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 Slutsky Uyezd (; ) was one of the uyezds of Minsk Governorate and the Governorate-General of Minsk of the Russian Empire and then of Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic with its center in Slutsk from 1793 until its formal abolition in 1924 by S ...

Minsk Governorate Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered th ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(nowadays Slutsk District, Minsk Region of Belarus). In 1914 he graduated from a teachers college in

Panevėžys Panevėžys () is the fifth-largest List of cities in Lithuania, city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, eighth-most-populous city in the Baltic States. it occupies with 89,100 inhabitants. As defined by Eu ...

and returned to his native

Slutsk Slutsk is a town in Minsk Region, in central Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slutsk District, and is located on the Sluch (Belarus), Sluch River south of the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 59,450. Geography ...

. After a spell as a teacher, Listapad moved to

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

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).Ул. Ляхоўскі, Ул. Міхнюк, А. Гесь.
Слуцкі збройны чын 1920 г. у дакумэнтах і ўспамінах
' l. Liachoŭski, Ul. Michniuk, A. Hieś. ''The Slutsk uprising of 1920 in documents and memoirs''">Slutsk_uprising.html" ;"title="l. Liachoŭski, Ul. Michniuk, A. Hieś. ''The Slutsk uprising">l. 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)

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. He was arrested in 1925 and sentenced to five years in prison.''Слуцкі паўстанец.'' Працэс «Лістападаўцаў». 'A rebel of Slucak.'' Listapadaŭcy's Process// ''Беларускае слова'' : газэта. — 1926, 31 сакавіка. — № 8. — С. 2.(In Belarusian) 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 The Khrushchev Thaw (, or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when Political repression in the Soviet Union, repression and Censorship in ...

in 1956.

Works

* Слуцкае вясельле (The Slutsk Wedding) // Беларусь, 1920, No. 108—110 * Узьбіліся на свой шлях (Whipped up in our Way) // Наша думка (Вільня), 1921, No. 9—10

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Listapad, Jurka 1897 births 1938 deaths People from Slutsk district People from Slutsky Uyezd Belarusian independence movement Belarusian male writers Belarusian Gulag detainees Great Purge victims from Belarus Soviet rehabilitations