"With Reference To Confidential Sources": Two Villages Went Rogue Near Minsk

The Belarusians made a stand against the authorities, introducing new taxes.

In October 1925, the police commandant of Navahrudak province sent a report to Warsaw, referring to confidential sources. It was about the Belarusian peasant anti-Bolshevik resistance in the villages in the vicinity of Minsk and the participation of the army, even airplanes, in the subjection of the rebels. The document is kept in the Central Military Archives in Rembertow (Poland), Radio Racyja writes.

"According to unconfirmed information from confidential sources, residents of two villages rebelled in the vicinity of Minsk, refusing to pay the state tax. As a result, the Bolshevik authorities delegated Cossacks there to collect unpaid taxes. The rebellious inhabitants killed two Cossacks, in response the Bolsheviks sent out large army forces and airplanes. The villages were burnt to the ground, and the residents were killed," – the report said.