Abstract:
The article discusses the national, social-economic and political preconditions of collaboration with the German occupation forces in Belarus. It highlights the relationship of collaboration with the prewar Soviet policies and analyses the prewar politics of Belarusian nationalists and émigré. The reactions of Belarusian civilian population, its responses to occupation and attitudes vis-à-vis the German occupation authorities and Soviet partisans at the initial stage of the war are then discussed. The article underlines the complexity of motives and the variety of forms of collaboration. Some attention is devoted to the nature of the Nazi policies on the occupied territory of Belarus that caused the change in popular attitude. Finally the article analyses the transition from collaboration to resistance in 1943 and examines the major considerations of Belarusian population for joining the partisan units in mass.