The
Belarusian Socialist Assembly, BSA ' onMouseout='HidePop("19556")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Hramada">Hramada
Hramada is a Belarusian word that means gathering of people, i.e., assembly...
, BSH) was a
revolutionary partyRevolutionary Party is the name of several political parties, including:*Dominican Revolutionary Party*Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity*Revolutionary Progressive Nationalist Party of Haiti*Democratic Revolutionary Peoples Party, India...
in the
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
ian territory of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. It was established in 1902 as the
Belarusian Revolutionary Party, renamed in 1903.
The BSA had branches in
MinskMinsk is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States . As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the administrative centre of Minsk...
,
VilniaVilnia may refer to:* The Vilnia River in Lithuania* The name of capital of Lithuania Vilnius in Belarusian , Latvian , old Lithuanian and few other languages ....
and also in St.
The
Belarusian Socialist Assembly, BSA ' onMouseout='HidePop("19556")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Hramada">Hramada
Hramada is a Belarusian word that means gathering of people, i.e., assembly...
, BSH) was a
revolutionary partyRevolutionary Party is the name of several political parties, including:*Dominican Revolutionary Party*Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity*Revolutionary Progressive Nationalist Party of Haiti*Democratic Revolutionary Peoples Party, India...
in the
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
ian territory of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. It was established in 1902 as the
Belarusian Revolutionary Party, renamed in 1903.
The BSA had branches in
MinskMinsk is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States . As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the administrative centre of Minsk...
,
VilniaVilnia may refer to:* The Vilnia River in Lithuania* The name of capital of Lithuania Vilnius in Belarusian , Latvian , old Lithuanian and few other languages ....
and also in St. Petersburg. After the
February RevolutionThe February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It occurred March 8–12 and its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The non-Communist Russian Provisional Government under...
in Russia, the political activity in
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
increased, and in summer of 1917 BSA gave rise to the Belarusian Communist Party and the Belarusian Social Democratic Party.
On March 19, 1918 on the initiative of the BSA, the Counsil (
RadaRada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages.Normally it is translated as "council"...
) of the
Belarusian National RepublicThe Belarusian Democratic Republic was an independent Belarusian state, which declared independence in 1918...
has become a temporary, short-lived
parliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at...
in Belarusian lands. Most of the BNR Counsil were members of the BSA.
Russian
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
s had a negative attitude towards the BSA.
Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
described BSA as a "nationalist petty bourgeois party of
leftLeft may refer to:* Left * Left , an album by Hope of the States* Left-wing politics, the political trend or ideology← may refer to:...
populistPopulism is a political discourse that juxtaposes "the people" with "the elites." Populism may comprise an ideology urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style deployed by members of political or social movements...
orientation". The 2nd Congress of the Soviets of the Western Province (Russia) declared the Council of the Belarusian Republic counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet.
After the
Polish-Soviet WarThe Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, four states in post-World War I Europe. The war was the result of the belligerents' desire to expand their territories and their influence...
many activists of the BSA have found theselves in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, which acquired Western Belarus, and they struggled for the Belarusian autonomy.
Notable members
- Vasil Zacharka
Vasil Zacharka was a Belarusian statesman and the second president of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in exile.-Early life:Vasil Zacharka was born in a peasant family near Hrodna...
, the second president of the Belarusian Democratic Republic