The "Generalbezirk Weißruthenien" district of RKO was soon formed. The district included the western and central parts of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic in its 1941 borders (which included the towns of Hlybokaye, Vileyka, Navahrudak and other territories earlier annexed by the USSR from Poland). In 1942, the German civil authority was extended to Minsk, Slutsk and Barysaw. The area was to be made part of the Nazis' project of Lebensraum ("living space"), in which those deemed non-Aryan would be exterminated or expelled to make way for German colonists, while the remaining locals would be subject to forced Germanization. All attempts by the Byelorussian representatives to request self-governance for the occupied Byelorussia led to German repressions against those who voiced such requests.