But nevertheless under the pressure of numerous oppressed peoples that inhabited the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century various political changes started. In 1905 the Belarusans got some rights for their cultural self-expression including the right to publish books and newspapers in the native language. Though the concessions of the tsarism were minor in fact, they breathed in a new life into the national rebirth of the Belarusans. But the quick renewal of the statehood became possible only after the fall of the Russian monarchy towards the end of World War I in February 1917, when the Belarusan national organizations became more active. In December 1917 the All-Belarusan Congress opened in Minsk. 1872 delegates from all the regions of Belarus, from all political and public organizations took part in it. The participants discussed the national problems of the Belarussian people and supported the creation of the new Belarusan state.

But after the 3d of May 1918 when Soviet Russia, Germany, and Austria signed the Brest peace treaty Belarus, without the agreement from the Executive Committee of the All-Belarusan Congress, became the subject of annexation by Germany. On the 25th of March 1918 during the German occupation the All-Belarusan Congress Executive Committee declared the creation of the Belarusan People's Republic (BPR). A temporary Constitution in the form of statute decrees was adopted. It guaranteed the right to vote, freedom of speech, of the press and of assembly, the right to the 8-hour working day and the right to strike. Unfortunately, the new Belarusan state was shortlived and was liquidated by Soviet Russia with the help of the Red Army in 1919, but some leaders of the BPR managed to emigrate to the West and establish a Belarusan government in exile.

The creation of the BPR made the Bolsheviks with Lenin at the head understand that the creation of the totalitarian regime on the territory of the former Russian Empire without taking into consideration the national interests of the peoples that it wanted to envelop would be next to impossible. So on the 1st of January 1919 on the initiative of Belarusans in the Russian Communist party of Bolsheviks to counterpoise the BPR the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR) was created. But the Russian Bolsheviks did not look upon Belarus from the point of view of providing the Belarusan people with the right to national self-determination and the creation of an independent state. They saw it as the buffer zone during the realization of the world communist revolution. To enlarge the sphere of influence the Lithuanian-Belarusan Soviet Socialist Republic was created in February 1919. But on the 31st of July 1920 because of the changed political conditions (the Polish army was advancing east) the BSSR was reestablished.

On the 18th of March 1921 according to the Riga peace treaty signed by Poland and Bolshevik Russia headed by Lenin, without the participation of Belarusan representatives Belarus was divided into two parts. The Westem part of Belarus (the Brest and Grodna regions of today's Belarus and the Bialystok region of today's Poland) was given to Poland. This part of Belarus was given back to the USSR in 1939 and became part of BSSR.

On the 30th of December 1922 the Communist governments of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Caucasus created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which included the major part of the former Russian Empire. Since that time on the territory of Belarus as well as in the whole of the Soviet Union a severe communist dictatorship had been established which existed till 1990 when the first more or less democratic elections were held in Belarus. Belarus as well as the other Soviet republics of the former USSR had gone through all the stages of the creation of mythical communism and suffered enormous cultural, spiritual and human losses. During the construction of communism there were destroyed practically all the churches And religious institutions, private property was liquidated a lot of industrious, enterprising, educated people were repressed. Now Kurapaty forest near Minsk reminds us of communist repressions in Belarus. In the 30s hundreds of thousands of innocent people were shot dead there. Stalin's repressions and the fascist occupation were severe blows to the genetic fund of Belarusans. Therefore the renaissance of the Belarusan nation that started only in the late 80s will take a lot of time.