Soviet repression in Belarus ( be, Савецкія рэпрэсіі ў Беларусі) refers to cases of persecution of people in Belarus under Soviet rule.

Number of victims

According to researchers, the exact number of people who became victims of Soviet repression in Belarus is hard to determine because the archives of the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

in Belarus remain inaccessible to historians. ow doctors were exterminated in the BSSR– interview with Leanid Marakou, Belarus' top historian of Soviet repressions According to incomplete estimates, approximately 600,000 people fell victim to Soviet repression in Belarus between the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

in 1917 and the

death of Joseph Stalin Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

in 1953.В. Ф. Кушнер. Грамадска-палітычнае жыццё ў БССР у 1920–1930–я гг. // Гісторыя Беларусі (у кантэксьце сусьветных цывілізацыяў) С. 370. Other estimates rise the number to more than 1.4 million people, with 250,000 sentenced by the judiciary or executed by extrajudicial bodies (''dvoikas'', '' troikas'', and special commissions of the OGPU,

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

, and MGB). 358,686 people believed to be victims of Soviet repression were sentenced to death in Belarus between 1917 and 1953, according to historian Vasil Kushner. Overall, around 200,000 victims of Soviet political repression were rehabilitated in Belarus between 1954 and 2000.

Effects

Science

According to Kushner, in the 1930s, only 26 Belarusian academicians and 6 correspondent members of the Belarusian Science Academy were unaffected by repressions. Of 139 PhD students (aspirants) in Belarus as of 1934, only six people escaped execution during the repressions. According to Kushner, the Soviet repressions virtually stopped any

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

research in Belarus. According to the Belarusian-Swedish historian

Andrej Kotljarchuk Andrej Kotljarchuk (born 1968, Soviet Union) is a Swedish historian of Belarusian descent. His research focuses on ethnic minorities and role of experts’ communities, mass violence and the politics of memory. Kotljarchuk holds a PhD degree in ...

, in the 1930s the Soviets either physically exterminated or banned from further research 32 historians from

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

with their works being also excluded from libraries. According to Kotljarchuk, the Soviet authorities thereby physically destroyed the Belarusian school of history studies of that time.

Literature

According to historian Leanid Marakoŭ, of approximately 540–570 writers who had been published in Belarus in the 1920s and 1930s, not less than 440–460 (80%) became victims of Soviet repression. This number includes Todar Klaštorny,

Andrej Mryj Andrey, Andrej or Andrei (in Cyrillic script: Андрей, Андреј or Андрэй) is a form of Andreas/ Ἀνδρέας in Slavic languages and Romanian. People with the name include: *Andrei of Polotsk ( – 1399), Lithuanian nobleman *A ...

and many others. Including those forced to leave Belarus, no less than 500 (90%) of published Belarusian writers fell victim to the repressions, a quarter of the total number of writers persecuted by the state at this time in the entire

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. At the same time, according to Marakoŭ, in Ukraine only 35% to 40% of writers have been victims of repressions, in Russia, the number is below 15%.

Medicine

A total of 1520 Belarusian medical specialists have become victims of repressions, this includes about 500 doctors, over 200 nurses, almost 600 veterinarians, several hundreds of family members that have been sentenced within the same legal cases.…А медсястра ў вар’ятку ператварылася
// Наша Ніва, 13 верасьня 2010

Notable victims

* Źmicier Žyłunovič, poet, writer and journalist, the first leader of the

Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia or Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus (SSRB; be, Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка Беларусь, Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika Biełaruś; russian: � ...

, arrested during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

and committed suicide in prison in 1937 *

Branisłaŭ Taraškievič Branislaw Adamavich Tarashkyevich, russian: Бронисла́в Ада́мович Тарашке́вич, lt, Bronislavas Taraškevičius, pl, Bronisław Adamowicz Taraszkiewicz (20 January 1892 – 29 November 1938) was a Belarusian public fi ...

, linguist, translator and

West Belarus Western Belorussia or Western Belarus ( be, Заходняя Беларусь, translit=Zachodniaja Bielaruś; pl, Zachodnia Białoruś; russian: Западная Белоруссия, translit=Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of mod ...

ian politician, executed in 1938 * Vacłaŭ Łastoŭski, literature historian, member of the Belarusian Science Academy, former prime minister of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, executed in 1938 * Fabijan Abrantovič, prominent religious and civic leader, died from torture in the

Butyrka prison Butyrskaya prison ( rus, Бутырская тюрьма, r= Butýrskaya tyurmá), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it ...

in 1946 *

Adam Stankievič Adam Stankievič ( be, Адам Станкевіч, pl, Adam Stankiewicz, January 6, 1882 – November 29, 1949) was a Belarusian Roman Catholic priest, politician and writer. Stankievič was one of ideologists of the Belarusian Christian democr ...

, Roman Catholic priest, Christian democratic politician in West Belarus, died in a concentration camp in 1949 *

Jurka Listapad 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 ...

, Belarusian publicist and participant in the Belarusian independence movement and anti-Soviet resistance

Modern commemoration

In the late 1980s the influential pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus (the

Belarusian Popular Front The Belarusian Popular Front "Revival" (BPF, be, Беларускі Народны Фронт "Адраджэньне", БНФ; ''Biełaruski Narodny Front "Adradžeńnie"'', ''BNF'') was a social and political movement in Belarus in the late 1 ...

) has been largely inspired by the Perestroika and by the findings of graves on the former Soviet execution site in Kurapaty near Minsk. Unlike in neighbouring countries, the authorities of the Republic of Belarus under president

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лукашенко, Aleksandr Grigoryevich Luk ...

give only limited access to state archives related to Stalinist repressions and do not commemorate the victims of Communism on a governmental level. The democratic opposition close to the Conservative Christian Party, the revived

Belarusian Christian Democracy The Belarusian Christian Democracy ( be, Беларуская хрысьціянская дэмакратыя, Bielaruskaja chryścijanskaja demakratyja; russian: Белорусская христианская демократия, Belorusskaya ...

and Partyja BNF commemorate the victims of the Soviet regime on 29 and 30 October, the day of a mass execution of Belarusian writers in 1937, and on the traditional ancestors commemoration day (

Dziady Dziady ( Belarusian: , Russian: , Ukrainian: , pl, Dziady; lit. "grandfathers, eldfathers", sometimes translated as Forefathers' Eve) is a term in Slavic folklore for the spirits of the ancestors and a collection of pre-Christian rites, ritual ...

) in early November. In 2014 a website for the

Virtual Museum of Soviet Repression in Belarus The Virtual Museum of Soviet Repression in Belarus ( be, Віртуальны музей савецкіх рэпрэсій у Беларусі) is a non-commercial project of oral history from historians and other scientists from Belarus. Created ...

was created.{{cite web , url = http://www.racyja.com/palityka/stvorany-internet-muzej-pra-akhvyarau-r/ , title = Radio Racyja – Internet museum about repressions victims created (in Belarusian) , date = 29 October 2014 , accessdate = 24 May 2015

References

Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Political and cultural purges Political repression in the Soviet Union NKVD