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172-634: State atheism (de facto) Belarusian Orthodox Church (autonomy granted by the Moscow Patriarchate ) (majority) The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic ( BSSR or Byelorussian SSR ; Belarusian : Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка ; Russian : Белорусская Советская Социалистическая Республика ), also known as Byelorussia , was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and afterwards as one of fifteen constituent republics of

344-602: A military conflict , with Poland winning. Facing Denikin and Kolchak, Soviet Russia could not spare men for the western front. A stalemate with localised skirmishes developed between Poland and Lithuania. The Polish Sejm had also declared that the territories of Belarus were an inalienable part of the Polish Commonwealth. As the Sejm was voting for annexation, Józef Piłsudski offered the Belarusians federal ties instead; however,

516-553: A Belarusian Central Council. However, the national parties in Belarus were unable to secure mass support, and the nationalist movement was confined to a small, divided and ineffective intelligentsia . Towards the autumn, political stability continued to shake, and countering the rising nationalist tendencies, were the soviets led by Bolsheviks when the October Revolution hit Russia; that same day, on 25 October (7 November) 1917,

688-513: A German-centered hegemony of buffer states , called Mitteleuropa . On the eve of Germany's occupation of Minsk, some members of the disbanded Belarusian National Council emerged from hiding and formed a provisional government, hoping to achieve German recognition. However, the Germans did not recognise it as another assembly in Vilna was created under their auspices. The Minsk and Vilna organisations issued

860-485: A boom in evangelical worship , with tens of thousands of Cubans worshipping unmolested across the island each week. Though Article 39 of the GDR constitution of 1968 guarantees religious freedom, the state's policy was oriented towards the promotion of atheism. Eastern Germany practiced heavy secularization. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) generated antireligous regulations and promoted atheism for decades which impacted

1032-461: A chapter of his book Atheism: A Very Short Introduction to a discussion about 20th-century political systems, including communism and political repression in the Soviet Union . Baggini argues that "Soviet communism, with its active oppression of religion, is a distortion of original Marxist communism, which did not advocate oppression of the religious." Baggini goes on to argue that " Fundamentalism

1204-475: A degree of protection, but are subject to restrictions and controls under the State Administration for Religious Affairs . Unregistered religious groups face varying degrees of harassment. The constitution permits what is called "normal religious activities," so long as they do not involve the use of religion to "engage in activities that disrupt social order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with

1376-605: A different course of events, and eventually the accession of Joseph Stalin saw a new policy adopted: Socialism in One Country . In accordance with which, expansionist and irredentist claims were removed from Soviet ideology, which instead would focus on making regions economically viable. Thus in March 1924, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee , Russia returned most of territories that made up

1548-607: A four-hour long speech the next day, condemning priests who serve "great wealth" and using fears of Falangist influence in order to attack Spanish-born priests, declaring "There is no doubt that Franco has a sizeable group of fascist priests in Cuba." Originally more tolerant of religion, the Cuban government began arresting many believers and shutting down religious schools after the Bay of Pigs Invasion . Its prisons were being filled with clergy since

1720-537: A joint proclamation on 25 March establishing the Belarusian Democratic Republic (BDR) with German approval. The new government also sought material aid from Germany. The more radical nationalists who disapproved of collaboration with the Germans went to the communists and fled to Russia. The communists who did not escape to the east during the German occupation were driven underground. In the spring of 1918,

1892-758: A long history of state atheism, whereby those who were seeking social success generally had to profess atheism and stay away from places of worship ; this trend became especially militant during the middle of the Stalinist era , which lasted from 1929 to 1953. In Eastern Europe , countries like Belarus , Bulgaria , Estonia , Latvia , Russia , and Ukraine experienced strong state atheism policies. East Germany and Czechoslovakia also had similar policies. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress public religious expression over wide areas of its influence, including places such as Central Asia . Currently, China , North Korea , and Vietnam , are officially atheist. Cuba

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2064-661: A massive program to rebuild Buddhist and Taoist temples that were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The CCP has said that religious beliefs and membership in it are incompatible. However, the state is not allowed to force ordinary citizens to become atheists. China 's five officially sanctioned religious organizations are the Buddhist Association of China , Chinese Taoist Association , Islamic Association of China , Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association . These groups are afforded

2236-458: A religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views." Signatories to the convention are barred from "the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers" to recant their beliefs or convert. Despite this, as of 2009 minority religions were still being persecuted in many parts of

2408-500: A report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide . While the Cuban constitution now recognizes freedom of religion , the law is still silent on the issue of church construction. This vagueness allowed authorities in some areas to prohibit the construction of new churches, but allowing to lead services inside their homes and in religious buildings erected before the Cuban revolution . Despite the difficults in constructing new churches, there's been

2580-711: A result, the Soviets were not only forced to abandon their World Revolution targets, but Western Belarus too. However early autumn rains halted the Polish advance, which exhausted itself by October. A cease-fire agreed on 12 October, came into effect on 18 October. As the negotiations between the Polish Republic and the Russian Bolshevik government took place in Riga , the Soviet side saw

2752-518: A role as well. The most notable operation on this front, Operation White Sword , saw an unsuccessful advance towards the Russian capital of Petrograd in the autumn of 1919. The defeated anti-Bolshevik Russians went into exile, congregating in Belgrade , Berlin , Paris , Harbin , Istanbul , and Shanghai . They established military and cultural networks that lasted through World War II (1939–1945), e.g.

2924-486: A scientific materialistic world outlook in people." Catholic priest Shtjefen Kurti was executed for secretly baptizing a child in Shkodër in 1972. In 1990, the policy of state atheism was repealed. The 1998 Constitution of Albania defined the country as a parliamentary republic , and established personal and political rights and freedoms, including protection against coercion in matters of religious belief. Albania

3096-654: A united multinational Russia and opposed separatists who wanted to create nation-states. The propaganda service of the Volunteer Army, the Osvag  [ ru ] ( Russian : ОСВАГ (ОСВедомительное АГентство) , romanized :  OSVAG (OSVedomitelnoe AGentstvo) , lit.   'Informing Agency'), made the claim that "the Jews must pay for everything: for the February and October revolutions, for Bolshevism and for

3268-458: A universally-accepted leader or doctrine, the main force behind the movement were the conservative officers, and the resulting movement shared many traits with widespread right-wing counter-revolutionary movements of the time, namely nationalism , racism , distrust of liberal and democratic politics, clericalism , contempt for the common man and dislike of industrial civilization; in November 1918,

3440-439: Is a state with a form of government which is characterized by the one-party rule or the dominant-party rule of a communist party which professes allegiance to a Leninist or Marxist–Leninist communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state. The founder and primary theorist of Marxism , the 19th-century German thinker Karl Marx , had an ambivalent attitude toward religion, which he viewed as "the opium of

3612-667: Is a danger in any belief system" and that "Atheism's most authentic political expression... takes the form of state secularism, not state atheism." State atheism ( gosateizm , a syllabic abbreviation of "state" [ gosudarstvo ] and "atheism" [ ateizm ]) was a major goal of the official Soviet ideology. This phenomenon, which lasted for seven decades, was new in world history . The Communist Party engaged in diverse activities such as destroying places of worship, executing religious leaders, flooding schools and media with anti-religious propaganda, and propagated "scientific atheism". It sought to make religion disappear by various means. Thus,

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3784-473: Is a member state of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , and the 2011 census found that 58.79% of Albanians adhere to Islam , making it the largest religion in the country. The majority of Albanian Muslims are secular Sunnis along with a significant Bektashi Shia minority. Christianity is practiced by 16.99% of the population, making it the 2nd largest religion in the country. The remaining population

