Full title: Peace from Abroad, Struggle from Below: The Slutsk Insurrection of 1920

Author: Aleksandra Pomiecko, Ph.D.

Abstract/summary:

Though the Treaty of Riga formally ended the Polish-Bolshevik War and ushered in a period of peace following a series of border wars, tranquility did not reach all places. In the town of Slutsk, located in present-day Belarus, news of the preliminary Polish-Bolshevik negotiations in October 1920 prompted a reaction from local leaders and Belarusian nationalists who disagreed with Slutsk’s inclusion into Soviet Russia. Over the next weeks, two brigades were organized in the hopes of defending the area from the Red Army. Conflict between the Slutsk Brigades, with the secret help of the Polish Army, and the Red Army continued for about a month until the Bolsheviks defeated any resistance in Slutsk.

Though this incident does not have a significant place in Central-East European, or even Belarusian history, it reveals important aspects of the diplomatic „peace” during the Treaty of Riga negotiations and into the postwar period.This incident sheds light on the local reactions to diplomatic agreements. Additionally, this event also reveals that the Polish-Bolshevik peace marked a negative moment for other national groups and in this case, the Belarusians. This moment in time marked the beginning of diplomatic failure for leading Belarusian activists who were denied entry into the Riga talks and would continue to face adversity during other negotiations throughout the interwar period. In my presentation, I will examine the Treaty of Riga through the perspective of Belarusian activists who were prompted to militarily and diplomatically resist the terms of the treaty, failing to do so in both ways. This paper makes use of relevant literature from leading Belarusian activists, in addition to archival material from Lithuania, Belarus, and Poland.