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
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
Co-founder of Istpart, who laid the institutional foundations of Party historiography
Once I visited him at home. He was then living in the Government Building by the Stone Bridge, now Serafimovich Street. I remember that in his study, right by his desk, millet was scattered on the floor and little chicks were pecking at it. In reply to my startled look he said: 'It's pleasant to see young life.' — From the memoirs of Boris Urlanis
Born the son of a village priest, he studied at St. Petersburg University before joining the revolutionary movement. He shared Siberian exile with Lenin in 1897 and later served as an agent for Iskra. After October he led school reform at the People's Commissariat of Enlightenment, and in 1921 he became one of the founders of Istpart, the commission that institutionalised the study of Party history. In his later years he directed the Historical Museum and the Museum of the Revolution, and he is remembered for his vivid memoir At the Turning Point, which chronicles Lenin's years in exile.
Career timeline
1886–1891Studied at St. Petersburg University; organised underground student circles; expelled in 1890; completed degree externally at Kiev University
1895–1897Active in the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class; arrested, imprisoned and exiled to Yenisei province alongside Lenin
1900–1905Iskra agent in Pskov; in emigration helped build the Party library and archive in Geneva
1918–1920Collegium member at the Commissariat of Enlightenment and head of school reform; co-drafted the Statute on the Unified Labour School; founded an experimental school-commune in Litvinovichi
1919–1920Deputy People's Commissar of Enlightenment for the Turkestan Republic; organised teacher training and the first republic-wide education congress in Tashkent
1921–1924Co-founder and deputy chairman of Istpart (Commission on Party History); built the institutional foundation for Party historiography
1925–1927Chairman of the Central Committee of MOPR (International Red Aid) in the USSR
Iskra agent across three revolutions, KOMZET chairman who shaped Soviet nationality policy and the Birobidzhan Jewish experiment
On December 30, 1922, he declared open the First All-Union Congress of Soviets — the moment that formalized the birth of the USSR.
An Old Bolshevik who joined the RSDLP in 1898. Born into Polish nobility, he was expelled from Moscow University, studied electrical engineering in Paris, and worked in Belgian factories as a member of the Belgian Workers' Party. An Iskra agent through all three Russian revolutions, he served on the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee during October 1917 and chaired the Moscow Soviet. As KOMZET chairman he advanced the Birobidzhan Jewish Autonomous Oblast experiment, and as chairman of the Committee of the North he designed administrative and economic policy for northern indigenous peoples. His ashes are interred in the Kremlin Wall.
Career timeline
1898Joined RSDLP; revolutionary work in St. Petersburg
1902–1905Iskra agent, co-organized underground Iskra press in Uman; all three revolutions
1917–1918Moscow VRK member, VTsIK Presidium, Chairman of Mossovet
1921Participated in suppression of Antonov and Kronstadt uprisings
1924–1935Chairman of KOMZET: planned and advanced the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (Birobidzhan)
1924–1935Chairman of the Committee of the North: administrative and economic foundations for northern peoples
1933–1935Chairman of the Committee on Nature Reserves under VTsIK
The 'Demon' Underground and the Only Woman Vice-Chair of Sovnarkom
In the Bolshevik underground she took the codename 'Demon' (Демон) — by one account, from Lermontov's poem used as a cipher book. The name stuck for life as an emblem of her fierce revolutionary persona.
An Iskra agent and Bolshevik organiser co-opted to the Central Committee in 1903, she helped lead the 1905 and 1917 Moscow uprisings. During the Civil War she served as political commissar of the 8th and 13th Armies and became the first woman awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Her role organising the Red Terror as Crimean party secretary in 1920–21 remains fiercely debated. In 1939 she became Deputy Chair of Sovnarkom (the only woman to hold that post) and was one of the very few Old Bolshevik women to survive the Stalin-era purges, dying in 1947.
Career timeline
1896Joined the RSDLP; began Social Democratic activity in Kiev
1901Iskra agent in Odessa and Yekaterinoslav
1903–1904Co-opted to the CC; member of the Bolshevik Bureau of Committees of the Majority
1905Secretary of the Moscow Committee; helped lead the December uprising
1917Secretary of the first legal Moscow Bolshevik Committee; led October uprising in Rogozhsko-Simonovsky district
1918–1920Political commissar of 8th and 13th Armies; Luhansk defence; first woman to receive the Order of the Red Banner
1920–1921Responsible Secretary of the Crimean Party Committee; member of the Crimean Revolutionary Committee — organised the Red Terror
1924–1934Member of the Central Control Commission; NKPS collegium; district party secretary in Perm and Moscow
1939–1940Chairman of the Commission of Soviet Control
1939–1943Deputy Chair of the USSR Council of People's Commissars — the only woman in the post
1943–1947Deputy Chair of the Party Control Commission
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
