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Symon Rak-Michajłoŭski
Symon Rak-Michajłoŭski (also spelled Symon Rak-Mikhailoŭski; ; 2 April 1885 – 27 November 1938) was a Belarusian political leader, writer, and teacher. He was a member of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic and a deputy of the Sejm (Parliament) of the Second Polish Republic (1922–1927). He wrote extensively for several newspapers, including ''Naša Niva'', ''Belarus'' and ''Zvon'', and authored music for the famous song "Zorka Venera" (the Venus Star) based on a poem by Maksim Bahdanovič. Early years and the beginning of political career Rak-Michajłoŭski was born into a farming family in the village of Maksimaŭka in Vialiejka district, Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (nowadays – in Maladziečna district, Minsk Region of Belarus) on 2 April 1885. Having graduated from the Maladziečna Teachers' Seminary (1905), he taught in various schools in Belarus for several years, participated in cultural activities and collected folk songs. His political a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilna Governorate
The Vilna Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. In 1897, the governorate covered an area of and had a population of 1,591,207 inhabitants. The governorate was defined by the Minsk Governorate to the south, the Grodno Governorate to the southwest, the Suwałki Governorate to the west, the Kovno and Courland Governorates to the north, and the Vitebsk Governorate to the east. The capital was located in Vilna (Vilnius). The city also served as the capital of Vilna Governorate-General, which existed until 1912. The area roughly corresponded to the Vilnius Region, which was later occupied by Germany, Bolsheviks, and Poland. History The first governorates, Vilnius Governorate (consisting of eleven uyezds or districts) and Slonim Governorate, were established after the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Just a year later, on December 12, 1796, by order of Tsar Paul I they were merged into one governorate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crimea
Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The population is 2.4 million, and the largest city is Sevastopol. The region, internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, has been under Russian occupation of Crimea, Russian occupation since 2014. Called the Tauric Peninsula until the early modern period, Crimea has historically been at the boundary between the Classical antiquity, classical world and the Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppe. Greeks in pre-Rom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solovki Prison Camp
The Solovki special camp (later the Solovki special prison), was set up in 1923 on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea as a remote and inaccessible place of detention, primarily intended for socialist opponents of Soviet Russia's new Bolshevik regime. At first, the anarchists, Mensheviks, and Socialist Revolutionaries enjoyed a special status there and were not made to work. Gradually, prisoners from the old regime (priests, gentry, and White Army officers) joined them and the guards and the ordinary criminals worked together to keep the "politicals" in order. This was the nucleus from which the entire Gulag grew, thanks to its proximity to the first great construction project of the Five-Year Plans, the White Sea–Baltic Canal. In one way, Solovki and the White Sea Canal broke a basic rule of the Gulag: they were both far too close to the border. This facilitated a number of daring escapes in the 1920s; as war loomed in the late 1930s, it led to the closure of the Solovki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulag
The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of running the forced labor camps from the 1930s to the early 1950s during Joseph Stalin's rule, but in English literature the term is popularly used for the system of forced labor throughout the Soviet era. The abbreviation GULAG (ГУЛАГ) stands for "Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й" (Main Directorate of Correctional Labour Camps), but the full official name of the agency #Etymology, changed several times. The Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. The camps housed both ordinary criminals and political prisoners, a large number of whom were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas or other instruments of extra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and afterwards as one of Republics of the Soviet Union, fifteen constituent republics of 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, 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 (1918–1919), Lithuanian Soviet Socia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sejm
The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People's Republic, transition of government in 1989. Along with the upper house of parliament, the Senate of Poland, Senate, it forms the national legislature in Poland known as Parliament of Poland#National Assembly, National Assembly (). The Sejm comprises 460 Member of parliament, deputies (singular or ) elected every four years by Universal suffrage, universal ballot. The Sejm is presided over by a Speaker of parliament, speaker, the "Marshal of the Sejm" (). In the Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569), Kingdom of Poland, the term ''Sejm'' referred to an entire two-Chambers of parliament, chamber parliament, comprising the Chamber of Deputies (), the Senate and the King. It was thus a three-estate parliament. The 1573 Henrician Articles strengthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population was 607,667, and the Vilnius urban area (which extends beyond the city limits) has an estimated population of 747,864. Vilnius is notable for the architecture of its Vilnius Old Town, Old Town, considered one of Europe's largest and best-preserved old towns. The city was declared a World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The architectural style known as Vilnian Baroque is named after the city, which is farthest to the east among Baroque architecture, Baroque cities and the largest such city north of the Alps. The city was noted for its #Demographics, multicultural population during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with contemporary sources comparing it to Babylon. Before World War II and The Holocaust in Lithuania, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Belorussia
