| Branislaw Tarashkyevich | |
| Native Name: | Браніслаў Тарашкевіч |
| Native Name Lang: | be |
| Birth Date: | 20 January 1892 |
| Birth Place: | Matsyulishki, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) |
| Death Place: | Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union (now Russia) |
| Nationality: | Russian Empire, Poland, Soviet Union |
| Occupation: | linguist, politician |
Branislaw Adamavich Tarashkyevich (be|Браніслаў Адамавіч Тарашкевіч; 20 January 1892 – 29 November 1938) was a Belarusian public figure, politician, and linguist.
He first standardized the modern Belarusian language in the early 20th century.[1] The standard was later Russified by the Soviet authorities. However, the pre-Russified (classical) standard version was and still is actively used by intellectuals and the Belarusian diaspora and is informally referred to as Taraškievica, named after Branislaw Tarashkyevich.
Tarashkyevich was a member of the underground Communist Party of Western Belorussia (KPZB) in Poland and was imprisoned for two years (1928–1930). Also, as a member of the Belarusian Deputy Club (Беларускі пасольскі клуб, Byelaruski pasol’ski klub), he was a deputy to the Polish Parliament (Sejm) in 1922–1927. Among others, he translated Pan Tadeusz into Belarusian, and in 1969 a Belarusian-language high school in Bielsk Podlaski was named after him.
In 1933 he was set free due to a Polish-Soviet prisoner release in exchange for Frantsishak Alyakhnovich, a Belarusian journalist and playwright imprisoned in a Gulag, and lived in Soviet exile since then.
He was shot at the Kommunarka shooting ground outside Moscow in 1938 during the Great Purge[2] and was posthumously rehabilitated in 1957.