The Most Famous
SOCIAL ACTIVISTS from Belarus
This page contains a list of the greatest Belarusian Social Activists. The pantheon dataset contains 840 Social Activists, 6 of which were born in Belarus. This makes Belarus the birth place of the 23rd most number of Social Activists behind North Korea, and Philippines.
Top 8
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Belarusian Social Activists of all time. This list of famous Belarusian Social Activists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Alexander Parvus (1867 - 1924)
With an HPI of 62.43, Alexander Parvus is the most famous Belarusian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages on wikipedia.
Alexander Lvovich Parvus, born Israel Lazarevich Gelfand (8 September 1867 – 12 December 1924) and sometimes called Helphand in the literature on the Russian Revolution, was a Marxist theoretician, publicist, and controversial activist in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Israel Lazarevich Gelfand was born to a Lithuanian Jewish family on 8 September 1867 in the shtetl of Berazino in the Russian Empire, (in present-day Belarus). Although little is known of Israel's early childhood, the Gelfand family belonged to the lower-middle class, with his father working as an artisan of some sort — perhaps as a locksmith or as a blacksmith. When Israel was a small boy, a fire damaged the family's home in Berazino, prompting a move to the city of Odessa, Russian Empire, (present-day Ukraine), the hometown of Israel's paternal grandfather. Gelfand attended gymnasium in Odessa and received private tutoring in the humanities. He also read widely on his own, including material by the iconic Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, the journalist Nikolai Mikhailovsky, and the political satirist Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, which led the young Gelfand to begin to question the legitimacy of the Tsarist Empire. In 1886, the 19-year-old Gelfand first travelled from Russia to Basel, Switzerland. It was there that Gelfand was first exposed to the writings of Alexander Herzen as well as the revolutionary literature of the day. He returned to Russia briefly the following year but he became the subject of official scrutiny by the tsarist secret police and was forced to leave the country again for his safety. He would remain abroad for more than a decade. Returning to Switzerland, in the autumn of 1888 Gelfand enrolled at the University of Basel, where he studied political economy. Gelfand would remain at the university for the next three years, graduating with a doctorate degree in July 1891. Gelfand's professors were largely hostile to his Marxist approach to economics, however, and difficulty in his oral examination resulted in a rider being attached to the degree which rendered it the equivalent of a third class degree. Gelfand chose not to pursue an academic career but rather sought to begin a political career which would both provide him financial support and serve the cause of socialism. Alienated from the backwardness of agrarian Russia and the limited political horizons there, Gelfand moved to Dresden, in Germany, joined the Social Democratic Party and took over the editorship of the socialist newspaper Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung. He enlisted the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg as a contributor. From 28 January to 6 March 1898, Parvus used his newspaper to run a series of polemical articles attacking the German Marxist Eduard Bernstein, who had queried Marx's prediction that the collapse of capitalism was inevitable, and advocated a non-violent reforms as the route to socialism. Giving his series the title 'Bernstein's Overthrow of Socialism', he attacked Bernstein in personal terms, as someone who had deserted Marxism. He was in a minority within the SDP, most of whose leaders were shocked by his intemperate language, but he was backed by Rosa Luxemburg, and the leading Russian Marxist, Georgi Plekhanov. On 25 September 1898, Parvus and his assistant editor, Julian Marchlewski were expelled from Saxony, and settled in Munich, handing control of Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung to Rosa Luxemburg. In Munich, he founded the publishing house that introduced the work of Maxim Gorky to Germany. In 1900, Parvus met Vladimir Lenin for the first time, in Munich, each admiring the other's theoretical works. Parvus encouraged Lenin to begin publishing his revolutionary paper Iskra. Parvus' attempts to become a German citizen proved fruitless. He once commented in a letter to his German friend Wilhelm Liebknecht that "I am seeking a government where one can inexpensively acquire a fatherland." After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Parvus wrote a series of articles for Iskra, beginning in February 1904, in which he forecast the decline of the nation state as capitalist competition made states more interdependent, that there would be a series of wars as states fought, and that there would be a political upheaval in Russia that would 'shake the bourgeois world.' for survival. Shortly after Bloody Sunday, when troops fired on a peaceful crowd in Saint Petersburg, setting off the 1905 Russian Revolution, the young Leon Trotsky came with his wife to stay at Parvus's home in Munich, and showed him the manuscript of a pamphlet, to which Parvus added a preface, in which Trotsky developed Parvus's ideas, adding the possibility that revolution in Russia could bring a "workers' government" to power, contrary to the standard Marxist view that Russia would need to go through a phase after the overthrow of the monarchy in which was exercised by a government controlled