3956-571: Is as fully authorized as that of any other of the peoples inhabiting Russia" (statement by Stalin during the Congress of the Peoples of Dagestan , an autonomous republic in Russia). Art. 135 of the 1936 constitution of the Soviet Union protects individuals from religious discrimination. In 1967 Enver Hoxha , the head of state of Albania, declared Albania to be the "first atheist state of the world" even though

4128-447: Is believed to include traditional folk practices such as burning incense for gods or ancestors at life-cycle or seasonal festivals, fortune telling and related customary practices. The U.S. State Department has designated China as a "country of particular concern" since 1999. Freedom House classifies Tibet and Xinjiang as regions of particular repression of religion, due to concerns about separatist activity. Heiner Bielefeldt ,

4300-571: Is challenging, but reports which state that DPRK officials repress religious activities have surfaced, including reports which state that the government forms and controls religious organizations in an attempt to restrict the performance of religious activities. In 2004, the Human Rights Overview reported that North Korea remains one of the most repressive governments, with isolation and disregard for international law making monitoring almost impossible. After 1,500 churches were destroyed during

4472-563: Is due to the traditional Chinese belief system which blends Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, so a person who follows a traditional belief system would not exclusively identify as a Buddhist or a Taoist, even though he or she would attend Buddhist or Taoist places of worship. According to Peter Ng, Professor of the Department of Religion at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as of 2002 , 95% of Chinese were religious in some way if religion

4644-479: Is either irreligious or belongs to other religious groups. In 2011, Albania's population was estimated to be 56.7% Muslim, 10% Roman Catholic, 6.8% Orthodox, 2.5% atheist, 2.1% Bektashi (a Sufi order), 5.7% other, 16.2% unspecified. In the Gallup Global Reports 2010 survey, when asked whether religion is an important part of daily life, 39% of Albanians responded "yes" and 53% "no", which placed Albania in

4816-530: Is permitted. However, the North Korean government's Juche ideology has been described as "state-sanctioned atheism" and atheism is the government's official position. According to a 2018 CIA report, free religious activities almost no longer exist, with government-sponsored groups to delude them. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stated that assessing the situation in North Korea

4988-474: Is the opium of the people—this dictum by Marx is the corner-stone of the whole Marxist outlook on religion. Marxism has always regarded all modern religions and churches, and each and every religious organisation, as instruments of bourgeois reaction that serve to defend exploitation and to befuddle the working class. Although Marx and Lenin were both atheists, several religious communist groups exist, including Christian communists . Julian Baggini devotes

5160-723: The "Armed Forces of the South of Russia" in January 1919. The Southern Front featured massive-scale operations and posed the most dangerous threat to the Bolshevik Government. At first it depended entirely upon volunteers in Russia proper, mostly the Cossacks, among the first to oppose the Bolshevik Government. On 23 June 1918, the Volunteer Army (8,000–9,000 men) began its so-called Second Kuban Campaign with support from Pyotr Krasnov . By September,

5332-764: The Chilgol Church , one of the Protestant churches, and that church can be visited on tours. Christian institutions are regulated by the Korean Christian Federation, a state-controlled religious organization. Chondoism is an indigenous religion in Korea, and the Chondoist Chongu Party is part of the ruling front in North Korea, but the number of Chondoists in North Korea is unknown. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) propagated atheism until

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5504-465: The Chinese Communist Party must be "unyielding Marxist atheists"; in the same month, a government-sanctioned demolition work crew drove a bulldozer over two Chinese Christians who protested against the demolition of their church by refusing to step aside, resulting in death of a woman. Two members of the church demolition crew were later detained by police. Traditionally, a large segment of

5676-545: The Cultural Revolution , student vigilantes who were known as Red Guards converted religious buildings into buildings which were used for secular purposes or they destroyed them. However, this attitude relaxed considerably in the late 1970s, during the reform and opening up period. The 1978 Constitution of the People's Republic of China guaranteed freedom of religion with a number of restrictions. Since then, there has been

5848-678: The Czechoslovak Legions , who were then stranded in Siberia by the Bolshevik Government, who had barred them from leaving Russia, and with the Japanese, who also intervened to help the Whites in the east. Admiral Alexander Kolchak headed the eastern White Army and a provisional Russian government. Despite some significant success in 1919, the Whites were defeated being forced back to Far Eastern Russia, where they continued fighting until October 1922. When

6020-710: The German Empire in its extended occupation of western Russia , the Baltic states , Poland , and Ukraine on the Eastern Front in the closing days of the World War, debating whether or not to ally with it. The Whites wanted to keep from alienating any potential supporters and allies and thus saw an exclusively monarchist position as a detriment to their cause and recruitment. White-movement leaders, such as Anton Denikin , advocated for Russians to create their own government, claiming

6192-581: The Gregorian calendar to the Soviets, subsequent efforts to reorganise the week to improve worker productivity saw the introduction of the Soviet calendar , which had the side-effect that a "holiday will seldom fall on Sunday". Within about a year of the revolution, the state expropriated all church property, including the churches themselves, and in the period from 1922 to 1926, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1,200 priests were killed (a much greater number

6364-766: The Harbin and Shanghai Russians . Afterward, the White Russians' anti-communist activists established a home base in the United States, to which numerous refugees emigrated. Moreover, in the 1920s and the 1930s the White movement established organisations outside Russia, which were meant to depose the Soviet government with guerrilla warfare , e.g., the Russian All-Military Union , the Brotherhood of Russian Truth , and

6536-643: The Jewish Autonomous Oblast was established by Joseph Stalin , acting on an idea proposed by Lenin in order to give the Jewish population in Russia more personal autonomy, as reparation for antisemitism in the Russian Empire . Along with granting Jewish autonomy, Stalin also allowed Sharia law in the majority-Islamic countries of the Soviet Union. "The Soviet Government considers that the Sharia, as common law,

6708-723: The Lake Naroch offensive in late spring 1916, and General Alexei Evert 's inconclusive thrust around the city of Baranovichi in the summer of that year, during the Brusilov offensive further south, in western Ukraine. The abdication of Nicholas II in light of the February Revolution in Russia in February 1917, activated a rather dormant political life in Belarus. As central authority waned, different political and ethnic groups strived for greater self-determination and even secession from

6880-570: The Mexican Constitution , which strived to eliminate religion by mandating "socialist education", which "in addition to removing all religious doctrine" would "combat fanaticism and prejudices", "build[ing] in the youth a rational and exact concept of the universe and of social life". In 1946, socialist education provisions were removed from the constitution and new laws promoted secular education. Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed. Where there were 4,500 priests operating within

7052-569: The Mexican Constitution of 1917 as originally enacted included anticlerical provisions and restricted religious freedoms. The Articles were initially seldom enforced until President Plutarco Elías Calles , who sought to enact the separation of church and state established in the Constitution of 1917, took office in 1924. Calles' Mexico has been characterized as an atheist state and his program as aiming to eradicate religious practices in Mexico during

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7224-548: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany , occupied eastern Poland after the 1939 invasion of Poland . The former Polish territories referred to as West Belarus were incorporated into the Belarusian SSR, with an exception of the city of Vilnius and its surroundings that were transferred to Lithuania . The annexation was internationally recognized after the end of World War II. In the summer of 1941, Belarus

7396-672: The National Alliance of Russian Solidarists , a far-right anticommunist organization founded in 1930 by a group of young White emigres in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Some White émigrés adopted pro-Soviet sympathies and were termed "Soviet patriots". These people formed organizations such as the Mladorossi , the Eurasianists , and the Smenovekhovtsy . A Russian cadet corps was established to prepare

7568-482: The National Alliance of Russian Solidarists . Other organizations either dissolved, or began concentrating exclusively on self-preservation and/or educating the youth. Various youth organizations, such as the Russian Scouts-in-Exteris, promoted providing children with a background in pre-Soviet Russian culture and heritage. Some supported Zog I of Albania during the 1920s and a few independently served with

