that they would function as government institutions for unoccupied parts of SSR LiB. Prisoner swaps Following a decision by the SSR LiB Military-Revolutionary Committee, on April 2, 1919, a prisoner swap with the took place in Kaišiadorys, whereby the German Army released 24 prisoners (members of the Kovno Soviet of Workers Deputies and activists) in exchange for 13 detained members of the German delegation in Vilna (led by G. von Trützschler). On May 17, 1919 Mykolas Sleževičius (Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania) proposed an exchange of prisoners with the SSR LiB. SSR LiB agreed for negotiations, with Mickevičius-Kapsukas reportedly stated that the condition for the exchange would be 'one Lithuanian bourgeois hostage for two communists'. Negotiations between the SSR LiB and the Sleževičius government took place in three sessions in Zarasai, June 25–26, 1919, July 3, 1919, and July 11, 1919. In the end the negotiations resulted in the release of 25 communist prisoners, including A. Drabavičiūtė, P. Svotelis-Proletaras, P. Marcinkutė, M. Juškevičius, M. Miliauskas, K. Matulaitytė, V. Bistrickas, E. Staškūtė, M. Kunickis, K. Keturaitis, J. Grigelis, M. Mickevičiūtė and V. Jakovickis. Fall of Minsk and Bobruisk On 8 August 1919, Polish forces seized Minsk. By 20 August 1919, the Polish forces reached the Berezina river. On 28 August, the Soviet 16th Army withdrew from Bobruisk and entrenched themselves on the left bank of the Berezina river. The Minsk Governorate Revolutionary Committee evacuated to Smolensk. In Smolensk the Minsk Governorate Revolutionary Committee ceased to function. The authority to manage the unoccupied uyezds of the SSR LiB was transferred to the authorities of the Gomel Governorate and the Vitebsk Governorate. Based on the erstwhile departments of the Minsk Governorate Revolutionary Committee the Liquidation Commission of the evacuated institutions of Lithuania and Belarus was set up. On 27 August 1919 Polish forces seized Zarasai, whereby the SSR LiB lost control over the last town in the territories claimed by the republic. By September 1919 Polish-Soviet front had stabilized on along the line of the Western Dvina-Ptsich-Berezina rivers. Final stages of the republic By September 1919, Soviet Russia had already recognized independent Lithuania and offered to negotiate a peace treaty. By April 1920 Red Army began retaking Belorussia from Polish forces. Based on a decision by the RCP(b) Politburo in May 1920, by July 1920 Revolutionary Military Council of the Western Front created Minsk Governorate Military Revolutionary Committee as the military