Piotra Sych

Who was Piotra Sych?

Piotra Sych, a Belarusian writer and journalist, born in Baturyna, Western Belarus, near Vileyka.

He started his journalistic career in Wilno in 1930's, initially writing for the Polish language newspapers, and studying philosophy at the Wilno University. In 1939 he was drafted for the Polish army, then arrested by the Soviets, spent some time in a jail in Polatsk, eventually sentenced to 10 years and sent away to Komi. As a citizen of Poland, he was released under the terms of Sikorski-Mayski Agreement and travelled to Samarkand in September 1941. There he joined the Polish Army in the East, being formed under command of General Władysław Anders, just like hundreds of other Belarusians from Western Belarus. He spent the rest of the war fighting in General Anders' Polish II Corps. He was wounded four times, and was a participant of the famous Battle of Monte Cassino.

After the war he spent some time in England before moving to Munich, Germany in 1951 where he started publishing a magazine in Belarusian. In 1954 he became one of the first employees of the newly opened Belarus Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He wrote the script of the stations' first radio programme in Belarusian language and was aired on May 20, 1954. The piece; "Azimuth of the Heart" was an exhortation and greeting to Belarusian people under Soviet rule "from the compatriots in the free world."