by the Bourgeoisie. This was known as the theory of Permanent Revolution. Trotsky later acknowledged Parvus's influence over him. He wrote: Parvus was unquestionably one of the most important of the Marxists at the turn of the century. He used the Marxian methods skilfully, was possessed of a wide vision, and kept a keen eye on everything of importance in world events. This, coupled with his fearless thinking and his virile muscular style, made him a remarkable writer. ... And yet there was always something made and unreliable about Parvus. In addition to all his other ambitions, this revolutionary was torn by an amazing desire to get rich. There were broad discussions on the questions of "permanent revolution" within the social democratic movement in the period leading up to 1917. In October 1905, Parvus returned to St Petersburg, where he helped Trotsky take control of the daily paper, Russkaya Gazeta, and cofounded with Trotsky and Julius Martov the daily Nachalo (The Start). Arrested in April 1906, he was visited by Rosa Luxemburg in the Peter and Paul Fortress Sentenced to three years' exile in Siberia, Parvus escaped and emigrated to Germany, where he published a book about his experiences called In the Russian Bastille during the Revolution. Before he left for Russia, Parvus struck a deal with Maxim Gorky to produce his play The Lower Depths. According to the agreement, the majority of the play's proceeds were to go to the Russian Social Democratic Party (and approximately 25% to Gorky himself). Parvus' failure to pay (despite the fact that the play had over 500 showings) caused him to be accused of stealing 130,000 German gold marks. Gorky threatened to sue, but Rosa Luxemburg convinced Gorky to keep the quarrel inside the party's own court. Eventually, Parvus paid back Gorky, but his reputation in party circles was damaged. Soon afterwards Parvus moved to Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, where he lived for five years. There he set up an arms trading company which profited handsomely during the Balkan War. He became the financial and political advisor of the Young Turks. In 1912 he was made editor of Turk Yurdu, their daily newspaper. He worked closely with the triumvirs known as the Three Pashas—Enver, Talat and Cemal—and Finance Minister Djavid Bey. His firm dealt with the deliveries of foodstuffs for the Ottoman army and he was a business partner of the Krupp concern, of Vickers Limited, and of the famous arms dealer Basil Zaharov. Arms dealings with Vickers Limited at war time gave basis to the theory that Alexander Parvus was also a British intelligence asset. While in Turkey, Parvus became close with German ambassador Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim who was known to be partial to establishing revolutionary fifth columns among the allies. Consequently, Parvus offered his plan via Baron von Wangenheim to the German General Staff: the paralyzing of Russia via general strike, financed by the German government (which, at the time, was at war with Russia and its allies). Von Wangenheim sent Parvus to Berlin where the latter arrived on the 6 March 1915 and presented a 20-page plan titled A preparation of massive political strikes in Russia to the German government. Some accuse Parvus of having funded Lenin while in Switzerland. Other authors, however, are skeptical. Scharlau and Zeman conclude in their biography of Parvus that there was no cooperation between the two, declaring that "Lenin refused the German offer of aid." Parvus's bank account shows that he only paid out a total of 25,600 francs in the period between his arrival in Switzerland in May 1915 and the February Revolution of 1917. Parvus did little in Switzerland, Alfred Erich Senn concludes. Austrian intelligence thought Parvus gave money to Russian emigres' newspapers in Paris. However, in the beginning of 1915 the sources of funding became clearer to Lenin and the other Paris emigrés, whereupon they rejected further support. Harold Shukman concluded, "funds were plainly not flowing into Lenin's hands" Parvus placed his bets on Lenin, as the latter was not only a radical but willing to accept the sponsorship of the Tsar's wartime enemy, Germany. The two met in Bern in May 1915 and agreed to collaboration through their organizations, though Lenin remained very careful never to get associated with Parvus in public. There is no certain proof that they ever met face to face again, although there are indications that such a meeting may well have occurred on 13 April 1917, during Lenin's stop-over in Stockholm. Parvus assiduously worked at keeping Lenin's confidence. However, Lenin kept him at arm's length to disguise the changing roles of both men, Parvus' involvement with German intelligence and his own liaisons with his old ally, who was not respected any more among the socialists after his years in Turkey and after becoming a millionaire entrepreneur. German intelligence set up Parvus' financial network via offshore operations in Copenhagen, setting up relays for German money to get to Russia via fake financial transactions between front organizations. A large part of the transactions of these companies were genuine, but those served to bury the transfer of money to the Bolsheviks, a strategy made feasible by the weak and overburdened fiscal and customs offices in Scandinavia, which were inadequate for the booming black market in these countries during the war. It is still debated whether the money with which this financial network operated was actually of German origin. The evidence published by Alexander Kerensky's Government in preparation for a trial scheduled for October (November) 1917 was recently reexamined and found to be