7740-691: The Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War . White Russians also served alongside the Soviet Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang and the Islamic rebellion in Xinjiang in 1937 . After the February Revolution , in western Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania declared themselves independent, but they had substantial Communist or Russian military presence. Civil wars followed, wherein

7912-401: The Partitions of Poland more than a century earlier. During the war, the Great Retreat in the Western Front in August–September 1915 ended with the lands of Grodno Governorate and most of Vilna Governorate being occupied by Germany. The resulting front, passing at 100 kilometres to the west of Minsk, remained static towards the end of the conflict, despite Russian attempts to break it at

8084-411: The People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of Soviet Russia, Georgy Chicherin , sent a note to Lithuania with a proposal for a peace treaty . It was a de facto recognition of the Lithuanian state. Similar negotiations with Estonia and Latvia , gave way for a peace treaty with the former on 2 February 1920 and a cease-fire agreement with the latter a day earlier. Lenin feared that a Polish offensive

8256-452: The Roman Catholic bishop of Pyongyang , Francis Hong Yong-ho . In November 2013, it was reported that the repression of religious people led to the public execution of 80 people, some of them were executed for possessing Bibles . There are five Christian churches in Pyongyang, three of them are Protestant , one of them is Eastern Orthodox , and one of them is Catholic . President Kim Il Sung and his mother were frequent patrons of

8428-410: The Russian Orthodox Church (which supported the White Movement during the Russian Civil War ) and saw it as a supporter of Tsarist autocracy . During the collectivization of the land, Orthodox priests distributed pamphlets declaring that the Soviet regime was the Antichrist coming to place "the Devil's mark" on the peasants, and encouraged them to resist the government. Political repression in

8600-424: The Socialist Revolutionary Party , and others who opposed Lenin's Bolshevik coup in October 1917. Depending on the time and place, those White Army supporters might also exchange right-wing allegiance for allegiance to the Red Army. Unlike the Bolsheviks, the White Armies did not share a single ideology, methodology, or political goal. They were led by conservative generals with different agendas and methods, and for

8772-436: The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia was established in its place by the Bolsheviks in December, and it was later merged with the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1919 to form the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia , which ceased to exist as a result of the Polish occupation during the Polish–Soviet War . Following a peace treaty with Lithuania, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia

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8944-407: The Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia (SSRB). This was conferred by the First Congress of deputies, composed of workers, soldiers and Red Army soldiers, which met on 2–3 February 1919, to adopt a new socialist constitution. The Red Army continued its westward advance, capturing the city of Grodno on New Year's Day 1919, Pinsk on 21 January, and Baranovichi on 6 February 1919, thereby enlarging

9116-427: The Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty in 1990. On 25 August 1991, the Byelorussian SSR declared independence, and on 19 September it was renamed the Republic of Belarus . The Soviet Union was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991. The term Byelorussia (Russian: Белору́ссия ), derives from the term Belaya Rus' , i.e., White Rus' . There are several claims to

9288-422: The Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR renamed the Soviet republic to the Republic of Belarus, with the short form "Belarus". Conservative forces in the newly independent Belarus did not support the name change and opposed its inclusion in the 1991 draft of the Constitution of Belarus . Prior to the First World War , the territories of modern-day Belarus were part of the Russian Empire , which it gained from

9460-427: The Treaty of Riga putting an end of hostilities in Europe, and Belarus in particular. Six years of war had left the land neglected and looted, and the endless change of occupying regimes, each worse than the previous, left their mark on the Belarusian people, who were now divided. Almost half ( Western Belarus ) now belonged to Poland. Eastern Belarus (Gomel, Vitebsk and parts of Smolensk guberniyas) were administered by

9632-480: The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief , says that China's actions against the Uighurs are "a major problem". The Chinese government has denounced the report, stating that China has "ample" religious freedom. Until 1992, Cuba was officially an atheist state. In August 1960, several bishops signed a joint pastoral letter condemning communism and declaring it incompatible with Catholicism, and calling on Catholics to reject it. Fidel Castro gave

9804-429: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is designed to protect freedom of thought , conscience, and religion . In 1993, the UN's human rights committee declared that article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief." The committee further stated that "the freedom to have or to adopt

9976-476: The Whites (Russian: Бѣлые / Белые , romanized : Beliye ), was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922. It operated as a loose system of governments and administrations and military formations collectively referred to as the White Army (Russian: Бѣлая армія / Белая армия , romanized : Belaya armiya ), or the White Guard (Russian: Бѣлая гвардія / Белая гвардия , romanized : Belaya gvardiya ) and

10148-442: The creating of well-defined national territorial units . This time, parts of RSFSR's Gomel Governorate were added, including the cities of Gomel and Rechytsa . This increased the area to 126,300 square kilometres and the 1926 Soviet census that was held at the same time reported a population of 4,982,623. Of the latter 83% was rural, and Belarusians made up 80.6% (though only 39.2% of urban, yet 89% of rural). On 11 April 1927,

10320-419: The 1920s–1930s, over 250,000 Belarusians were deported as kulaks or kulak family members to regions outside the Belarusian Soviet Republic. The scale of Soviet terror in Belarus was higher than in Russia or Ukraine which resulted in a much stronger extent of Russification in the republic. A Polish Autonomous District was founded in 1932 and disbanded in 1935. In September 1939, the Soviet Union, following

10492-416: The 1960s. In 1961, the Cuban government confiscated Catholic schools, including the Jesuit school that Fidel Castro had attended. In 1965 it exiled two hundred priests. In 1976, the Constitution of Cuba added a clause stating that the "socialist state...bases its activity on, and educates the people in, the scientific materialist concept of the universe". In 1992, the dissolution of the Soviet Union led

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10664-433: The 1960s. In the Mongolian People's Republic , after it was invaded by Japanese troops in 1936, the Soviet Union deployed its troops there in 1937, undertaking an offensive against the Buddhist religion. Parallel with this, a Soviet-style purge was launched in the People's Revolutionary Party and the Mongolian army. The Mongol leader at that time was Khorloogiin Choibalsan, a follower of Joseph Stalin, who emulated many of

10836-648: The 20th century. There was an expulsion of foreign clergy and expropriation of Church properties. Article 27 prohibited any future acquisition of such property by churches, and prohibited religious corporations and ministers from establishing or directing primary schools. The Constitution of 1917 also forbade the existence of monastic orders (Article 5) and religious activities outside of church buildings (which became government property), and mandated that such religious activities would be overseen by government (Article 24). On 14 June 1926, President Calles enacted anticlerical legislation known formally as The Law Reforming

11008-418: The Central Committee of the Belarusian Communist Party). The SSRB sought to join further territories, as the Red Army crossed into Poland, but the decisive Polish victory at the Battle of Warsaw in August ended these ambitions. Once again, the Red Army found itself on the defensive in Belorussia. The Poles were able to successfully break the Russian lines at the Battle of the Niemen River in September 1920. As

11180-502: The Chinese population practiced Chinese folk religions and Confucianism , Taoism and Buddhism . As a result, all of these religions had played a significant role in the everyday lives of ordinary people. After the 1949 Chinese Revolution , the Chinese Communist Party took power. For much of its early history, that government maintained under Marxist thought that religion would ultimately disappear, and characterized it as emblematic of feudalism and foreign colonialism . During

11352-505: The Christian calendar was replaced with one reckoned from the date of the Revolution, and Festivals of Liberty, Reason, and the Supreme Being were scheduled. New forms of moral religion emerged, including the deistic Cult of the Supreme Being and the atheistic Cult of Reason , with the revolutionary government briefly mandating observance of the former in April 1794. Antireligious states, including atheist states, have been at odds with international human rights law . Article 18 of

