Soviet Belarus was not a part of Russia but of the USSR which ceased to exist with the signment of the Belavezha Accords in December 1991.

The Soviet Union had no government since Gorbachev was putsched away by the conservatives in August same year and forced to resign. The governments of different constituent republics were next in the chain of command on equal terms.

Chechnya, Abkhazia and Karakalpakistan, for instance, were autonomous republics inside of Russia, Georgia and Uzbekistan and they were denied independence.