Night of Executed Poets program announced

October 25, Pozirk. Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja’s office has unveiled this year’s program to commemorate the victims of the October 1937 massacre.

Memorial ceremonies, theater performances, poetry readings and other events will be held in Lithuania, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and seven other countries between October 25–29.

The night of October 29–30 was one of the darkest chapters of Belarusian history in the 20th century. The Soviet interior ministry NKVD shot more than 100 Belarusian intellectuals and officials.

Among them were 22 poets and writers, such as Michaś Čarot, Aleś Dudar, Michaś Zarecki, Płaton Hałavač, Todar Klaštorny, Jurka Lavonny, Valeryj Marakoŭ, Majsiej Kulbyk, Isak Charyk, Vasil Stašeŭski, Janka Niomanski, Załman Pivavaraŭ, Vasil Kaval and others.

They were executed at the NKVD prison in Minsk (today’s KGB Detention Center, the so-called Amerykanka) and in the cellars of the Piščała Castle (later known as Detention Center No 1 or “Vaładarka”).

Also read: European diplomats commemorate “countless lives and immeasurable talent” at Kurapaty memorial