11524-473: The Civil War. The Volunteer Army in South Russia became the most prominent and the largest of the various and disparate White forces. Starting off as a small and well-organized military in January 1918, the Volunteer Army soon grew. The Kuban Cossacks joined the White Army and conscription of both peasants and Cossacks began. In late February 1918, 4,000 soldiers under the command of General Aleksei Kaledin were forced to retreat from Rostov-on-Don due to

11696-443: The Council reorganised the Western Oblast as a Western Commune . After Germany was defeated in the First World War, it announced its evacuation from the occupied territories. The Germans began to depart in November 1918; however, there was no nationalist organisation in Belarus that was capable of assuming political authority, unlike in Ukraine. On 13 November, Moscow annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . Two days later, it transformed

11868-435: The Defence region into a Western army . It began an initial advance westward on 17 November. The Belarusian National Republic barely resisted, evacuating Minsk on 3 December. The Soviets maintained a distance of about 10–15 kilometres (6.2–9.3 mi) between the two armies, and took Minsk on 10 December. As the Red Army re-occupied Belarus, the soviets in the country were dominated by Russian and Jewish parties sympathetic to

12040-408: The Gallican Church held a dominant role in pre-revolutionary France . During a two-year period known as the Reign of Terror , the episodes of anti-clericalism grew more violent than any in modern European history . The new revolutionary authorities suppressed the Church, abolished the Catholic monarchy, nationalized Church property, exiled 30,000 priests, and killed hundreds more. In October 1793,

12212-408: The Germans and some or all their inhabitants killed (out of 9,200 settlements that were burned or otherwise destroyed in Belarus during World War II ). More than 600 villages like Khatyn were totally annihilated. Altogether, over 2,000,000 people were killed in Belarus during the three years of German occupation , almost a quarter of the region's population. After World War II, the Byelorussian SSR

12384-533: The Germans disapproved of the socialist inclinations of the nationalists in the Belarusian government and forced a change in leadership of the puppet government; however, the Germans were also displeased with him and removed him. As a result, the Germans permitted the government less jurisdiction compared to the one in Ukraine. An increase in repression by the Germans also led to an agrarian revolt, although not as violent as

12556-791: The Imperial Army and later a major White military leader, whose forces effected pogroms and persecutions against the Jews: [M]y task in winning support in Parliament for the Russian Nationalist cause will be infinitely harder if well-authenticated complaints continue to be received from Jews in the zone of the Volunteer Armies. However, Denikin did not dare to confront his officers and remained content with vague formal condemnations. Aside from being anti-Bolshevik and anti-communist and patriotic,

12728-552: The Japanese withdrew, the Soviet army of the Far Eastern Republic retook the territory. The Civil War was officially declared over at this point, although Anatoly Pepelyayev still controlled the Ayano-Maysky District at that time. Pepelyayev's Yakut revolt , which concluded on 16 June 1923, represented the last military action in Russia by a White Army. It ended with the defeat of the final anti-communist enclave in

12900-678: The Lithuanian and Byelorussian republics into the Lithuanian–Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic ( Litbel ) on 28 February 1919. Its capital was proclaimed as Vilna , with five governorates: Vilna , Grodno , Kovno , Suwalki and Minsk . The Vitebsk and Mogilev governorates were transferred to the Russian SFSR, and were soon joined by the Gomel Governorate , which was created on 26 April. The two parties of

13072-538: The Mexican government persecuted the clergy, killing suspected Cristeros and supporters and often retaliating against innocent individuals. A truce was negotiated with the assistance of U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow . Calles, however, in violation of its terms did not abide by the truce and he had approximately 500 Cristero leaders and 5,000 other Cristeros shot, frequently in their homes in front of their spouses and children. Particularly offensive to Catholics after

13244-619: The Minsk Bolsheviks commanded the pro-Soviet troops to disbanded it. Following this, they proclaimed the rule of soviets dominated by the Bolsheviks. The first Soviet government in Belarus was established at the end of December by communist organs in Minsk with the support of Russian troops of the Western Front. However, its authority only extended to the regions occupied by pro-communist forces and

13416-631: The Minsk Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies took over the administration of the city. The Bolshevik All-Russian Council of Soviets declared the creation of the Western Oblast , which unified the Vilna, Vitebsk , Mogilev and Minsk governorates that were not occupied by the German army, to administer the Belarusian lands in the frontal zone. On 26 November (6 December), the Executive Committee of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies for

13588-539: The Orthodox Church; by 2008 72% of Russians identified as Orthodox - rising from 31% in 1991. However, Professor Niels Christian Nielsen of philosophy and religious thought of Rice University has written that the post-Soviet population in areas which were formerly predominantly Orthodox are now "nearly illiterate regarding religion", almost completely lacking the intellectual or philosophical aspects of their faith and having almost no knowledge of other faiths. In 1928,

13760-501: The Penal Code and unofficially as Calles Law . His anti-Catholic actions included outlawing religious orders, depriving the Church of property rights and depriving the clergy of civil liberties, including their right to a trial by jury in cases involving anti-clerical laws and the right to vote. Catholic antipathy towards Calles was enhanced because of his vocal anti-Catholicism. Due to

13932-496: The Polish occupation authorities disregarded the social radicalism of the masses and nationalist sentiments among parts of the Belarusian intelligentsia, with the Poles ordering for the lands confiscated by the communists to be returned to the landowners, and Polish being introduced as an official language. The stalemate and the occasional, though fruitless, negotiations gave Russia a much needed pause to concentrate on other regions. During

14104-420: The Polish side. Eventually a compromising armistice line was agreed, which would see the Belarusian city of Slutsk handed over to the Bolsheviks. News of Belarus' upcoming permanent division angered the population, and using the town's Polish occupation, the local population began self-organising into a militia and associating itself with the Belarusian Democratic Republic . On 24 November the Polish units left

14276-763: The RSFSR. The rest was the SSRB, a republic with 52,400 square kilometres and a population of a mere 1.544 million people. An interesting paradox arose in the status of SSRB within the future Bolshevik state. On one hand its small geographic, population and almost negligent economic indicators did not warrant it much political weight on Soviet affairs. In fact the leader of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (Bolshevik), Alexander Chervyakov would represent Byelorussian communists at seven party congresses in Moscow, but not once be elected into

14448-586: The Red Army due to military and ideological disunity, as well as the determination and increasing unity of the Red Army. The White Army operated in three main theatres : White organising in the South started on 15 November 1917, ( Old Style ) under General Mikhail Alekseyev . In December 1917, General Lavr Kornilov took over the military command of the newly named Volunteer Army until his death in April 1918, after which General Anton Denikin took over, becoming head of

14620-624: The SSRB. The western winter offensive was not limited to Byelorussia; Soviet forces similarly moved to the north into Lithuania , as the newly created Soviet republic had hoped to include Lithuania. On 16 December, the Lithuanian Socialist Soviet Republic (LSSR) was proclaimed in Vilnius . The Lithuanian operation and continuing conquest of Byelorussia were threatened by the rise of the Second Polish Republic after

14792-841: The Slavo-British Aviation Corps (S.B.A.C.). The Russian ace Alexander Kazakov operated within this unit. The White movement's leaders and first members came mainly from the ranks of military officers. Many came from outside the nobility, such as generals Mikhail Alekseyev and Anton Denikin , who originated in serf families, or General Lavr Kornilov , a Cossack. The White generals never mastered administration; they often utilized "prerevolutionary functionaries" or "military officers with monarchististic inclinations" for administering White-controlled regions. The White Armies were often lawless and disordered. Also, White-controlled territories had multiple different and varying currencies with unstable exchange-rates. The chief currency,

