Jurka Listapad Explained

Jurka Listapad
Native Name:Юрка Лістапад
Birth Date:7 April 1897
Birth Place:the village of Varkavičy (nowadays Slutsk District, Minsk Region, Belarus).
Death Date:5 July 1938 (aged 41)
Death Place:Gulag
Death Cause:Executed (posthumously exonerated)
Alma Mater:Teachers College of Panevėžys
Occupation:teacher, publicist
Movement:Belarusian independence movement and anti-Soviet resistance

Jurka Listapad (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 years

Listapad 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” (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" (The Fern Flower).[2]

Anti-Soviet Resistance and persecution

In 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.

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.

Death sentence and posthumous exoneration

In March 1938 Listapad was sentenced to death for “anti-Soviet propaganda”. He was posthumously exonerated during the Khrushchev Thaw in 1956.

Works

References

  1. Web site: Юрка Лістапад – Рада Беларускай Народнай Рэспублікі. 29 August 2017 . Jurka Listapad - the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. 2021-06-08. be.
  2. Ул. Ляхоўскі, Ул. Міхнюк, А. Гесь. Слуцкі збройны чын 1920 г. у дакумэнтах і ўспамінах [Ul. Liachoŭski, Ul. Michniuk, A. Hieś. ''The [[Slutsk uprising]] of 1920 in documents and memoirs] - 2-ое выд. дапрац. - Менск: Энцыклапедыкс, 2006. С. 289—290. - ISBN 985-6599-25-3 (In Belarusian)
  3. Арлоў, Уладзімер (2020). ІМЁНЫ СВАБОДЫ (Бібліятэка Свабоды. ХХІ стагодзьдзе.) [''[[Uładzimir Arłou]]. The Names of Freedom (The Library of Freedom. ХХІ century).] (PDF) (in Belarusian) (4-е выд., дап. ed.). Радыё Свабодная Эўропа / Радыё Свабода - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. pp. 178–179.
  4. Слуцкі паўстанец. Працэс «Лістападаўцаў». [''A rebel of Slucak.'' Listapadaŭcy's Process] // Беларускае слова : газэта. — 1926, 31 сакавіка. — № 8. — С. 2.(In Belarusian)