26 Years Ago Belarus Became Independent

• 25.08.2017, 8:25

A historic meeting of the BSSR Supreme Council took place on August 25, 1991.

The law "On Giving the Declaration of the Supreme Council of the BSSR on the State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic the Status of the Constitutional Law" and the resolution "On Ensuring the Political and Economic Independence of the Belarusian SSR" were adopted there.

Thus, in fact, the independence of the BSSR was declared.

The historic session was held on the third day after the State Emergency Committee putsch became a failure and was quite stormy.

On August 24, tens of thousands of people gathered at the future Independence Square, at that time known as Lenin Square, in front of the building where the Supreme Council was being held.

Deputies of the opposition Valiantsin Holubeu, Zianon Pazniak and Halina Siamdzianava took a white-red-white flag in the hall where the session was held.

On August 24, the day before this event, Mikalai Dziamiantsei, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR, resigned, and Stanislau Shushkevich, who previously held the post of deputy chairman, became the first head of independent Belarus.

A month later, on September 19, 1991, the session of the Supreme Council adopted a decision to call the BSSR the Republic of Belarus, Belarus for short.

At the same time, the Supreme Council adopted a resolution on state symbols of the white-red-white flag and the coat of arms Pahonia.