14964-522: The Soviet Union in 1990–1991. This community-in-exile of anti-communists often divided into liberal and the more conservative segments, with some still hoping for the restoration of the Romanov dynasty . After the military defeatist, it attempted to continue the struggles by creating militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders. In the Russian context after 1917, "White" had three main connotations which were: Defunct Above all,

15136-536: The Soviet Union was widespread and while religious persecution was applied to numerous religions, the regime's anti-religious campaigns were often directed against specific religions based on state interests. The attitude in the Soviet Union toward religion varied from persecution of some religions to not outlawing others. From the late 1920s to the late 1930s, such organizations as the League of Militant Atheists ridiculed all religions and harassed believers. The league

15308-614: The Soviet Union under Lenin had already been a de facto atheist state. Marxist–Leninist authorities in Albania claimed that religion was foreign to Albania and used this to justify their policy of state atheism and suppression of religion. This nationalism was also used to justify the communist stance of state atheism from 1967 to 1991. Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution of 1976 stipulated, "The state recognizes no religion, and supports atheistic propaganda in order to implant

15480-811: The Soviet authorities. Bill Clinton established the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 , in order to use diplomacy to promote religious liberty in repressive states. Countries like Albania had anti-religious policies, while also promoting atheism, that impacted their religious rights. White movement Central Powers intervention : Separatists: Other factions: The White movement (Russian: pre–1918 Бѣлое движеніе / post–1918 Белое движение , romanized : Beloye dvizheniye , IPA: [ˈbʲɛləɪ dvʲɪˈʐenʲɪɪ] ), also known as

15652-401: The Soviet policy of liquidation of illiteracy ( likbez ). Economically the republic remained largely self-centred, and most of the effort was put into restoring and repairing the war-damaged industry (if in 1923 there was only 226 different fabrics and factories, then by 1926 the number climbed to 246. However, the employed manpower jumped from 14 thousand to 21.3 thousand workers). The majority

15824-600: The Treaty of Riga as only a temporary setback to the process, and a future advance would require a prepared bridgehead. This justified giving the SSRB the status of a full union republic within the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR that was signed on 30 December 1922. SSR Byelorussia became a founding member of the Soviet Union in 1922 and became known as BSSR. However the politics in Moscow took

15996-608: The Tsars, and in 1925 made up almost 44% of the urban population and began to be aided by affirmative action programmes. In 1924 the government created a committee – Belkomzet – to allocate land to Jewish families, in 1926 a total of 32,700 hectares were given for 6,860 Jewish families. Jews would continue to play a major role in Byelorussian politics, society and economy right up to the Second World War ; in fact, between 1928 and 1930,

16168-543: The USSR became the first state to have as one objective of its official ideology the elimination of the existing religion, and the prevention of the future implanting of religious belief, with the goal of establishing state atheism ( gosateizm ). After the Russian Civil War , the state used its resources to stop the implanting of religious beliefs in nonbelievers and remove "prerevolutionary remnants" which still existed. The Bolsheviks were particularly hostile toward

16340-615: The USSR from 1922 to 1991, with its own legislation from 1990 to 1991. The republic was ruled by the Communist Party of Byelorussia . It was also known as the White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic . Following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, which ended Russia's involvement in World War I , the Belarusian Democratic Republic (BDR) was proclaimed under German occupation; however, as German troops left,

16512-574: The Vitebsk and Mogilev Governorates, as well as parts of Smolensk. The passing of land that largely survived the destruction of war not only doubled the SSRB's area to 110,600 square kilometres, but also raised the population to 4.2 million people. According to its entry in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia , in 1925 SSRB was a largely rural country. Out of the 4,342,800 people that inhabited it, only 14.5% lived in urban areas. Administratively it

16684-853: The Volunteer Army comprised 30,000 to 35,000 members, thanks to mobilization of the Kuban Cossacks gathered in the North Caucasus . Thus, the Volunteer Army took the name of the Caucasus Volunteer Army. On 23 January 1919, the Volunteer Army under Denikin oversaw the defeat of the 11th Soviet Army and then captured the North Caucasus region. After capturing the Donbas , Tsaritsyn and Kharkiv in June, Denikin's forces launched an attack towards Moscow on 3 July, (N.S.). Plans envisaged 40,000 fighters under

16856-469: The Volunteer Army grew from 64,000 to 150,000 soldiers and was better supplied than its Red counterpart. The White Army's rank-and-file comprised active anti-Bolsheviks, such as Cossacks, nobles, and peasants, as conscripts and as volunteers. The White movement had access to various naval forces, both seagoing and riverine, especially the Black Sea Fleet . Aerial forces available to the Whites included

17028-945: The Volunteer Army's ruble, had no gold backing . The Whites and the Reds fought the Russian Civil War from November 1917 until 1921, and isolated battles continued in the Far East until June 1923. The White Army—aided by the Allied forces ( Triple Entente ) from countries such as Japan , the United Kingdom , France , Greece , Italy and the United States and (sometimes) the Central Powers forces such as Germany and Austria-Hungary —fought in Siberia , Ukraine , and in Crimea . They were defeated by

17200-690: The Western Oblast and Moses Kalmanovich  [ ru ] as the chair of the Obliskomzap . Countering this, the Belarusian Central Council reorganised itself as the Belarusian National Council ( Rada ), and started working on establishing governmental institutions, and discarded the Obliskomzap as a military formation, rather than governmental. As a result, on 7 (20) December, when the first All-Belarusian Congress convened,

17372-564: The Western Oblast was merged with the Western front's executive committee, creating a single Obliskomzap . During the autumn of 1917 and winter of 1918, the Western Oblast was headed by Aleksandr Myasnikyan as the head of the Western Oblast's Military Revolutionary Committee , who passed this duty on to Kārlis Landers . Myasnikyan took over as chair of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party 's (RSDRP(b)) committee for

17544-715: The White movement emerged as opponents of the Red Army . The White Army had the stated aim to reverse the October Revolution and remove the Bolsheviks from power before a constituent assembly (dissolved by the Bolsheviks in January 1918) could be convened. They worked to remove Soviet organizations and functionaries in White-controlled territory. Overall, the White Army was nationalistic and rejected ethnic particularism and separatism . The White Army generally believed in

17716-429: The White movement had no unifying political convictions, as members could be monarchists, republicans, rightists, or Kadets . Among White Army leaders, neither General Lavr Kornilov nor General Anton Denikin were monarchists, yet General Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel was a monarchist willing to fight for a republican Russian government. Moreover, other political parties supported the anti-Bolshevik White Army, among them

17888-444: The Whites had no set ideology or main leader. The White Armies did acknowledge a single provisional head of state in a Supreme Governor of Russia in a Provisional All-Russian Government , but this post was prominent only under the leadership in the war campaigns during 1918–1920 of Admiral Alexander Kolchak , formerly of the previous Russian Imperial Navy . The movement had no set foreign policy. Whites differed on policies toward

18060-538: The Whites or the Bolsheviks or opposed both factions. Following the military defeat of the Whites, remnants and continuations of the movement remained in several organizations, some of which only had narrow support, enduring within the wider White émigré overseas community until after the fall of the European communist states in the Eastern European Revolutions of 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of

18232-631: The advance of the Red Army. In what became known as the Ice March , they traveled to Kuban in order to unite with the Kuban Cossacks , most of whom did not support the Volunteer Army. In March, 3,000 men under the command of General Viktor Pokrovsky joined the Volunteer Army, increasing its membership to 6,000, and by June to 9,000. In 1919 the Don Cossacks joined the Army. In that year between May and October,

18404-636: The anti-communist side may be referred to as White Armies, e.g. in Finland the White Guard -led, partially conscripted Finnish White Army  [ fi ] ( Finnish : Valkoinen Armeija ) who fought against Soviet Russia -sponsored Red Guards . However, since they were nationalists, their aims were substantially different from the Russian White Army proper; for instance, Russian White generals never explicitly supported Finnish independence. The defeat of

