Jerzy Turonek | |
Native Name Lang: | be |
Birth Date: | 26 April 1929 |
Birth Place: | Dūkštas, Wilno Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic (now in Utena County, Lithuania) |
Death Place: | Warsaw, Poland |
Nationality: | Polish (Belarusian minority in Poland) |
Known For: | Studies of history of Belarus in the early 20th century and during the Second World War |
Occupation: | historian |
Awards: | Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal (2018) |
Jerzy Turonek (Belarusian: Юры Туронак|translit=Yury Turonak;[1] 26 April 1929 – 2 January 2019) was a Polish-Belarusian historian. He was born in Dūkštas into the family of West Belarusian political activist in the Second Polish Republic's Wilno Voivodeship.
After World War II, Turonek graduated from the Higher School for Planning and Statistics in Warsaw in 1952, and later worked for the Polish foreign trade chamber where he was analysing the international chemicals market and worked at the European economic commission in Geneva.
In the early 1960s, Turonek began researching the Belarusian national movement of the early 20th century, Polish-Belarusian relations in the 20th century, and the history of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1986, he became a Doctor of History. Turonek is the author of monograph Białoruś pod okupacją niemiecką (Belarus under the German occupation) published in 1993 by Książka i Wiedza.[2] Copies of his monograph shipped to Belarus for distribution were confiscated by the KGB, the Belarusian security service.[3]