Prior to the opening of the congress the Belorussian Soviet leadership had, under pressure from the RCP(b), agreed to the bifurcation of their republic. At the congress the delegations from Mogilev, Smolensk, Vitebsk withdrew from the proceedings, demanding that their governorates be re-integrated in the RSFSR. The congress subsequently determined that the territory of the SSRB would be limited to the Minsk Governorate and the Grodno Governorate. Effectively, considering the ongoing war, this move left the SSRB government in control of just six uyezds of Minsk Governorate. Sverdlov held a speech calling for unity between Soviet Belorussia and Soviet Lithuania, which he stated was a necessity to combat the 'White Army-Belorussian-Lithuanian government'. He argued that a united Lithuanian-Belorussian state was a necessity to counter national-chauvinistic tendencies (including within the communist ranks). As Sverdlov's proposal won majority support (especially from grassroot delegates), the congress tasked the Central Executive Committee of the SSRB to work for unification with the Lithuanian soviet republic. In a similar vein, the First Congress of Soviets of Lithuania, which met in Vilna (Vilnius, Wilno) from 18 to 20 February 1919 and was attended by 220 delegates, examined the report of the Lithuanian Provisional Worker-Peasant Government on the question of union with Belorussia. The congress agreed on union of the Lithuanian and Belorussian soviet republics and their federation with the Russian Soviet republic. The resolution of the Vilna congress read "[k]eenly conscious of our inseparable bond with all the Soviet Socialist Republics, the congress instructs the Workers' and Peasants' Government of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia to inaugurate negotiations forthwith with the workers' and peasants' governments of the R.S.F.S.R., Latvia, the Ukraine and Estland with a view to constituting all these republics into a single R.S.F.S.R." Founding of the SSR LiB On 27 February 1919, a Central Executive Committee of the Lithuanian Soviet Republic and the Central Executive Committees of the SSRB held a joint meeting in Vilna. The meeting elected the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Lithuania and Belorussia it with Kazimierz Cichowski at its helm. Furthermore, the meeting founded the Council of People's Commissars of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia as the government cabinet for the new united Soviet republic, headed by Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas. The local communists leaders managed to resist the imposition that Joffe would become the head of the republic, albeit he remained in