either inconclusive or outright forgery. (See also Sisson Documents) Leon Trotsky responded to allegations that Lenin had colluded with Parvus or German intelligence in his return to St Petersburg in his History of the Russian Revolution. Parvus died in Berlin on 12 December 1924. His body was cremated and interred in a Berlin cemetery. After his death, Konrad Haenisch wrote in his memoir: "This man possessed the ablest brains of the Second International". During his lifetime, Alexander Parvus' reputation among his revolutionary peers suffered as a result of the Maxim Gorky affair (see above) and the fact that he was in effect a German government agent. At the same time both his business skills and revolutionary ideas were appreciated and relied upon by Russian and German revolutionaries and Ottoman's Young Turks. After the October Revolution in Russia for obvious political reasons his role was denied and he himself vilified. This continued during Joseph Stalin's era and sometimes had anti-semitic overtones to it. In Germany however he was considered favorably. His name is often used in modern political debates in Russia. Parvus left no documents after his death and all of his savings disappeared. He was married at least three times. In 1906, Rosa Luxemburg wrote Karl Kautsky saying: "Wife number three is here in St Petersburg" - just after his second wife had fled an anti-semitic Pogrom in Odessa, and had arrived in Warsaw, destitute. One of his wives, Tatiana Berman, was born in Odessa in 1868 and died there in 1917, aged 49. Their son, Yevgeny (Gnedin), was born in Dresden in 1898. Although the Soviet authorities refused to allow Parvus to return to Russia, both his surviving sons, Yevgeny Gnedin and Leon Helfand, were allowed to settle in the USSR, and became Soviet diplomats. Yevgeny Gnedin was head of the press department at the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, at the time of his arrest on 11 May 1939, which coincided with the dismissal of the foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov. He refused to confess, despite being tortured by the police chief, Lavrentiy Beria and his deputy, Bogdan Kobulov. He survived years in the Gulag, and wrote memoirs "Catastrophe and Rebirth" and in "Exit from the Labyrinth" describing his experience. He died in 1983. He was portrayed by English actor Michael Gough in the 1974 BBC mini-series Fall of Eagles, covering the history of the pre-World War I period. Günter Lamprecht played the title role in the West German TV film Ein Mann namens Parvus (1984). In 1988 Parvus was portrayed by English actor Timothy West in the film Lenin...The Train. A fictionalized version of him as a German Zionist mastermind behind the new world order is portrayed by the Armenian Actor Kevork Malikyan in the 2017 Turkish TV series Payitaht: Abdülhamid about the struggles and intelligence of the Ottoman Sultan in keeping the declining empire together. Yakov Ganetsky Karaömerlıoğlu, M. Asim (November 2004). "Helphand-Parvus and His Impact on Turkish Intellectual Life". Middle Eastern Studies. 40 (6): 145–165. doi:10.1080/0026320042000282928. JSTOR 4289957. S2CID 220377996. Pearson, Michael (1975). The Sealed Train: Journey to Revolution, Lenin – 1917. London: Macmillan. Newspaper clippings about Alexander Parvus in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
2. Abba Kovner (1918 - 1987)
With an HPI of 57.61, Abba Kovner is the 2nd most famous Belarusian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
Abba Kovner (Hebrew: אבא קובנר; 14 March 1918 – 25 September 1987) was a Jewish partisan leader, and later Israeli poet and writer. In the Vilna Ghetto, his manifesto was the first time that a target of the Holocaust identified the German plan to murder all Jews. His attempt to organize a ghetto uprising failed. He fled into the forest, joined Soviet partisans, and survived the war. After the war, Kovner led Nakam, a paramilitary organization of Holocaust survivors who sought to take genocidal revenge by murdering six million Germans, but Kovner was arrested in British-occupied Germany before he could successfully carry out his plans. He made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine in 1947, which would become the State of Israel one year later. Considered one of the greatest authors of Modern Hebrew poetry, Kovner was awarded the Israel Prize in 1970.
3. Ignacy Hryniewiecki (1856 - 1881)
With an HPI of 55.50, Ignacy Hryniewiecki is the 3rd most famous Belarusian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Ignacy Hryniewiecki or Ignaty Ioakhimovich Grinevitsky (Russian: Игнатий Гриневицкий, Polish: Ignacy Hryniewiecki, Belarusian: Ігнат Грынявіцкі; c. 1856 — March 13, 1881) was a Polish member of the Russian revolutionary society Narodnaya Volya. He gained notoriety for participating in the bombing attack to which Tsar Alexander II of Russia succumbed. Hryniewiecki threw the bomb that fatally wounded the Tsar and himself. Having outlived his victim by a few hours, he died the same day. Hryniewiecki and his accomplices believed that the assassination of Alexander II could provoke a political or social revolution to overthrow the tsarist autocracy. Many historians consider the assassination a Pyrrhic victory, since instead of ushering in a revolution, it strengthened the resolve of the state to crush the revolutionary movement, leading to the movement's decline in the 1880s and setting Russia on a revitalized path of Tsarist autocracy which resulted in only incremental reforms after the Revolution of 1905 and, eventually, the Russian Revolution in 1917. Hryniewiecki's role in the assassination has sometimes been cited as the earliest occurrence of suicide terrorism.
