Veterinarian who chaired the First All-Belarusian Congress and, as chairman of the Rada, presided over the declaration of independence
Born in Zadzvieja in the Minsk Governorate in 1879, he graduated from the veterinary school in Warsaw in 1903 and worked as a veterinarian and as a teacher at the agricultural college in Marjina Horka. He served in the Russo-Japanese War and was active in the Belarusian Socialist Hramada. Elected chairman of the First All-Belarusian Congress in December 1917, he was arrested when it was dispersed. In February 1918 he was a Belarusian delegate at the Brest-Litovsk peace talks; as chairman of the Rada from March he presided over the session of 24–25 March that proclaimed independence, and from July to November he headed the People’s Secretariat. In the 1920s he worked in agriculture in Soviet Byelorussia; arrested in 1930 in the case of the “Union of Liberation of Belarus”, he passed through exile and the Gulag, and his fate after his release in 1943 is unknown.
Career timeline
- 1907–1911Veterinarian in the Minsk Governorate; teacher at the Marjina Horka agricultural college
- 1917Chairman of the First All-Belarusian Congress
- 1918Member of the Belarusian delegation at the Brest-Litovsk peace talks
- 1918Chairman of the Rada of the Belarusian People’s Republic
- 1918Chairman of the People’s Secretariat and secretary for foreign affairs
- 1925–1929Docent at the Belarusian Agricultural Academy
Chairman of the Rada of the Belarusian People’s Republic from 1919 until his death, leading it in exile from Prague
Born in 1879 into the family of a village church deacon in the Grodno Governorate, he graduated from the seminary in Vilnius, worked as a teacher and from 1909 was employed at the Vilnius State Bank. In 1917, as chairman of the Borisov Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, he was a delegate to the First All-Belarusian Congress and joined its executive committee. In 1918 he was state controller and then secretary for finance and for trade in the People’s Secretariat, and became one of the leaders of the Socialist Federalist party. He became chairman of the Rada on 13 December 1919, went into exile in 1920 and represented the Rada from Kaunas and Berlin and, from 1923, Prague. In 1921 he organised a conference in Prague that condemned the Peace of Riga, and in 1925 he refused to accept the decision to dissolve the government in exile. He died in Prague in 1928.
Career timeline
- 1902Graduated from the Vilnius seminary; teacher
- 1909Employee of the Vilnius State Bank
- 1917Chairman of the Borisov Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies
- 1918State controller, then secretary for finance and for trade in the People’s Secretariat
- 1918Secretary of the Rada of the Belarusian People’s Republic
- 1919–1928Chairman of the Rada of the Belarusian People’s Republic
- 1926Editor of the almanac Zamiežnaja Biełaruś
Historian who headed the government of the Belarusian People’s Republic in exile, moved to Soviet Byelorussia and was executed
Born into a landless noble family in the Disna district of the Vilna Governorate in 1883, he had almost no formal schooling. He was active in the Hramada in 1906–1908, was editorial secretary of Nasha Niva and from 1915 openly advocated independence from both Russia and Poland. In 1918 he joined the Rada as a delegate of the Belarusian Council of Vilnius, and in 1919 he led the Belarusian Socialist Revolutionaries. Appointed prime minister in December 1919, he was soon arrested by the Polish authorities; released the following year, he went to Riga and toured European capitals seeking recognition until he stepped down in 1923. In 1927 he moved to Soviet Byelorussia, where he became director of the State Museum and a member of the Academy of Sciences, but he was arrested in 1930, exiled to Saratov and shot in 1938.
Career timeline
- 1909Editorial secretary of Nasha Niva
- 1918Member of the Rada for the Belarusian Council of Vilnius
- 1918Head of the Belarusian representation in Lithuania
- 1919–1923Prime minister of the Belarusian People’s Republic
- 1927–1930Director of the Belarusian State Museum
- 1928Academician of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences
Founder of the Hramada who, as prime minister of the Belarusian People’s Republic, sought its recognition at the Paris Peace Conference
Born into an impoverished noble family in Šiauliai in 1884, he founded the Belarusian Revolutionary Hramada (later the Belarusian Socialist Hramada) with his brother Ivan and others in 1903. In Vilnius he brought out the first Belarusian newspapers, Nasha Niva among them, and under German occupation in 1915 he led the clandestine Belarusian People’s Committee. As president of the Belarusian Council of Vilnius he took part in the declaration of independence in 1918, and in October he became prime minister and then foreign minister. In 1919 he led the delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and negotiated a union with Poland, but with no result he resigned in February 1920. He devoted himself to publishing and education in Western Belarus until the Soviet authorities arrested him in 1939, and he died in 1942 while being transferred to a prison camp.
Career timeline
- 1903Co-founder of the Belarusian Revolutionary Hramada
- 1915Head of the clandestine Belarusian People’s Committee in Vilnius
- 1918President of the Belarusian Council of Vilnius
- 1918–1920Prime minister and foreign minister of the Belarusian People’s Republic
- 1921President of the Belarusian National Committee in Vilnius
- 1921–1939Director of the Belarusian Museum in Vilnius
