Branislaw Tarashkyevich

Who was Branislaw Tarashkyevich?

Branislaw Adamavich Tarashkyevich was a Belarusian public figure, politician, and linguist.

He was the creator of the first standardization of the modern Belarusian language in the early 20th century. The standard was later Russified by the Soviet authorities. However, the pre-Russified version of the standard was and still is actively being used by some groups of intellectuals and the Belarusian diaspora and is informally referred to as Taraškievica, named after Branislaw Tarashkyevich.

Tarashkyevich was a member of the underground Communist Party of West Belarus in Poland and was imprisoned for two years. Also, as a member of the Belarusian Deputy Club, he was a deputy to the Polish Parliament in 1922–1927. Among others, he translated Pan Tadeusz into Belarusian, and in 1969 a Belarusian-language high school in Bielsk Podlaski was named after him.

In 1933 he was set free due to a Polish–Soviet prisoner release in exchange of Frantsishak Alyakhnovich, a Belarusian journalist and playwright imprisoned in a GULAG, and lived in Soviet exile since then.