18576-452: The armistice as only a temporary setback in its western advance. Seeing the failure of overcoming the Polish nationalist rhetoric with Communist propaganda, the Soviet government chose a different tactic, by appealing to the minorities of the Polish state, creating a fifth column element out of Belarusians and Ukrainians . During the negotiations, RSFSR offered all of BSSR to Poland in return for concessions in Ukraine, which were rejected by

18748-547: The capital first to Dvinsk (28 April), then to Minsk (28 April), then to Bobruysk (19 May). As the Litbel lost territory, its powers were quickly stripped by Moscow. For example, on 1 June, Vtsik 's decree put all of Litbel's armed forces under the command of the Red Army. On 17 July, the Defence Soviet was liquidated, and its function was passed to Minsk's Milrevcom . When on 8 August Polish forces captured Minsk , that same day

18920-432: The capital was evacuated to Smolensk . On 28 August, Lithuanian forces took Zarasai (the last Lithuanian town held by Litbel) and the same day Bobruysk fell to the Poles. By late summer of 1919, the Polish advance was also exhausted. The defeat of the Red Army allowed the outbreak of another historic disagreement over territory between Poland and Lithuania; their competition to control the city of Vilna soon erupted into

19092-504: The census of 1920, many chose to be label themselves as Russians .). To appeal to the Belarusians of Western Belarus and also to prevent the nationalist element of the exiled Belarusian Democratic Republic from having any influence on the population (i.e. to avoid another Slutsk uprising), a policy of Korenizatsiya was widely implemented. Belarusian language, folklore and culture was put at front of everything else. This went on par with

19264-540: The city of Slonim (2 March) and crossed the Neman, whilst Lithuanian advances forced the Soviets out of Panevėžys . A final Soviet counter-offensive retook Panevėžys and Grodno in early April, but the Western Army was too thinly spread to fight both the Polish and Lithuanian troops, and the German units assisting them. The Polish offensive quickly gained momentum, and Vilna offensive in April 1919, forced Litbel to evacuate

19436-616: The command of General Vladimir May-Mayevsky storming the city. After General Denikin's attack upon Moscow failed in 1919, the Armed Forces of the South of Russia retreated. On 26 and 27 March 1920, the remnants of the Volunteer Army evacuated from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, where they merged with the army of Pyotr Wrangel . The Eastern Front started in spring 1918 as a secret movement among army officers and right-wing socialist forces. In that front, they launched an attack in collaboration with

19608-729: The communists. Encouraged by their success, in Smolensk on 30–31 December 1918, the Sixth Western Oblast Party conference met and announced its split from the Russian Communist Party, proclaiming itself as the first congress of the Communist Party of Byelorussia (KP(b)B). The next day, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia was proclaimed in Smolensk, terminating the Western Commune, and on 7 January, it

19780-412: The country before the War, in 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people, the rest having been killed, exiled or not obtaining licenses. In 1935, 17 states had no registered priests. The French Revolution initially began with attacks on Church corruption and the wealth of the higher clergy, an action with which even many Christians could identify, since

19952-481: The country to declare itself a secular state . Pope John Paul II contributed to the Cuban thaw when he paid a historic visit to the island in 1998 and criticized the US embargo . Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba in 2012 and Pope Francis visited Cuba in 2015. The Cuban government continued hostile actions against religious groups; having ordered, in 2015 alone, the closure or demolition of over 100 Pentecostal , Methodist , and Baptist parishes, according to

20124-570: The country's monasteries were destroyed along with numerous holy texts and items of high artistic quality. 25,000 Buddhist monks were massacred by the regime, which was officially an atheist state. The persecution was undertaken because Pol Pot believed that Buddhism was "a decadent affectation". He sought to eliminate Buddhism's 1,500-year-old mark on Cambodia . Under the Khmer Rouge, all religious practices were banned. According to Ben Kiernan , "the Khmer Rouge repressed Islam , Christianity, and Buddhism, but its fiercest extermination campaign

20296-502: The country, signalling the end of all military hostilities relating to the Russian Civil War. Headed by Nikolai Yudenich , Evgeni Miller , and Anatoly Lieven , the White forces in the North demonstrated less co-ordination than General Denikin's Army of Southern Russia. The Northwestern Army allied itself with Estonia , while Lieven's West Russian Volunteer Army sided with the Baltic nobility . Authoritarian support led by Pavel Bermondt-Avalov and Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz played

20468-428: The days of the Russian Empire , and the Russian Tsar was usually styled "the Tsar of All the Russias", as Russia or the Russian Empire was formed by three parts of Russia—the Great , Little , and White . This asserted that the territories are all Russian and all the peoples are also Russian; in the case of the Belarusians, that they were variants of the Russian people. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917,

20640-653: The educational system of the state. Religious organizations and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign dominance." Article 36 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China of 1982 specifies that: Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair

20812-441: The establishment of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1920, the term Byelorussia (its names in other languages such as English being based on the Russian form) was only used officially. In 1936, with the proclamation of the 1936 Soviet Constitution , the republic was renamed to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In English, it was also known as the White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic . On 19 September 1991

20984-465: The first secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia , Yakov Gamarnik , was a Jew. Yet, the titular nation of the SSRB were the Belarusians , which made up 82% of the rural population, but less than half of the urban one (40.1%). The Belarusian national sentiment was a lot weaker than that of neighbouring Ukraine, this was greatly exploited by the Bolshevik-Polish power struggle in the Polish–Soviet War . (In fact to avoid being annexed to Poland, at

21156-406: The front moved west, and more Belarusian lands were adjoined to the new republic, the first administrative decrees were issued. The entity was divided into seven uyezds : Bobruysk , Borisov , Igumen , Minsk, Mozyr and Slutsk . (Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev remained part of the RSFSR.) This time the leaders were Aleksandr Chervyakov (head of Minsk's milrevcom) and Wilhelm Knorin (as chairmen of

21328-401: The growth of citizens affiliating with no religion from 7.6% in 1950 to 60% in 1986. It was in the 1950s that scientific atheism became official state policy when Soviet authorities were setting up a communist government. As of 2012 the area of the former German Democratic Republic was the least religious region in the world. The North Korean constitution states that freedom of religion

21500-419: The health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination. Most people report no organized religious affiliation; however, people with a belief in folk traditions and spiritual beliefs, such as ancestor veneration and feng shui , along with informal ties to local temples and unofficial house churches number in

21672-454: The hundreds of millions. In its annual report on International Religious Freedom, the United States Department of State provides statistics about organized religions. In 2007, it reported the following (citing the Government's 1997 report on Religious Freedom and 2005 White Paper on religion): To some degree, statistics which are related to Buddhism and religious Taoism are incomparable to statistics for Islam and Christianity . This fact

21844-431: The increasingly ineffective Russian Provisional Government . The momentum picked up after the incompetent actions of the 10th Army during the ill-fated Kerensky offensive during the summer. Representatives of Belarusian regions and of different (mostly left-wing) newly established political powers, including the Belarusian Socialist Assembly , the Christian democratic movement and the General Jewish Labour Bund , formed

22016-421: The latter half of 1919, the Red Army successfully defeated Denikin in the south, taking over the Don, North Caucasus and eastern Ukraine, and pushed Kolchak from the Volga, beyond the Ural mountains into Siberia . In the autumn of 1919, Nikolai Yudenich 's advance on Petrograd was checked, whilst in the far north the Evgeny Miller 's army was pushed into the Arctic. On the diplomatic front, on 11 September 1919,

22188-450: The lowest quartile of countries ranked by "yes" responses. The U.S. state department reports that in 2013, "There were no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice." The Khmer Rouge actively persecuted Buddhists during their rule of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 . Buddhist institutions and temples were destroyed and Buddhist monks and teachers were killed in large numbers. A third of

