Jurka Listapad (, full name Ю́рый Іва́навіч Лістапа́д); 7 April 1897 - 5 July 1938) was an active participant in the Belarusian independence movement and anti-Soviet resistance, publicist and a victim of Stalin's purges of 1937-38.
Early years Listapad was born on 7 April 1897 into a farming family in the village of Varkavičy, Slutsky Uyezd, Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (nowadays Slutsk District, Minsk Region of Belarus).
In 1914 he graduated from a teachers college in Panevėžys and returned to his native Slutsk.
After a spell as a teacher, Listapad moved to Minsk and worked in publishing. He also started writing as well as translating. His work “Sluckaje viasieĺlie” (, The Slutsk Wedding) was published in 1920. He was an active member of several Belarusian pro-independence organisations, such as the National Committee and “Paparać-kvietka" (, The Fern Flower).Ул. Ляхоўскі, Ул. Міхнюк, А. Гесь. Слуцкі збройны чын 1920 г. у дакумэнтах і ўспамінах [Ul. Liachoŭski, Ul. Michniuk, A. Hieś. The Slutsk uprising of 1920 in documents and memoirs] - 2-ое выд. дапрац. - Менск: Энцыклапедыкс, 2006. С. 289—290. - ISBN 985-6599-25-3 (In Belarusian)
Anti-Soviet Resistance and persecution In 1920 Listapad was elected to the Belarusian Rada (Council) of Slutsk and participated in the Slutsk uprising, an anti-Bolshevik pro-independence military campaign in central Belarus.
Following the defeat of the uprising, he briefly lived in exile in the Second Polish Republic but returned to Slutsk in 1922 and established an underground anti-Soviet organisation.Арлоў, Уладзімер (2020). ІМЁНЫ СВАБОДЫ (Бібліятэка Свабоды. ХХІ стагодзьдзе.) [Uładzimir Arłou. The Names of Freedom (The Library of Freedom. ХХІ century).] (PDF) (in Belarusian) (4-е выд., дап. ed.). Радыё Свабодная Эўропа / Радыё Свабода - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. pp. 178–179.
He was arrested in 1925 and sentenced to five years in prison.Слуцкі паўстанец. Працэс «Лістападаўцаў». [A rebel of Slucak. Listapadaŭcy's Process] // Беларускае слова : газэта. — 1926, 31 сакавіка. — № 8. — С. 2.(In Belarusian) He was re-arrested in 1930 and then again in 1933 after which he was sent to the Gulag.
Death sentence and posthumous exoneration In March 1938 Listapad was sentenced to death for “anti-Soviet propaganda”. He was posthumously exonerated during the Khrushchev Thaw in 1956.
Works
Слуцкае вясельле (The Slutsk Wedding) // Беларусь, 1920, No. 108—110 Узьбіліся на свой шлях (Whipped up in our Way) // Наша думка (Вільня), 1921, No. 9—10
References