Ivonka Survilla re-elected Chairperson of the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic

The XXXI session of the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (Rada BNR, in Belarusian) was held in Prague, Czechia, where Ivonka Survilla was re-elected Chairperson of the Rada BNR for another six-year term.

Members of the Rada living in the USA, UK, Canada, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Czechia and Estonia discussed the Rada’s current affairs and priorities in the political situation of Belarus and considered a number of amendments to the Statute of the Rada BNR. On the eve of the session, a statement of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic was announced, congratulating Belarus on the Day of Military Glory and announcing the awarding of 14 Belarusian soldiers in Ukraine with medals of the Belarusian Democratic Republic for military service.

The Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic has maintained unbroken formal and legal continuity for more than a century after the All-Belarusian Congress of 1917, which formed it as a temporary body of supreme power in Belarus following independence from the Russian Empire.

“This institute is a unique subject of Belarusian political history, a keeper of a living and uninterrupted tradition of Belarusian statehood and the Belarusian democratic and independence movement,” notes Aleś Čajčyc, Secretary of Information, representative of the Rada Award Commission. “The Belarusian Democratic Republic failed to preserve its independence in 1918, but the very fact of its declaration and the very fact that the provisional government of this state continues to exist is an important symbol of the continued fight for democracy and freedom in Belarus.”