of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic in its 1941 borders. In 1942, the German civil authority was extended to Minsk, Slutsk and Barysaw. The area was to be made part of the Nazis' project of Lebensraum, in which those deemed non-Aryan would be exterminated or expelled to make way for German colonists, while the remaining locals would be subject to forced Germanization. All attempts by the Byelorussian representatives to request self-governance for the occupied Byelorussia led to German repressions against those who voiced such requests.
in Minsk, May 1943
Generalreichskommissar Wilhelm Kube was appointed the German administrator of the area. He had his command center established in Minsk with a second Kommissar in Baranovichi. In September 1943, Kube was killed by his Byelorussian mistress, who planted a bomb in his bed coerced by the Soviet agents who knew where her son was.
In order to drum up fresh troops for the front inside Reichskommissariat Ostland and to stimulate support from the Belarusian population and elites, General Reinhard Gehlen suggested to the German High Command that some concessions be made to the Belarusian collaborators in the form of a puppet state. The semi-autonomous local government was founded by Nazi Germany in December 1943, and named the Byelorussian Central Council. Radasłaŭ Astroŭski, the mayor of Smolensk at that time, was appointed its president. General Kurt von Gottberg who replaced Kube, named the Belarusian politician Ivan Yermachenka, arriving from Prague, the "Advisor on Belarusian affairs".

Functions and work

The Byelorussian Central Council only had a limited role in governing, with the key decisions being taken by the German administration of the Generalbezirk Weißruthenien. The Council mostly managed social affairs as well as culture and education. The Council had twelve departments including: Education, science and culture; Propaganda and press; Social security; Finance; Youth affairs; Religion; Control; Administrative issues; Economy; National minorities; and Home Defense.
The Byelorussian Central Council oversaw the activities of Byelorussian civic organizations established earlier under German permission including: Union of Byelorussian Youth; Byelorussian Scientific Society; Byelorussian Cultural Association; Byelorussian Self-Help; and labour unions. The Council has managed to widen the usage of the Byelorussian language in schools and in public life, worked on the opening of a university.
Unlike earlier Byelorussian collaborationist organizations, the Byelorussian Central Council was better positioned with the German authorities to protect the interests of the Byelorussian population from the Germans.

Policy on religion

The SS authorised an autocephalous Belarusian Orthodox Church independent from the Patriarch of Moscow who, similarly, was used by the Soviet atheists to rally Russians against the Germans. The priests had considerable influence with the peasantry and actively supported the defeat of Soviet Russia, which had terrorized Christians in West Belarus after the joint Soviet invasion of Poland of September 17, 1939.

Byelorussian Home Defence (BKA)

In March 1944, the Byelorussian Central Council organized a universal military conscription among the young Belarusians. The Belarusian Home Defence Force was formed, with 28,000 soldiers ready for training, aided by a few thousand members of the Belarusian Auxiliary Police battalions.
After the retreat of Germans from Byelorussia, the Byelorussian Home Defence was absorbed into 30. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS-Russische No 2.. This infantry division formed from the remnants of the 29th Waffen-SS Division, included both Belarusian and Ukrainian units. The Germans had set up an officers' school and issued uniforms with a Waffen-SS Storm-brigade Belarus designation. Orders were issued for Belarusian forces to be absorbed by Andrey Vlasov's Russian Army of Liberation; but Astroŭski opposed this. He also sabotaged the idea of the "Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia", since he did not wanted to align himself with Russians.
Other members of BKA and the Byelorussian Auxiliary Police were recruited by SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny for training in Dahlwitz near Berlin, to make special undercover strikes behind the enemy lines. These units were part of a clandestine operation known as Liebes Kätzchen stretched from the Baltics to the Black Sea. The Byelorussian "Black Cat" guerrilla group was led by Michas' Vitushka. They operated in Belavezha Forest against the Soviet forces in anti-communist operations throughout 1945 but with little success. Infiltrated by NKVD, they were destroyed in 1945.

Exile

In 1944, with the advance of the Red Army towards the West, the Byelorussian Central Council evacuated with the retreating Germans to East Prussian and Polish lands still under the control of Nazi Germany.
A few days before the evacuation, the BCR held a congress in Minsk, titled the Second All-Byelorussian Congress. The meeting gathered 1039 delegates from various regions of Belarus and from Byelorussian emigre organizations. The congress confirmed the declaration of independence of Belarus and declared the Belarusian Central Council as the supreme Belarusian representative body. The aim of the meeting was for the BCR to gain legitimacy basing on a decision by representatives of the Belarusian society rather than on a decision by the German administration. The organizers feared provocations from both Soviet partisans and the Germans.
After evacuation, the leadership of the BCR has formed the base for Byelorussian self-organization in the post-war camps for Displaced persons.
At the end of 1945, Astroŭski held a special meeting of the "Byelorussian Central Committee" which decided to dissolve the government in order to avoid accusation of collaboration with the Nazis.
On March 25, 1948, the Byelorussian Central Council renewed its activity in exile. It has been one of the main umbrella organizations of the Belarusian emigre community in the West till its de facto dissolution in 1995.

Presidents