Repeal of article 6 of the USSR Constitution: the evolution of the position of the communist party of Belarus (1988–1990)

Article 6 of the 1977 Constitution of the USSR assigned the Communist Party a special status as a "guiding force in society." The loss of this status deprived the CPSU of the opportunity to be the exclusive and most numerous force in the USSR. This issue was particularly acute in the Belarusian SSR, in which the elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and political instability brought the CPB and the Union center closer together. The article aims to identify the dynamics of changes in the relationship between the Union center and the BSSR from 1988 to March 1990, from the XIX party Conference to the III Congress of People's Deputies. To do this, it is necessary to consider the dynamics of political processes in the BSSR and the USSR, analyze the transcripts of Congresses and Plenums at which the issue of repealing Article 6 was discussed and separately analyze the change in the position of the Belarusian side on this issue. The article shows the change in the attitude of representatives of the elite of the Belarusian state towards the Union center, Mikhail Gorbachev and perestroika. Initially, the leaders of the BSSR enthusiastically accepted the results of the XIX party conference, but political instability and the activation of nationalist forces forced them to rally even more around the union center. When the Union center initiated the repeal of Article 6, transferring significant powers to the President, the CPB also supported Mikhail Gorbachev for the sake of maintaining stability in the Soviet Union, although it began to criticize the head of the USSR and his political course.