Usievalad Makaravich Ihnatoŭski (; ; 19 April 1881 — 4 February 1931) was a

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian politician, scholar and the first president of the

National Academy of Sciences of Belarus The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB; ; , , ) is the national academy of Belarus. History Inbelkult - predecessor to the Academy The Academy has its origins in the Institute of Belarusian Culture (Inbelkult), a Belarusian acade ...

Early years

Ihnatoŭski, the son of a teacher, was born in the village of Takary, Hrodna governorate of the Russian Empire (now Kamianiec district of Brest region in Belarus).Маракоў, Леанід.
Рэпрэсаваныя літаратары, навукоўцы, работнікі асветы, грамадскія і культурныя дзеячы Беларусі. 1794-1991: Усевалад Ігнатоўскі
epressed writers, scientists, educators, public and cultural figures of Belarus. 1794-1991: Usievalad Ihatoŭski, by Leanid Marakou">Leanid Marakou">epressed writers, scientists, educators, public and cultural figures of Belarus. 1794-1991: Usievalad Ihatoŭski, by Leanid Marakou ''www.marakou.by'' (in Belarusian). Retrieved 2021-07-30. After finishing local schools, he studied history and philology at St. Petersburg University, but was expelled for revolutionary activities and was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party from 1901. He spent some time in various prisons and in exile in the North of Russia but ultimately graduated from Dorpat (University of Tartu, Tartu) University in 1911. In 1912-14 he worked as a teacher in Vilnia and in 1914 became a teacher at the Minsk Teachers' Institute.

Involvement in the Belarusian independence movement

Ihnatoŭski established close ties with various Belarusian activists and became actively involved in the Belarusian independence movement during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1915 he created the cultural and educational organisation "Our Homeland" () which in 1917 became the socialist revolutionary organisation "Young Belarus" (). In 1917 he became a member of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Socialist Assembly (Hramada) and in 1918 - the Central Committee of the . He was one of the proponents and "fathers" of Soviet Belarus who took part in the signing of the "Declaration of Independence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus".

Career in Soviet Belarus

Ihnatoŭski joined the Communist Party in 1920 and held numerous important party and government posts in Soviet Belarus. He actively participated in the implementation of the policy of Belarusisation in the 1920s and significantly influenced it. He also played a significant role in the . He became professor at the Belarusian State University in 1921. In 1926 he became the chairman of the Institute of Belarusian Culture and in 1929 the first President of the

Academic work

Ihnatoŭski authored over 30 academic works, the best known of which is ''A Short Outline of the History of Belarus'' (1919) - which became the standard textbook for nearly a decade in Soviet Belarus and formed the basis of the concept of the national history of Belarus.Арлоў, Уладзімер (2020).
ІМЁНЫ СВАБОДЫ (Бібліятэка Свабоды. ХХІ стагодзьдзе.)
' 'Uładzimir Arłou. The Names of Freedom (The Library of Freedom. ХХІ century.)''">Uładzimir_Arłou.html" ;"title="'Uładzimir Arłou">'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. 132–133. He is also known as the author of the first Belarusian study of the January Uprising of 1863-1864 - the monograph "The year of 1863 in Belarus: an account of events" (1930).

Persecution and death

When the Soviets began their campaign against the so-called ''Belarusian National Democrats'' in 1929, Ihnatoŭski came under strong attack for his convictions and efforts to maintain the independent development of Belarusian research and keep his close ties with the Belarusian national leadership of the revolutionary years. In December 1930, he was removed as President of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the following month expelled from the Communist Party as "a leader of the national-democratic counterrevolution." He was called for questioning at the State Political Directorate (GPU) in connection with the Case of the Union of Liberation of Belarus and after one such interrogation committed suicide on 4 February 1931. An alternative version of events is that he was shot dead by GPU officers in his house. Ihnatoŭski was buried in the Minsk Military Cemetery the following morning, secretly from friends and colleagues. His family was also persecuted by the Soviet authorities in 1937 “as family members of a traitor”. His wife was sentenced to eight years in the Gulag prison camps and his two sons were executed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ihnatoŭski, Usevalad 1881 births 1931 deaths People from Kamyenyets district Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution People from Brestsky Uyezd Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians Belarusian Socialist Assembly politicians Communist Party of Byelorussia politicians People's commissars and ministers of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia people Belarusian independence movement 20th-century Belarusian historians Belarusian revolutionaries Soviet historians Belarusian male non-fiction writers University of Tartu alumni Academicians of the Byelorussian SSR Academy of Sciences Case of the Union of Liberation of Belarus