Вытокі дыпламатыі БНР

Abstract

In the very first month after declaring sovereignty the government of the Belarusian National Republic (BNR) took a number of steps in establishing its own diplomatic service, which is an important attribute of statehood. This task was very complicated and there were several reasons for this. Firstly, the government — the National Secretariat — was not recognized by the German occupation authorities. Secondly, the members of the Rada and its Central Executive Committee were not full-time professional politicians. There was little funding to cover government expenditures. Thirdly, the governing core of the BNR lacked the international relations experience; there was not a single Belorussian career diplomat in the BNR. Meanwhile, the challenges which faced the BNR and its creators were primarily diplomatic: influencing the Brest-Litovsk Treaty negotiations to ensure Belarusian interests, establishing relations with German authorities and striving for their recognition and eventually achieving the diplomatic recognition of the BNR by other powers. The creators of the BNR well understood the complexity and importance of foreign policy tasks. From the very first the composition of the Central Executive Committee included the position of the National Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Participation in the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk can be regarded as the first step of Belarusian diplomacy. The Executive Committee of the First All-Belarusian Congress sent to Brest-Litovsk a delegation which included A. Tsvikevich, S. Rak-Mikhailovsky, I. Sereda with the aim of securing Belarus' interests at the talks. It is these peoples who can be regarded as the first Belarusian diplomats in the XXth century. Such a form of diplomatic activity as sending official delegations abroad ranked practically first in the BNR in 1918. Due to the lack of qualified diplomats the BNR leaders preferred sending abroad extraordinary missions with specific tasks for short periods of time. In April 1918 an extraordinary delegation was sent to Kiev where it established the Belarusian diplomatic mission. The delegation worked at establishing a joint Belarusian-Ukrainian Commission on the demarcation of the state border between Ukraine and the BNR; it also prepared a draft of the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Belorussian National Republic, which was planned to be broadcast over the radio to all European capitals. In autumn 1918 extraordinary missions were organized, which travelled to Kiev, Warsaw and Vilnya. On October 20 the Ministers Rada of the BNR sent a delegation to Berlin and Berne, charged with the task of trying to achieve independence and maintaining German troops on Belarusian territory. This aim was also pursued by the delegations sent to Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, France, Bulgaria and Czechia. These delegations with the memorandum of the leadership of the BNR and the booklet of Professor M. V. Dovnar-Zapolsky "The Foundations of the Statehood of Belarus" published in Belarusian, Russian, German, French and Polish tried to get their motherland to be recognized and helped. Some truly distinguished people were included into the delegations — A. Tsvikevich, I. Lyosik, V. Lutskevich, Professor M. Dovnar-Zapolsky and P. Trempovich. Every one of them was well-educated, knew foreign languages and had a certain experience of political activity. Almost from the first days of its existence the Secretariat for Foreign Affairs began diplomatic correspondence, which could be called the main form of existence of diplomatic offices. The Rada and National Secretariat developed great work abroad besides the governmental one. In the summer of 1918 diplomatic consular missions of the BNR were established in Ukraine — in Kiev and Odessa, in the south of Russia — Rostov, on the Caucasus — in Stavropol and in Lithuania — in Vilnya and even in Moskow. The results of the diplomatic activity of the BNR in 1918 are the following: — establishing contacts with foreign governments; — participation in (and preparation of) international conferences with the aim of drawing attention to the situation in Belarus, to the necessity of preserving the country's integrity in its historical and ethnographic borders; — information and promotion work; — establishment of diplomatic missions and consular offices on the territories of foreign countries and the exchange of missions. 1918 was merely the first stage in the foreign political activity of the BNR. Its achievements made the foundation for the international activity of the BNR leadership abroad.