and surrounding region be transferred to Lithuania, which some months later was also invaded by Soviet Union and became a new Soviet Republic – Lithuanian SSR. Minsk therefore was proclaimed the capital of the enlarged Byelorussian SSR. The borders of the BSSR were again altered after the war (notably the largely Polish area around the city of Białystok was returned to Poland) but in general they coincide with the borders of the modern Republic of Belarus. 1989–present The Belarusian minority has been active in political life in Poland since 1989. In the 2006 elections to the Podlasie Sejmik, the Białoruski Komitet Wyborczy (Belarusian Electoral Committee) received 7,914 votes (2.05%), however this was not enough to receive any seats in the Council. The most votes from this list were for Jan Czykwin (2,405), Eugeniusz Wappa (1,669) and Eugeniusz Mironowicz (1,119). When the local elections were repeated in the region on 20 May 2007, the Belarusians again submitted their own electoral committee, which for the first time had several Lithuanians running on the list, in their region of Sejny and Puńsk. There is an unknown number of Belarusians in northwest Poland, but some Polish Belarusians were relocated there by the Soviet invasion of Germany in April 1945 and the captured lands of formerly German Pomerania was annexed by Poland. See also Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Belarus in the aftermath of World War II Belarus–Poland relations Bilingual communes in Poland Kresy West Belarus Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz Polish minority in Belarus Notes References Łukasz Kaźmierczak, Trzy procent odmienności (Three percent of different) - article describing results of Polish census 2002 and minorities in Poland, citing census data Janusz Żarnowski, "Społeczeństwo Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej 1918-1939" (in Polish), Warszawa 1973 Eugeniusz Mironowicz, "Białoruś" (in Polish), Trio, Warszawa, 1999, External links Bialorus.pl - portal of Belarusian minority in Poland Belarusians in Poland Ethnic groups in Poland Belarus–Poland relations