Over 100 representatives of Belarusian intellectual elite - writers, scholars, state figures - were executed by shooting in the underground cells of the security police's jail in Minsk in the night of October 30, 1937.
The executions were timed to mark the Day of Komsomol (Communist Union of Youth). The list of victims included 22 literary men - Ales Dudar, Valery Marakou, Mikhas Charot, Platon Halavach, Mikhas Zaretski, Yanka Nyomanski, Yuli Taubin, Anatol Volny, Vasil Kaval, Macey Kulbak, Yurka Liavonny and others.
Also killed were BSSR Commissioners of Education and Justice Aliaksandr Charnushevich and Maksim Lyaukou, BSU rector Ananiy Dzyakau, professor of Vitsebsk Veterenary Institute Yakau Sandamirski, head of BSSR Commission for Education Vadzim Bashkevich, chairman of BSSR Trade Unions' Central Committee Zakhar Kavalchuk, BSSR deputy commissioner of Soviet farms Leanid Lashkevich, BSU student Salamon Lyampert and many others. The executions continued next night when over 30 people were killed. Over 600 public and culture figures of Belarus were repressed during the three autumn months of 1937.
Memorial events are being organized today to mark this sad anniversary.
An online database was created to help search the repressed relatives. The database authors began to collect audio and video interviews with the victims of the Soviet rule, copy documents and photos in 2007.
