The proclamation of Belarusian independence on March 25, 1918, and the rival establishment of the Soviet Belarusian state on January 1, 1919, created two distinct and mutually exclusive national myths, which continue to define contemporary Belarusian society. This book examines the processes that resulted in this dual resolution in the context of World War I and the subsequent Russian Revolutions. Based on original archival material, Lizaveta Kasmach scrutinizes the development of competing concepts of Belarusian nationhood in the context of rivaling national aspirations and imperial policies. The analysis convincingly demonstrates the divisions within the nationalist movement, both politically between the moderates and socialists, and geographically between German-occupied territory with Vilna as a center versus Russian-controlled territory around Minsk. Besides the case study of Belarusian nation-building efforts, the book is a contribution to the study of the First World War in East Central Europe, approaching the war and its aftermath as a mobilizational moment in the region.

This dissertation contributes to the study of the First World War in East Central Europe, providing an insight into the profound political, demographic, social, and cultural changes introduced by the Great War and deepened by the Revolution. Focusing on the Belarusian nation-building process in the early 20th century, this study treats the First World War as an important divide in the national politics of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderlands. Rather than emphasizing the framework of the "rise of nationalism," Belarusian nation-building is analyzed with regard to the recent methodological trends of approaching the First World War as a mobilizational moment for stateless nations, demonstrating the ways in which the Great War catalyzed the growth of ethnic particularism in the region. With a broad comparative perspective on the entangled histories of the nation-building activities of Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Polish national movements, this dissertation addresses the problem of supporting and promoting national identity formation in a borderland region, where powers were changing frequently and people were maneuvering in their survival tactics. This study thus deals with the processes of overcoming indifference and creating allegiance to the new project of the Belarusian nation, uncovering the problematic roots of the Belarusian national identity and persisting patterns of national indifference and passivity, which still remain defining characteristics for contemporary Belarusian society.

Belarus, a middle-sized nation with more than a thousand years of history, is not well known beyond periodic media headlines. Modern scholarly and popular literature covers only fragments from Belarus’s long history and current geopolitical, social, and cultural issues. Belarusian history in this book differs in many aspects from history and myths created by Russian scholars and propagated worldwide. The author argues for the existence of a Western-Ruthenian (Belarusian-Ukrainian) civilization as a sub-civilization of Western civilization and thus different from Eurasian civilization. With original, detailed. and critical views on Belarusian history from the ninth century to the present, it explores the latest information about Belarusian society regarding mentality, identity, religion, current elites, the Revolution of Hope 2020. It then analyzes the future prospects of Belarus based on an assessment of modern trends in human societal and political development. It provides detailed analysis of current activities of Belarusian national and ruling elites and their ideologies vis-à-vis the building of a nation-state.

Modern Belarusian nationalism emerged in the early twentieth century during a dramatic period that included a mass exodus, multiple occupations, seven years of warfare, and the partition of the Belarusian lands. In this original history, Per Anders Rudling traces the evolution of modern Belarusian nationalism from its origins in late imperial Russia to the early 1930s. The revolution of 1905 opened a window of opportunity, and debates swirled around definitions of ethnic, racial, or cultural belonging. By March of 1918, a small group of nationalists had declared the formation of a Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR), with territories based on ethnographic claims. Less than a year later, the Soviets claimed roughly the same area for a Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Belarusian statehood was declared no less than six times between 1918 and 1920. In 1921, the treaty of Riga officially divided the Belarusian lands between Poland and the Soviet Union. Polish authorities subjected Western Belarus to policies of assimilation, alienating much of the population. At the same time, the Soviet establishment of Belarusian-language cultural and educational institutions in Eastern Belarus stimulated national activism in Western Belarus. Sporadic partisan warfare against Polish authorities occurred until the mid-1920s, with Lithuanian and Soviet support. On both sides of the border, Belarusian activists engaged in a process of mythmaking and national mobilization. By 1926, Belarusian political activism had peaked, but then waned when coups d’états brought authoritarian rule to Poland and Lithuania. The year 1927 saw a crackdown on the Western Belarusian national movement, and in Eastern Belarus, Stalin’s consolidation of power led to a brutal transformation of society and the uprooting of Belarusian national communists. As a small group of elites, Belarusian nationalists had been dependent on German, Lithuanian, Polish, and Soviet sponsors since 1915. The geopolitical rivalry provided opportunities, but also liabilities. After 1926, maneuvering this complex and progressively hostile landscape became difficult. Support from Kaunas and Moscow for the Western Belarusian nationalists attracted the interest of the Polish authorities, and the increasingly autonomous republican institutions in Minsk became a concern for the central government in the Kremlin. As Rudling shows, Belarus was a historic battleground that served as a political tool, borderland, and buffer zone between greater powers. Nationalism arrived late, was limited to a relatively small elite, and was suppressed in its early stages. The tumultuous process, however, established the idea of Belarusian statehood, left behind a modern foundation myth, and bequeathed the institutional framework of a proto-state, all of which resurfaced as building blocks for national consolidation when Belarus gained independence in 1991.