Baltarusių emigrantų veikla Kaune 1919–1926 metais

Abstract

1918 m. kovo 25 d. buvo paskelbta Baltarusijos Liaudies Respublikos (BLR) nepriklausomybė. Nesugebėjus jos išlaikyti, Baltarusijos teritoriją užėmus sovietinės Rusijos ir Lenkijos kariuomenėms, didžioji baltarusių veikėjų dalis, siekianti nepriklausomybės, pasirinko politinės emigracijos kelią. Vienu svarbiausių ir labiausiai aktyvių centrų, be Prahos, Berlyno ir Rygos, kur savo veiklą sutelkė baltarusių emigracija, buvo laikinoji Lietuvos Respublikos sostinė – Kaunas.

On 25th of March 1918, independence of Belorussian People’s Republic (BPR) was declared in Minsk. However, after the failure to create the Belorussian statehood, and the occupation of the territory by the Soviet and Polish armies, most of the Belorussian independence activists decided to emigrate. Kaunas as a temporary capital of Lithuania was one of the most important centers of Belorussian emigration. By the end of the second and the beginning of the third decades of the 20th century, two main Belorussian forces existed in Kaunas. The first was the Ministry of Belorussian Affairs established in December 1918: it moved to Kaunas from Grodna in spring of 1919 and worked there till 1924. The second was BPR government in exile, which moved to Kaunas from Riga after the agreement with the Lithuanian Republic government on 11th of November 1920. This political structure existed in Kaunas only till 1923. All Belorussian activities in Kaunas were not properly organized, and almost collapsed after V. Lastouski (former BPR Prime Minister) moved to Minsk in 1927. It should be also noted that in 1919-1927, several Belorussian organizations existed in Kaunas. The most significant cultural activity was made in the field of publication: few journals and newspapers, as well as several dozens of books and brochures were published.