BNR-100. Important places in Miensk. 5. Railroad depot at the station «Tavarnaja»


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Railroad depot of the Libau–Romny Railway. The building has not been preserved. It was located not far from the modern station «Tavarnaja».

This place became famous for the fact that after the Bolsheviks dispersed the First All-Belarusian Congress, delegates who managed to avoid arrest found refuge in the depot guarded by Minsk railway workers. A total of 56 delegates gathered in the depot – almost the entire Rada of the Congress, headed by Jazep Liosik. This Rada continued to work underground, creating the Executive Committee of the Rada of the All-Belarusian Congress. The Executive Committee of the Congress Rada began to create the prerequisites for the transfer of power from the Bolsheviks to the legitimate Belarusian authorities. The Executive Committee subjugated the Central Belarusian Military Rada and began to create self-defense departments. 

In February 1918, when the Bolsheviks fled from Minsk before the advancing Germans, the Congress Rada left the underground. It formed a legitimate Belarusian government and proclaimed an independent Belarusian Democratic Republic.