Russia capitalized on domestic difficulties of the Rzeczpospolita and launched a new war on its territory (1654-1667) occupying a larger portion of Belarus. The war resulted in a severe economic and demographic crisis. The Belarusian population reduced by half, towns fell into decay, and Polonization strengthened covering wide strata of the gentry and urban residents.

The North war (1700-1721) fought by Swedes against Russia and Rzeczpospolita also was ruinous for Belarus. Battles were fought on the Belarusian area. The war resulted in the economic crisis that was overcome only by mid of the 18th century. Business began to revive in Belarus and capitalist tendencies emerged in the economy.

The protracted political crisis caused by anarchy in the country and growing influence of the neighboring states on Rzeczpospolita had far more serious implications. The last Polish King and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislav August Ponyatovsky (1764-1795) sought to strengthen the central power, but was confronted by the opposition seeking support abroad. Capitalizing on those circumstances and also profiteering in unequal position of Orthodox and Protestant believers in relation to Catholics in Rzeczpospolita, Russia, Prussia and Austria organized the first division of Rzeczpospolita (1772) after which the eastern part of Belarus was incorporated into the Russian Empire.

After the second division of Rzeczpospolita (1793), Russia received the central part of Belarus. Growing patriotic sentiments fired the uprising led by T. Kostyushko. In 1795, Rzeczpospolita was divided for the third time and Russia absorbed the western area of Belarus, while Rzeczpospolita became nonexistent as the state. Russia introduced its territorial and administrative division, taxes and duties in Belarus.

During the French invasion to Russia, the Belarusian territory was the major theater of war operations and, as a result, it sustained huge losses and its population substantially dwindled.

After the 1812 war, democratic ideas began to disseminate in the national-liberation movement in Belarus. The national-liberation uprising broke out in 1830-1831 to restore Rzeczpospolita within 1772 boundaries. After suppression of the uprising, political and economic influence of the gentry and Catholicism was weakened. Roman Catholic churches and monasteries were closed and estates of rebellions were confiscated. The Vilno University was closed and the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1588) was annulled.

The peasant reform of 1861 abolished the serfdom in Russia and also in the North-Western Region (as Belarus for formerly named).

The national-liberation uprising against tsarism broke out in Poland, Belarus and Lithuania in 1863-1864. K. Kalinovsky led the uprising in Belarus. The first Belarusian underground newspaper Peasant’s Truth was published in 1862-1863. After suppression of the uprising, the exclusive laws were forced in Belarus, which were in effect up to the early 20th century.

The revolutionary organization Gomon created by Belarusian students trained in Saint-Petersburg higher educational establishments was active in the first half of the 1880s. The publication of the same name for the first time specified and theoretically substantiated the idea of the right of the Belarusian nation to “autonomous federative independence in the family of other nationalities of Russia”, proved originality of the Belarusian language and the need to develop national culture and literature.

[ 10 11 12 13 ]