Byelorussian Socialist Party

(BSG), a petit-bourgeois, nationalistic party. It was created in 1902 under the name Byelorussian Revolutionary Party. Its formation was made final at its First Congress in December 1903 in Vil’no. Its program was adapted from that of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), and it advanced the demand of autonomy for the Byelorussian territory, with a local diet in Vil’no. At the Second Congress in January 1906 in Minsk, the BSG amplified its program with demands for the municipalization of independent, crown and monastery lands, as well as the domains of landowners, and national cultural autonomy for all peoples of the northwestern region. Most of the members of the BSG reflected class interests of the Byelorussian rural bourgeoisie. Some of its members such as A. Tetka, pseudonym of the poet A. S. Pashkevich, represented the interests of the working peasantry. During the Revolution of 1905–07 the BSG tried to spread its influence to the masses by adhering to its bourgeois reformist tactics. With the abatement of the revolution, it slipped to a position of bourgeois liberalism. In the beginning of 1907 the BSG formally announced its dissolution. Party members moved to legal bourgeois-nationalistic activities and issued a legal newspaper, Nasha niva (1906–15). During World War I (1914–18) party members in territory occupied by German troops advocated a “rebirth” of Byelorussia as a protectorate of Germany. After the victory of the February Revolution of 1917, the BSG reestablished itself and supported the policies of the bourgeois Provisional Government. In July 1917 right-wing leaders of the BSG joined the counterrevolutionary bourgeois-nationalistic Byelorussian Rada (council). In 1918 the BSG disintegrated, as part of its membership carried on counterrevolutionary activities and part went over to the side of Soviet rule.