BIELORUSSIA (RUSSIA BIANCA). – One of the 16 federated Republics constituting the U.S.S.R.
Having proclaimed itself autonomous in 1918 and adopted the Soviet regime in 1920, it was recognized by the new Russian government on 16 Jan. 1921; it subsequently became part of the U.S.S.R. as a federated State on 30 Dec. 1922. Its territory, which originally comprised only that part of the former Minsk gubernia that had not been annexed to Poland (59,600 sq. km. with 1.6 million inhabitants), was expanded eastward in 1924–26 through the incorporation of the former gubernias of Vitebsk (except for Latgallia, which passed to Latvia) and Mogilev. On the eve of the Second World War, B. extended over 126,600 sq. km. and had 5.6 million inhabitants. Following the collapse of Poland in Sept. 1939, B. incorporated its territories north of the Pripet, except for the Vilna area, ceded to Lithuania, and thus became a State of 226,000 sq. km. with 10 million inhabitants. In July 1941, having been invaded by the Germans, it was incorporated into the Reich Commissariat of Ostland; liberated by the Soviets in the summer of 1944, it was reconstituted within the 1939 frontiers, except for the cession of the Bialystok–Suwalki sector (11,000 sq. km. with approximately 600,000 inhabitants) to the new Polish Republic.
At present B. extends over 215,000 sq. km. and has 9.4 million inhabitants.
In 1926 the Bielorussians (who, like the Ukrainians and the Great Russians, belong to the Russo-Slavic family) constituted 81% of the population (as against only 8% Great Russians).
Their name is due to the predominance of white (bielo) in their traditional costumes; their individuality finds expression in a physical type more slender and delicate than that of the other Russian peoples, and in the language, which is fairly well differentiated within the domain of the East Slavic languages. After the recent war the number of Jews (8.2%
in 1926) living in the cities of Bielorussia declined, and the same probably occurred among the other Jewish minorities (Poles). The percentage of the urban population increased very little during the prewar period (from 17 to 25% between 1926 and 1939), while the flow of Bielorussians toward the northern regions of the U.S.S.R. and Siberia remained substantial. Illiteracy, on the other hand, fell from 47 to 21% during the same period.
Minsk (Mensk in Bielorussian), situated on a tributary of the Beresina, is the capital of B.; it had 239,000 inhabitants in 1939 (of whom two-fifths were Israelites). Vitebsk (167,000 inhabitants), Gomel (144,000) and Mogilev (99,000) are, after the capital, the only populated centers exceeding or approaching 100,000 inhabitants. The considerable westward shift of the European frontier of the U.S.S.R. somewhat altered the strategic-commercial position of these centers, without, however, substantially changing the role of B., which remains one of the most sensitive marginal regions of the entire Soviet system.
For ecclesiastical history, V. RUSSIA.