The Belorussian Factor in the Genesis of the Modern Lithuanian State, 1915-1917

The paper is devoted to a relatively recently researched subject – the relations between the Lithuanians and the Belorussians and the role of the latter in the genesis of the Lithuanian state in the early twentieth century. At the start of the First World War in the German-occupied regions there was a chance to re-establish the Republic of the Two Nations for the first time after 1795. However, that was not the German intention. Initially they supported only the illusion of the re-establishment of Lithuanian statehood in the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In this policy there was also some space for the rudiments of the political activity of Lithuanian and Belorussian intellectuals. Since the beginning of the ‘Los von Russland’ Campaign of 1916 it is possible to trace certain open efforts to obtain Lithuanian and Belorussian statehood. In the Lithuanian political struggle formulas of historical and ethnic statehood were applied taking into consideration the practical political manoeuvres of the warring countries. After the declaration of Polish statehood on 5 November 1916 the ethnic model became more important. In the east an ethnic Lithuanian state was to coincide with the historic ‘Lithuania Proper’. That was a basis for more or less constructive relations with the Belorussians, who also preferred to adhere to the historical formula. After the February Revolution, when the Belorussians started requiring the historical statehood of the whole of the GDL, contacts were broken, and they were renewed in the autumn of 1917 after the election of the Lithuanian Council (Taryba).