22360-451: The major cities, where the local soviets followed Bolshevik leadership. The Russo-German front in Belarus remained static since 1915 and formal negotiations began only on 19 November (2 December N.S.), when the Soviet delegation traveled to the German-occupied city of Brest-Litovsk . A cease-fire was quickly agreed and proper peace negotiations began in December. However, the German party soon went back on its word and took full advantage of

22532-435: The military could not decide in Russians' steads. Admiral Alexander Kolchak succeeded in creating a temporary wartime government in Omsk , acknowledged by most other White leaders, but it ultimately disintegrated after Bolshevik military advances. Some warlords who were aligned with the White movement, such as Grigory Semyonov and Roman Ungern von Sternberg , did not acknowledge any authority but their own. Consequently,

22704-413: The militias. On 14 February, the first clash between regular armies took place and a front emerged. The operations in Lithuania brought the front close to East Prussia , and the German units that had withdrawn there began to assist the Lithuanian forces to defeat the Soviets; they repelled the Red offensive against Kaunas in February 1919. Eager to win support, the Bolshevik government decided to merge

22876-408: The most part they operated quite independently of each other, with little coordination or cohesion. The composition and command structure of White armies also varied, some containing hardened veterans of World War I, others more recent volunteers. These differences and divisions, along with their inability to offer an alternative government and win popular support, prevented the White armies from winning

23048-452: The movement is associated with pogroms and antisemitism , although its relations with the Jews were more complex. Some historians distinguish the White movement from the so-called "democratic counter-revolution" led mainly by the Right SRs and the Mensheviks that adhered to the values of parliamentary democracy and maintained democratic anti-Bolshevik governments ( Komuch , Ufa Directory ) until November 1918 and then supported either

23220-420: The movement united on an authoritarian-right platform around the figure of Alexander Kolchak as its principal leader. It defended the ideal of pre-revolutionary Imperial Russia , and its positive program was largely summarized in the slogan of " united and indivisible Russia  [ ru ] " which meant the restoration of imperial state borders and its denial of the right to self-determination ;

23392-432: The national policies. The republic initially had four official languages: Belarusian , Russian, Yiddish , and Polish , despite the fact that the Russians and the Poles made up only around 2% of the total population (most of the latter lived next to the state border in the Minsk and Borisov districts). The most important minority was the Jewish population of Belarus , which had a long history of targeted oppression under

23564-412: The neutrality of Lithuania (though the peace treaty was still being negotiated), on 6 June the exiled government of Litbel was disbanded. Within a few days, the 3rd Cavalry Corps under command of Hayk Bzhishkyan broke the Polish front, causing a collapse and a retreat. On 11 July Minsk was re-taken, and on 31 July 1920 once again the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belorussia was re-established in Minsk. As

23736-421: The next generation of anti-Communists for the "spring campaign"—a hopeful term denoting a renewed military campaign to reclaim Russia from the Soviet Government. In any event, many cadets volunteered to fight for the Russian Protective Corps during World War II, when some White Russians participated in the Russian Liberation Movement . After the war, active anti-Soviet combat was almost exclusively continued by

23908-401: The one in Ukraine, which benefitted the communists. The communist underground were directed by the party's Northwestern Regional Committee in Smolensk, which aimed for an alliance with the peasantry. On 11 September 1918, the Revolutionary Military Council ordered the creation of the Western Defence region in the Western Oblast out of Curtain forces which were stationed there. Simultaneously

24080-421: The origin of the name White Rus'. An ethno-religious theory suggests that the name used to describe the part of old Ruthenian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that had been populated mostly by early Christianized Slavs , as opposed to Black Ruthenia , which was predominantly inhabited by pagan Balts. The latter part similar but spelled and stressed differently from Росси́я ( Russia ), first rose in

24252-490: The party's Central Committee . Moreover, the weak national sentiment of the Belarusian people would easily have allowed SSRB to be disbanded and annexed to the RSFSR, unlike for example Ukraine. On the other hand, the region's strategic role decided its fate, as a full Union republic within the negotiations upon forming the future state. For one Leon Trotsky and his supporters within the Soviet leadership still supported its World Revolution concept, and as said above, viewed

24424-429: The peak of Soviet repressions in Belarus . According to incomplete calculations, about 600,000 people fell victim to Soviet repressions in Belarus between 1917 and 1953. Other estimates put the number at higher than 1.4 million persons., of which 250,000 were sentenced by judicial or executed by extrajudicial bodies ( dvoikas , troikas , special commissions of the OGPU , NKVD , MGB ). Excluding those sentenced in

24596-539: The peasants who took their land from the owners". The organization also reissued The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Although Denikin's troops committed only 17.2% of the pogroms (most of which were carried out by Ukrainian nationalists or by rebel armies not affiliated with any side), "white" officers praise soldiers who commit anti-Semitic crimes, some of whom even receive bonuses. British parliamentary influential leader Winston Churchill (1874–1965) personally warned General Anton Denikin (1872–1947), formerly of

24768-607: The people ", simultaneously "the sigh of" and a source of moral agency of the "oppressed creature" against their suffering. To Marx, religion was not the ideological expression of those in power, and he did not see it needing abolishing. Instead, he saw the communist state as creating conditions where the consolation provided by religion would not be needed. In the Marxist–Leninist interpretation of Marxist theory, developed primarily by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin , atheism emanates from its dialectical materialism and tries to explain and criticize religion. Lenin states: Religion

24940-487: The policies that Stalin had previously implemented in the Soviet Union. The purge virtually succeeded in eliminating Tibetan Buddhism and cost an estimated thirty to thirty-five thousand lives. More than 700 monasteries were demolished. Officially, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an atheist state as declared by its communist government . Art. 24 of the constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam recognizes religious freedom. Articles 3, 5, 24, 27, and 130 of

25112-433: The republic adopted its new Constitution , bringing its laws in tie with those of the USSR and changing the name from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The head of government (chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissars) was by now then newly appointed Nikolay Goloded , whilst Vilhelm Knorin remained the first secretary of the Communist Party. The 1930s marked

25284-424: The republics were also combined. The republic was headed by Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas and the combined party was headed by nationalist Zmicier Zhylunovich . However, the Belarusian nationalists disapproved that the republic was being expanded, and Zhylunovich resigned shortly after, followed by other nationalists. In March 1919, Polish units opened an offensive: forces under General Stanisław Szeptycki captured

25456-482: The respective states that were establishing themselves. In the Kresy ("borderland") areas of Lithuania, Belarus and western Ukraine, self-organized militias, the Samoobrona Litwy i Białorusi numbering approximately 2,000 soldiers under General Wejtko, began to fight against the local communist and advancing Bolshevik forces. Each side was trying to secure the territories for its own government. The newly formed Polish Army began sending its organised units to reinforce

25628-530: The rule of Kim Il Sung from 1948 to 1994, three churches were built in Pyongyang . Foreign residents who regularly attend services at these churches have reported that the services which are performed there are staged for their benefit. The North Korean government promotes the cult of personality of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, described as a political religion , as well as the Juche ideology, based on Korean ultranationalism , which calls on people to "avoid spiritual deference to outside influences", which

25800-459: The situation, and the Bolsheviks' demand of a treaty "without annexations or indemnities" was unacceptable to the Central Powers , and on 18 February, hostilities resumed. The German Operation Faustschlag was of immediate success, and within 11 days, they were able to make a serious advance eastward, taking over Ukraine, the Baltic region, and occupying eastern Belarus. This forced the Obliskomzap to evacuate to Smolensk . The Smolensk Governorate

