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Jurka Listapad
Jurka Listapad (Belarusian: Ю́рка Лістапа́д, full name Ю́рый Іва́навіч Лістапа́д); 7 April 1897 - 5 July 1938) was an active participant in the Belarusian independence movement and anti-Soviet resistance, publicist and a victim of Stalin's purges of 1937-38. Early yearsListapad was born on 7 April 1897 into a farming family in the village of Varkavičy, Slutsky Uyezd, Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (nowadays Slutsk District, Minsk Region of Belarus).[1] In 1914 he graduated from a teachers college in Panevėžys and returned to his native Slutsk. After a spell as a teacher, Listapad moved to Minsk and worked in publishing. He also started writing as well as translating. His work “Sluckaje viasieĺlie” (Belarusian: Слуцкае вясельле, The Slutsk Wedding) was published in 1920. He was an active member of several Belarusian pro-independence organisations, such as the National Committee and “Paparać-kvietka" (Belarusian: Папараць-кветка, The Fern Flower).[2] Anti-Soviet Resistance and persecutionIn 1920 Listapad was elected to the Belarusian Rada (Council) of Slutsk and participated in the Slutsk uprising, an anti-Bolshevik pro-independence military campaign in central Belarus.[2] Following the defeat of the uprising, he briefly lived in exile in the Second Polish Republic but returned to Slutsk in 1922 and established an underground anti-Soviet organisation.[3] He was arrested in 1925 and sentenced to five years in prison.[4] He was re-arrested in 1930 and then again in 1933 after which he was sent to the Gulag.[1] Death sentence and posthumous exonerationIn March 1938 Listapad was sentenced to death for “anti-Soviet propaganda”. He was posthumously exonerated during the Khrushchev Thaw in 1956.[1] Works
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