Byelorussian collaboration with the Axis powers

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Headquarters of Belarusian Central Rada, a pro-Nazi semi-government of Belarus operating from Minsk, June 1943.

During World War II, some Belarusians collaborated with the invading Axis powers. Until the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the territory of East Belarus was under control of the Soviet Union, as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, memories of the Russian Civil War were still fresh, and many people in Belarus wanted an independent Belarus. Many Belarusians chose to cooperate with the invaders in order to achieve that goal, assuming that Nazi Germany would allow them to have their own independent state after the war ended. The collaborationist regime Belarusian Central Rada was formed in Minsk.

"Before the war – wrote Leonid Rein – many of the Byelorussian nationalists had belonged to Akinčyc's[1] Party of Byelorussian National Socialists and were now [at the onset of Operation Barbarossa] prepared to identify completely with the Nazis' goals and slogans, with their aspirations ranging from the creation of a "New Europe" to the Final Solution of the Jewish Question."[2]

Administration

Belarusian volunteers in the German army

File:Schuma Battalion 102-115-118 leaders (Minsk 1942).jpg
Minsk training base in 1942, leaders of the Schutzmannschaft Battalions 102 and 115, as well as the Ukrainian Battalion 118 ready for service in Reichskommissariat Ostland

German Commanders and officers associated with Belarus

Belarusian political leaders

The unofficial White-red-white flag of Belarus which became associated with collaboration during World War II
  • Radasłaŭ Astroŭski, Mayor of Smolensk and later the President of Belarusian Central Rada
  • Jury Sabaleŭski, Major of Baranavičy and Vice-President of the Belarusian Central Council
  • Priest Mikałaj Łapicki, Orthodox priest and Editor-in-Chief of the Ranica newspaper
  • Vacłaŭ Ivanoŭski, "Alderman of Minsk"
  • Ivan Jermačenka (also known as "Herr Jawohl"), local political adviser
  • Stanisłaŭ Stankievič, Mayor of Barysaŭ
  • Emmanuel Jasiuk, Mayor of Klecak
  • Jaŭchim Kipel, president of the Second All-Belarusian Rada Congress
  • Ivan Kasiak, Belarusian provincial governor
  • Jury Bartyševič, Minister of Administration of occupational Astroŭski government
  • Anton Adamovič, member in self-help Belarusian organization
  • Mikoła Abramčyk, Intelligence Minister in Astroŭski government
  • Stanisłaŭ Hrynkievič

Belarusian anti-communist commanders

German-collaborationist Biełaruskaja Krajovaja Abarona, Minsk, June 1944.

Belarusian political movements

  • Hramada Movement (Belarusian Peasants and Workers Party)
  • Belarusian National Socialist Party
  • Self-help Belarusian Groups
  • Belarusian affairs office
  • Belarusian "Ventruensausschuss" administrative-political organization
  • First Zentralrat political organization

Belarusian political news

  • "Ranica" - Belarusian political news

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Politician Fabian Akinčyc, educated in Petersburg (1913), was a leader of the Belarusian national–socialists in Vilnia long before the German invasion of Poland. Already in the spring of 1939 he went to Germany aiming to establish political and military collaboration of Belarusian Nazis with the German authorities notably, in the hope of becoming the leader of Free Belarus after the German conquest of Europe. – Jury Turonak.
  2. ↑ Rein 2013, The Kings and the Pawns, page 135.

References

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