25972-407: The strict enforcement of anticlerical laws, people in strongly Catholic states, especially Jalisco , Zacatecas , Guanajuato , Colima and Michoacán , began to oppose him, and this opposition led to the Cristero War from 1926 to 1929, which was characterized by atrocities on both sides. Some Cristeros applied terrorist tactics, including the torture and killing of public school teachers, while

26144-504: The supposed truce was Calles' insistence on a state monopoly on education, suppressing Catholic education and introducing socialist education in its place: "We must enter and take possession of the mind of childhood, the mind of youth." Persecutions continued as Calles maintained control under the Maximato and did not relent until 1940, when President Manuel Ávila Camacho took office. Attempts to eliminate religious education became more pronounced in 1934 through an amendment of Article 3 of

26316-403: The term "White Russia" caused some confusion as it became the name of the so-called White military force that opposed the Red Bolsheviks. During the period of the Byelorussian SSR, the term Byelorussia was embraced as part of a national consciousness. In western Belarus , under Polish control until World War II, Byelorussia became commonly used in the regions of Białystok and Grodno . Upon

26488-399: The town, and for nearly a month the Slutsk partisans resisted Soviet attempts to re-gain control of the area. Eventually the Red Army had to mobilise two divisions to overcome the resistance, when the last units of Slutsk militia crossed the Moroch River and interned by the Polish border guards. In February 1921, the delegations of the Second Polish Republic and the Russian SFSR finally signed

26660-416: The withdrawal of German forces. However, the conflict with Poland did not break out and the Soviet High Command's 12 January directive was to cease advance on the Neman - Bug rivers. However, the region to the east of those lines was historically mixed among a population of Belarusians, Poles and Lithuanians, with a sizeable Jewish minority. The local communities of each respective group wanted to be part of

26832-567: The world. Theodore Roosevelt condemned the Kishinev pogrom in 1903, establishing a history of U.S. presidents commenting on the internal religious liberty of foreign countries. In Franklin D. Roosevelt 's 1941 State of the Union address, he outlined Four Freedoms , including Freedom of worship, that would be foundation for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and future U.S. diplomatic efforts. Jimmy Carter asked Deng Xiaoping to improve religious freedom in China, and Ronald Reagan told US Embassy staff in Moscow to help Jews harassed by

27004-455: Was a "nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism". It published its own newspaper, and journals, sponsored lectures, and organized demonstrations that lampooned religion and promoted atheism. Anti-religious and atheistic propaganda was implemented into every portion of soviet life from schools to the media and even on to substituting rituals to replace religious ones. Though Lenin originally introduced

27176-461: Was an atheist state until 2019, when a change in its constitution declared it a secular state . In contrast, a secular state officially purports to be neutral in matters of religion ; it does not support religion, nor does it support irreligion . In a review of 35 European states in 1980, 5 states were considered "secular" in the sense of religious neutrality, 9 considered "atheistic", and 21 states considered "religious". A communist state

27348-407: Was directed against the ethnic Cham Muslim minority." China has adopted a policy of official state atheism. Art. 36 of the Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of religion but it only allows members of state sanctioned organizations to practice religions. The government has promoted atheism throughout the country. In April 2016, the General Secretary , Xi Jinping , stated that members of

27520-415: Was food industry followed by metal and wood working combines. A lot more was centred in local and private sector, as allowed by the New Economic Policy of the USSR, in 1925 these number 38.5 thousand who employed almost 50 thousand people. Most being textile workshops and lumber yards and blacksmiths. On 6 December 1926, the SSRB was once again enlarged, in order to make the republic prosperous and continue

27692-602: Was given a seat in the United Nations General Assembly together with the Soviet Union and Ukrainian SSR, becoming one of the founding members of the UN. This was part of a deal with the United States to ensure a degree of balance in the General Assembly , which, the USSR opined, was unbalanced in favor of the Western Bloc. A Byelorussian, G.G. Chernushchenko, served as President of the United Nations Security Council from January–February 1975. State atheism The majority of communist states followed similar policies from 1917 onwards. The Soviet Union (1922–1991) had

27864-443: Was incoming, and offered to accept the current frontline as a permanent border between Poland and Russia, which would include nearly all of Belarus going to Poland. However, Piłsudski had greater ambitions, and he also made an agreement with Symon Petliura in Ukraine to exchange Galicia in return for a promise to force out communists in right-bank Ukraine. In April 1920, Poland initiated its major offensive on Kiev, which although

28036-401: Was initially successful, ended in a Polish defeat. The Soviet Red Army was much more organised than it was a year earlier, and though Polish troops managed to make several gains in Ukraine, notably the capture of Kiev , in Byelorussia, both of its offensives towards Zhlobin and Orsha were thrown back in May. In June, the RSFSR was finally ready to open its major Western advance. To preserve

28208-433: Was interpreted as including religions which originated outside Korea. Since 2001, the U.S. State Department has designated North Korea as a "country of particular concern", due to its violations of religious freedom. Cardinal Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk has said that, "There's no knowledge of priests surviving persecution that came in the late forties, when 166 priests and religious were killed or kidnapped," which includes

28380-411: Was led mainly by the right-leaning and conservative officers of the Russian Empire ; the communist Bolsheviks , also known as the Reds , were regarded as its main enemies. Although the White movement included a great variety of political opinions in Russia opposed to the Bolsheviks, from the republican-minded liberals through monarchists to the ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds , and did not have

28552-405: Was moved to Minsk. Aleksandr Myasnikyan emerged as head of the All-Byelorussian Central Executive Committee and Zmicier Zhylunovich as head of the provisional government. The new Soviet republic initially consisted of seven districts: Baranovichi , Vitebsk , Gomel , Grodno , Mogilev and Smolensk . On 30 January, the republic announced its separation from the Russian SFSR and renaming as

28724-456: Was occupied by Nazi Germany. A large part of the territory of Belarus became the General District Belarus within the Reichskommissariat Ostland . Nazi Germany imposed a brutal regime, deporting some 380,000 people for slave labour , and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians more. 800,000 Belarusian Jews (about 90 percent of the Jewish population) were killed during the Holocaust . At least 5,295 Belarusian settlements were destroyed by

28896-404: Was passed to the Western Oblast. At the end of February, the Germans entered Minsk, which the Soviet authorities had already cleared a few days prior. Faced with the German demands, the Bolsheviks accepted their terms at the final Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , which was signed on 3 March 1918. For the German Empire, Operation Faustschlag achieved one of their strategic plans for World War I, to create

29068-419: Was re-founded on 31 July 1920 and later became known as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The BSSR became one of the four founding members of the Soviet Union in December 1922, together with the republics of Russia , Transcaucasia , and Ukraine . Byelorussia was one of several Soviet republics occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II . Towards the final years of the Soviet Union's existence,

29240-477: Was reduced to 500 by 1940. Overall, by that same year 90 percent of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were either forcibly closed, converted, or destroyed. Since the Soviet era, Russia , Armenia , Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Turkmenistan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Belarus , Moldova , Georgia , Ukraine and Lithuania have diverse religious affiliations. Russians have primarily returned to identifying with

29412-402: Was split into ten okrugs : Bobruysk , Borisov , Vitebsk , Kalinin , Minsk , Mogilev , Mozyr , Orsha , Polotsk and Slutsk ; all of which contained a total of 100 raions and 1,229 selsoviets . Only 25 towns and cities and an additional 49 urban settlements. Trotsky's plan for the SSRB to act as a future magnet for the minorities in the Second Polish Republic is clearly evidenced in

29584-495: Was subjected to persecution). Most seminaries were closed, and publication of religious writing was banned. A meeting of the Antireligious Commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ( Bolsheviks ) that occurred on 23 May 1929 estimated the portion of believers in the USSR at 80 percent, though this percentage may be understated to prove the successfulness of the struggle with religion. The Russian Orthodox Church, which had 54,000 parishes before World War I,

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