Vacłaŭ Ivanoŭski
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Vacłaŭ Leanardavič Ivanoŭski (, also known as Vatslaw Ivanowski or Wacław Iwanowski; 25 May 1880 – 7 December 1943) was a Belarusian political and public figure of the first half of the 20th century.


Early years

Ivanoŭski was born into an upper middle class family on the Liabiodka estate in the Vilnius Governorate of the Russian Empire (now within the village of Halavičpolie, in Belarus' Grodno Region). One of his brothers was
Tadas Ivanauskas Tadas Ivanauskas (December 16, 1882 – June 1, 1970) was a Lithuanian zoologist and biologist, and one of the founders of Vytautas Magnus University. Biography He was born in Lebiodka Manor (today in Belarus) as a third child of Leonard Iwanows ...
. In 1898 he graduated from the 5th Warsaw Gymnasium and entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology in the Department of Chemistry, which he finished in 1904. He went on to study abroad in Denmark and Germany. In 1909 he received a doctorate from the Technical University of Munich. On return to the Russian Empire in 1910, he embarked upon a career in the area of microbiology and worked at the Ministry of Agriculture in St. Petersburg and the Vilnius Society of Agriculture.


Involvement in the Belarusian independence movement

Apart from his career as a scientist, Ivanoŭski became actively involved with the fledgling Belarusian independence movement. While a student in St Petersburg, he became a founder of the Belarusian Revolutionary Party, headed the Society of Belarusian Public Education and Culture and was a member of the Central Committee of the
Belarusian Socialist Assembly The Belarusian Socialist Assembly, BSA (, BSH) was a revolutionary party in the Belarusian territory of the Russian Empire. It was established in 1902 as the Belarusian Revolutionary Party, renamed in 1903.''Belarus: A Denationalized Nation'', by ...
. He was engaged in publishing, setting up several Belarusian publishing houses, edited the first primer of the modern
Belarusian language Belarusian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language. It is one of the two Languages of Belarus, official languages in Belarus, the other being Russian language, Russian. It is also spoken in parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Polan ...
and collaborated with the first Belarusian newspapers "Nasha Dolya" and "
Nasha Niva ''Nasha Niva'' (, lit. "Our field") is one of the oldest Belarusian weekly newspapers, founded in 1906 and re-established in 1991. ''Nasha Niva'' became a cultural symbol, due to the newspaper's importance as a publisher of Belarusian literature ...
". In 1917 Ivanoŭski participated in the
First All-Belarusian Congress The First All-Belarusian Congress () was a congress of Belarusian political organisations and groups held in Minsk in December 1917. The congress gathered 1872 delegates from all regions of Belarus and was violently dispersed by the Bolshevik mil ...
in Minsk and a year later became the Minister of Education in the Government of the
Belarusian Democratic Republic The Belarusian People's Republic (BNR; , ), also known as the Belarusian Democratic Republic, was a state proclaimed by the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in its Second Constituent Charter on 9 March 1918 during World War I. The ...
. In February and March 1920, as a representative of the
Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic The Rada of the Belarusian People's Republic (, ) was the governing body of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. Since 1919, the Rada BNR has been in exile where it has preserved its existence among the Belarusian diaspora as an advocacy group ...
, he participated in the Belarusian-Polish negotiations, sought to prevent the partition of Belarus between Poland and Soviet Russia and advocated the creation of a federation of Poland and Belarus.


Later life

Between 1922 and 1939 Ivanoŭski was a professor at the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute. After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in the autumn of 1939 he moved to Vilnia and taught at the local university. In the first months of the German occupation of Belarus, he 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 ...
where he headed the Belarusian National Committee and in 1942 was appointed mayor by the German authorities - in which role "he did much to save people from German repression". In June 1943 German governor
Wilhelm Kube Wilhelm Kube (13 November 1887 – 22 September 1943) was a German Nazi politician and official who served as the '' Generalkommissar'' of '' Generalbezirk Weißruthenien'' in the ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' from 1941 to 1943. Kube was invol ...
set up a Council of Elders led by Ivanoŭski. Ivanoŭski's wife Sabina and daughter Anna are awarded the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" for rescuing two Jewish women, Ivanoŭski's friends, in 1941 during the Nazi occupation.


Death and burial

On 6 December 1943, Ivanoŭski was mortally wounded by unknown gunmen and died the following day. The identity of his assassins has never been definitively established. He is buried in the Kalvaryja cemetery in Minsk, where in December 2006 a monument to Ivanoŭski was unveiled.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanoŭski, Vaclaŭ 1880 births 1943 deaths Assassinated Belarusian people Belarusian collaborators with Nazi Germany Belarusian independence movement Belarusian nobility Deaths by firearm in Belarus Mayors of Minsk Members of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic