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
Leader of the Bashkir national movement who proclaimed Bashkir autonomy, commanded the Bashkir Army and took it over to the Soviet side
Born in 1890 in Kuzyanovo, Ufa province, he taught Turkic history at the Qasimiya madrasa in Kazan. In 1917 he joined the Socialist Revolutionaries and was elected to the Constituent Assembly; with Sharif Manatov he organised the Bashkir Central Shuro, proclaimed Bashkir autonomy and became commander of the Bashkir Army. Arrested by the Bolsheviks in February 1918 and freed in April, he fought alongside Dutov and Kolchak, but in February 1919 took his troops over to the Soviet side. He became chairman of the Bashrevkom in 1920, resigned in June in protest at the curtailing of autonomy and led the Basmachi movement in Turkestan. He emigrated in 1923, became a Turkish citizen in 1925, a professor at Istanbul University and a doctor of the University of Vienna, and died in Istanbul in 1970.
Career timeline
- 1909–1915Teacher at the Qasimiya madrasa in Kazan
- 1915–1917Bureau supporting the Muslim deputies of the State Duma
- 1917–1919Deputy chairman of the Bashkir Central Shuro; commander of the Bashkir Army
- 1919–1920Military commissar and deputy chairman of the Bashrevkom; chairman in 1920
- 1920–1923Leader of the Basmachi movement in Turkestan
- 1927Chair of Turkish History, Istanbul University
- 1935Doctor of philosophy, University of Vienna
