Soviet republic that existed in 1919 on the territory of the former Vilna, Minsk, and parts of Grodno, Kovno, and Suvalki governorates of the Russian Empire.

 

On January 16, 1919, the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) – RCP(b) decided to unite the Lithuanian Soviet Republic and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus to create a buffer state on the western border of the Russian SFSR and neutralize the military threat from Germany and Poland. The declaration on the unification of the republics was adopted at the 1st All-Byelorussian Congress of Soviets on February 2–3 and at the 1st Congress of Lithuanian Soviets on February 18–20, 1919. The act of unification took place in Vilnius on February 27, 1919. The Union Presidium of the Central Executive Committee (headed by Kazimir Tsikhovsky) and the Council of People’s Commissars (headed by Vincas Mitskevichus-Kapsukas) were established there. The Communist parties of both republics were united in March 1919. The Lithuanian-Byelorussian Army was subordinate to the High Command of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.

 

The offensive of Aleksander Kolchak on the Eastern Front in the spring of 1919 defused the Western Front of the Reds, and the offensive of the military units of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania began. All power in the SSR LiB passed to the Defense Council. After the capture of Vilnius by the Polish army on April 21, government authorities moved to Dvinsk, and on April 28 – to Minsk. A significant part of the SSR LiB came under the control of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania.

 

On June 1, 1919, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Russian SFSR adopted a resolution on the integration of the military forces of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Byelorussia. The Lithuanian-Byelorussian Army became part of the Red Army and from June 7 was the 16th Army of the Western Front. On July 14, the Central Committee of the RСP(b) took a resolution to eliminate the Defense Council and the Council of People’s Commissars of the SSR LiB. Meanwhile, the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Republic continued to exist. On July 19, the Litbel’s Council of People’s Commissars decreed to hand the power over to the Minsk governorate Revolutionary military commissariat. The Polish army occupied Minsk on August 8. Soviet Lithuania finally fell on August 25, and the SSR LiB practically ceased to exist. The Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Lithuania and Byelorussia moved to Smolensk, where it led the underground and partisan movement.