Why History Matters in Belarus

... and Russified Jews began to spread into heartland Russia. Sergey Rekeda: The Union State of Russia and Belarus: Searching for a Development Vector As a result of the 1917 Russian revolution and ensuing wars, all of the Belarus territory was lost by Russia. Under Marshal Pilsudski in the 1919–1921 Poland-Soviet War, Poland recovered by conquering most of the Polish Kingdom's former Belarussian borderlands. Poles began moving into the territory, especially in the West and Northwest in the Grodno region. Former local populations largely remained in place in Belarus until the massive disruptions of WW2. In the early years of WW2, the border moved back and forth under successive Soviet and Nazi occupations. Then ...