Western Belorussia or Western Belarus (; ; ) is a historical region of modern-day Belarus which belonged to the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period. For twenty years before the 1939 invasion of Poland, it was the northern part of the Polish Kresy macroregion. Following the end of World War II in Europe, most of Western Belorussia was ceded to the Soviet Union by the Allies, while some of it, including Białystok, was given to the Polish People's Republic. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Western Belorussia formed the western part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Today, it constitutes the west of modern Belarus. Created by the USSR after the conquest of Poland, the new western provinces of Byelorussian SSR acquired from Poland included Baranavichy, Belastok, Brest, Vileyka and the Pinsk Regions. The majority of Belastok Region was returned to Poland and the rest of the regions were reorganized one more time after the Sovie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peace Of Riga
The Treaty of Riga was signed in Riga, Latvia, on between Poland on one side and Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine on the other, ending the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921). The chief negotiators of the peace were Jan Dąbski for the Polish side and Adolph Joffe for the Soviet side. Under the treaty, Poland recognized Soviet Ukraine and Belarus, abrogating its 1920 Treaty of Warsaw with the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Treaty of Riga established a Polish–Soviet border about east of the Curzon Line, incorporating large numbers of Ukrainians and Belarusians into the Second Polish Republic. Poland, which agreed to withdraw from areas further east (notably Minsk), renounced claims to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's border prior to the 1772 First Partition of Poland, recovering only those eastern regions ( Kresy) lost to Russia in the 1795 Third Partition. Russia and Ukraine agreed to withdraw their claims to lands we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grodno
Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithuania border, border with Lithuania. Grodno serves as the administrative center of Grodno Region and Grodno District, though it is administratively separated from the district. the city has a population of 363,718. The modern city of Grodno, founded in 1127, originated as a small fortress and trading outpost on the border of the Baltic tribal union of the Yotvingians. It was also a home to the Dregoviches Slavic tribe. It was a significant city in Black Ruthenia and later part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which joined the Polish-Lithuanian Union in 1385. Grodno faced numerous invasions, most notably by the Teutonic Knights. The city was a key trade, commerce, and cultural center in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and one of its roya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First All-Belarusian Congress
The First All-Belarusian Congress () was a congress of Belarusian political organisations and groups held in Minsk in December 1917. The congress gathered 1872 delegates from all regions of Belarus and was violently dispersed by the Bolshevik military. The congress played an important role in the consolidation of the Belarusian national liberation movement after the October Revolution in Russia. The council that was selected at the congress formed the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic and on 25 March 1918 declared the independence of Belarus as the Belarusian Democratic Republic. Background In early 1917 Belarus was still part of the Russian Empire. Following the February and October Revolutions in Russia, the Bolsheviks who came to power promised free self-determination to all nations living in the former Russian Empire, including the possibility of gaining full independence. Belarusian political organizations, representing regions with a Belarusian majority population ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
February Revolution
The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia in 1917. The main events of the revolution took place in and near Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), the then-capital of Russia, where long-standing discontent with the monarchy erupted into mass protests against food rationing on 23 February Old Style and New Style dates, Old Style (8 March Old Style and New Style dates, New Style). Revolutionary activity lasted about eight days, involving mass demonstrations and violent armed clashes with police and Special Corps of Gendarmes, gendarmes, the last loyal forces of the Russian monarchy. On 27 February O.S. (12 March N.S.), most of the forces of the capital's garrison sided with the revolutionaries. In the same day, the Russian Provisional Government, made up by left-leaning State Duma (Russ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
