20 Roubles 100th Anniversary of Belarusian Trade Union Movement

The Belarusian trade union movement traces its organizational roots to 1904, when the first labor associations emerged in the western provinces of the Russian Empire under considerable suppression from tsarist authorities. By the time of the 1905 Revolution, Belarusian workers in the textile and woodworking industries had formed some of the more militant union cells in the region. This centennial issue marks that origin point — though the movement it commemorates spent most of its Soviet decades as a state-administered formality rather than an independent labor force.