Взаимоотношения БССР и РСФСР в 1919-1921 гг.: противоречивое партнерство

Abstract

The article discusses the problems in the relations between the RSFSR and the BSSR in 1919—1921. The author comes to the conclusion that Soviet Russia played the key role in the establishing of the BSSR and was the first country to recognize its sovereignty. But in supporting the establishment of the Byelorussian Soviet state, the leaders of Soviet Russia pursued first of all their own interests, regarding Soviet Byelorussia as a buffer state called upon to defend the Soviet country from a possible intervention of European "bourgeois" states. In these circumstances there was no question of equality in the relations of the two republics, especially for the Soviet Russia leaders of the party hierarchy. All programme documents of Soviet Byelorussia confirmed the wish to stay in a close and inseparable relations with the RSFSR, to defend its interests in the international arena and to be guided by the RSFSR norms in legal and social spheres. Meanwhile, the leadership of Soviet Russia failed to consider the interests of Belarus in implementing their policy. In 1921 the BSSR and the RSFSR signed the Workers and Peasants Union Treaty by which Soviet Russia recognized the sovereign status of Soviet Byelorussia. Nevertheless, this treaty did not substantially change the character of the relations between the two republics.