Historian Dedicates His Book To BPR's 100th Anniversary, Home Town Babruisk

Special attention is paid in the book to the history of Babruisk Fortress.

Historian Ihar Melnikau dedicated a book "A Corpus in Oblivion. History of the Polish Army in Babruisk in 1918, 1919 - 1920" to the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, as well as to his native land, the home town Babruisk. A crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for its publication is going on. Anyone can support the project on talaka.org site.

- The events of the Polish-Bolshevik war in Babruisk remain a poorly known aspect of the history of Belarus, - says the author. - In "A Corpus in Oblivion" I tried to summarize the known facts, and found and processed many new documents, materials and memories," - Vecherniy Boibruisk writes.

I heard about the first Polish corps in Babruisk for the first time back in 2004, while studying at the University of Warsaw. Then I was surprised that so much in the history of not only the town on Biarezina, but Belarus has scarcely been studied in the national historiography. Moreover, a significant number of not only the residents of Babruisk, but also all over the country do not distinguish the period of stay of the First Polish Corps at the territory of Babruisk in 1918 and the occupation of the Babruisk district by the Polish troops in 1919 - 1920. Meanwhile, these are completely different historical subjects, even though they have indirect links.

It was in March 1918 when the independence of the Belarusian People's Republic was proclaimed. Without this state there would be no BSSR. The BPR is the Belarusians' first attempt in the twentieth century to declare their wish to live in an independent state. The fact of its creation laid the foundation on which, at the end of the twentieth century, there appeared an independent Republic of Belarus. What policy did the command of the First Polish Corps choose in relation to Belarusians and their country? What did the Polish Legion fought in 1918? How did the Polish commanders assess the value of the Babruisk Fortress? What was the BPR's attitude to the army of Doubar-Musnitski? To these and other questions you will find answers in this book.

It remains to be noted that the new book by historian Ihjar Melnikau is more than 200 pages of unique facts of the military history of Belarus and Poland, as well as about 300 archival and contemporary photographs, most of which are published for the first time in Belarus.

Special attention is paid to the history of the Babruisk Fortress - one of the architectural wonders of Belarus.