Belarusian Revolutionary Party. Belarusian Revolutionary Hramada

The socialist and social-democratic movement on the territory of Belarus originated at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The General Jewish Labour Bund (Bund), the Polish Socialist Party, the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries of Russia, as well as the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks (the 1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party took place in 1898 in Minsk) were active here. Other left-wing parties also operated (see Table 1). However, none of these parties expressed specifically Belarusian interests.

The first attempt to found a Belarusian socialist party took place in 1902. At that time, a group of students from St. Petersburg higher schools led byVaclaŭ Ivanoŭskidecided to create the Belarusian Revolutionary Party.

The founding of the BRP was one of the reasons for the creation of a branch organization of the Polish Socialist Party – the so-called PPS in Lithuania (PPS na Litwie). This organization launched active publishing activities in the Belarusian language. In late 1902 – early 1903, three brochures were published in the London printing house of the PPS:

1. “Talk about where the peasants' money goes”,
2. “Who is the true friend of the poor people”,
3. “How to make it so that people live well in the world”.

It is possible that a fourth brochure – “Is there enough land for everyone” – was printed in the same place.

True, the leaders of the PPS soon realized that propaganda and agitation in the Belarusian language served to awaken the national feelings of Belarusians, and this was not in the interests of the Polish socialists, many of whom were themselves sons and daughters of the Polonized and Polish gentry in Belarus and saw if not all, then a significant part of Belarus as part of the future Polish state.

Meanwhile, the BRP – especially V. Ivanoŭski – did not limit itself to political activity. It was the creation of Belarusian historiography, Belarusian scientific grammar, Belarusian literature, and book publishing that were formulated as priority tasks in the party's appeal“To the Intelligentsia”,which was written in the autumn of 1902 and published in 1903 in the Polish socialist magazine “Przedświt” (No. 2).

To be precise, we have before us the program of a cultural and educational organization rather than a party. Thus, the creation of the first Belarusian political party in the form of the BRP can only be considered an attempt. This is how V. Ivanoŭski himself later regarded the BRP – as an attempt at a party.

The cultural orientation of the BRP did not satisfy other young Belarusian socialists, primarily Ivan and Anton Luckievič. Arriving in St. Petersburg for studies in 1902, they set out to create a party with political goals and tasks. And for the implementation of cultural projects, the Circle of Belarusian Folk Enlightenment and Culture was created. V. Ivanoŭski became the soul of this organization. In 1903, he began Belarusian book publishing activities. The Circle of Belarusian Enlightenment produced more than just fiction and educational books: at the end of 1903, a proclamation was prepared, and in April 1904 it was released:“The Tsar's Economy”.

Taking the matter of organizing a political party into their own hands, the Luckievič brothers, with the help of St. Petersburg students, established ties with Vilna. From that time on, St. Petersburg, Minsk, and Vilna became the centers of the Belarusian movement.

At the end of 1903, the 1st Congress of the party, which took the nameBelarusian Revolutionary Hramada.Its leaders wereIvan Luckievič,Anton Luckievič, Vaclaŭ Ivanoŭski,Aliaksandr Burbis, Aloiza Paškievič (Ciotka). Kazimier Kastravicki (Karuś Kahaniec), Francišak Umiastoŭski, Jaŭhien Chliabcevič, and others played a prominent role in the new political organization.

(For the prehistory of the founding of the BRH, see the essay by Anatol Sidarevič“The Birth of Belarus”.)

The party entered the arena of political struggle in 1904. In January of that year, the unpopular Russo-Japanese War began, and favorable conditions for anti-government agitation emerged. Belarusian revolutionaries, together with Latvian and Lithuanian social democrats and Polish socialists, organized the production and distribution of leaflets.

The party, which took an active part in the struggle against autocracy, was invited in 1904 to a conference of national socialist parties of Russia in Paris.

The holding of conferences of national socialist parties of the Russian Empire was prompted by the need to coordinate struggle tactics and determine a common line in relation to the Great Russian socialist parties – the RSDLP and the SRs. The first of them occupied a clearly centralist position and in its program, adopted in 1903, recognized only “regional self-government for those localities which are distinguished by special living conditions and composition of the population.” This very vague provision of the party program could be interpreted in any way in each individual case. Denying the principle of federalism in state life, the Russian Social Democrats also denied it in party building, demanding, for example, that the Bund merge into the RSDLP. The SRs, while recognizing the right of nations to autonomy, denied it for Belarusians and Ukrainians and, moreover, pursued an inconsistent policy towards other nations of the empire. Both the RSDLP and the PSR created obstacles to the admission of socialist parties of the national minorities of Russia to the International.

BELARUSIAN SOCIALIST HRAMADA

People of various views joined the party of Belarusian revolutionaries. They were united by hatred for tsarism and a desire to overthrow this political system. As for tactics and strategy, and methods of struggle, there was no unity among the party members. Therefore, the BRH could not work out a proper program of principles. As A. Luckievič admitted, the party program adopted in 1903 was still “unrefined,” “rather vague.”

Two currents prevailed in the BRH: supporters of social democracy (Marxism) and Narodnism. Ivan Luckievič was initially fascinated by Narodnik rebelliousness, as evidenced by his active contacts with Russian socialist-revolutionaries. However, it turned out that the Marxist wing of the party was stronger.

The circumstances are still unknown, but it is a firmly established fact that by November 10, 1904, the Belarusian Revolutionary Hramada began to be called the Belarusian Socialist Hramada. Anton Luckievič linked this fact to the victory of Marxist, social-democratic ideology within the party. However, in his works, the renaming of the BRH to the BSH is dated to the end of 1905, when the 2nd Congress of the party took place. Meanwhile,proclamationsissued at the beginning of the 1905 revolution were signed by the Belarusian Socialist Hramada.