4. Vasily Ignatenko (1961 - 1986)
With an HPI of 51.99, Vasily Ignatenko is the 4th most famous Belarusian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.
Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko (Ukrainian: Василь Іванович Ігнатенко; Belarusian: Васіль Іванавіч Ігнаценка; Russian: Василий Иванович Игнатенко; 13 March 1961 – 13 May 1986) was a Soviet firefighter who was among the first responders to the Chernobyl disaster. He worked as an electrician before being conscripted into the Soviet Armed Forces in 1980, where he completed his two years of service as a military firefighter. Afterwards, he took up employment as a paramilitary firefighter with Fire Brigade No. 6, which was based out of Pripyat. On 26 April 1986, Ignatenko's fire brigade was involved in mitigating the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster; fighting the fires that broke out following the initial explosion of Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. While on site, Ignatenko received a high dose of radiation, leading to his death at a radiological hospital in Moscow eighteen days later.
5. Tuvia Bielski (1906 - 1987)
With an HPI of 49.51, Tuvia Bielski is the 5th most famous Belarusian Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Tuvia Bielski (May 8, 1906 – June 12, 1987) was a Polish Jewish militant who was leader of the Bielski group, a group of Jewish partisans who set up refugee camps for Jews fleeing the Holocaust during World War II. Their camp was situated in the Naliboki forest, which was part of Poland between World War I and World War II, and which is now in western Belarus.
6. Valery Levaneuski (b. 1963)
With an HPI of 36.50, Valery Levaneuski is the 6th most famous Belarusian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Valery Stanislavovich Levaneuski (Russian: Вале́рий Станисла́вович Левоне́вский, Belarusian: Вале́ры Станісла́вавіч Леване́ўскі, Polish: Walery Lewoniewski) is a Belarusian political and social activist, and former political prisoner. Amnesty International recognizes him as a prisoner of conscience.
7. Roman Protasevich (b. 1995)
With an HPI of 36.29, Roman Protasevich is the 7th most famous Belarusian Social Activist. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.
Roman Dmitriyevich Protasevich or Raman Dzmitryevich Pratasevich (born 5 May 1995) is a Belarusian blogger and political activist. He was the editor-in-chief of the Telegram channel Nexta and chief editor of the Telegram channel "Belarus of the Brain" (Russian: Беларусь головного мозга). Protasevich and Sofia Sapega were arrested by Belarusian authorities after their flight, Ryanair Flight 4978, was diverted to Minsk on the orders of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko on 23 May 2021, because of a false bomb threat passed on by Belarusian air traffic control. On 3 May 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. However, on 22 May, it was announced that Protasevich had been pardoned. Protasevich was born on 5 May 1995 in Minsk, Belarus. He moved to Poland in 2019. Protasevich's father Dmitry is a Belarusian army reserve officer and a lecturer at a Belarusian military academy. He was stripped of his military rank and awards by a personal decree of President Alexander Lukashenko on 6 May 2021. Protasevich's parents moved to join their son in Poland in August 2020. Protasevich was in a relationship with Sofia Sapega, a Russian citizen, who was also detained by Belarusian authorities on 23 May 2021. According to Sapega's mother, she and Protasevich had known each other for about six months prior to their arrests in May 2021. Protasevich's relationship with Sapega eventually ended and Protasevich married another woman in May 2022. Protasevich has been an opposition activist and participated in protests since the early 2010s, when he was detained several times. Since 2011, he has been a member of the Young Front opposition organization. He co-administered a major group in VKontakte, a social network, in opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko until 2012, when it was hacked by the authorities. For a month he took part in the Euromaidan protests. Protasevich studied journalism at Belarusian State University until he was soon expelled in 2018. In 2017, he was accused of participating in an unauthorized event in Kurapaty, but he proved in court that he had an alibi for that day. In an interview, he said he was a reporter for several major Belarusian media for several years. He also worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Belarus channel from 2017 to 2018. He had been a Václav Havel Fellow in Journalism in Prague, co-sponsored by the broadcaster. In March 2019, Protasevich was a photographer for Euroradio.fm at the meeting of prime ministers of Austria (Sebastian Kurz) and Belarus (Sergey Rumas) in Minsk. In addition to taking photos, he made at least one video report for Euroradio about Chechen refugees trying to move to the EU through Belarus. In 2019, Protasevich moved to Poland and on 22 January 2020, announced that he had asked for political asylum there. In 2020, Protasevich ran the Nexta Telegram channel together with its creator Stsiapan Putsila. In August 2020, after Belarusian authorities tried to disable internet access during the 2020 presidential election, Nexta became one of the main sources of information about the protests against alleged rigged elections and started to coordinate the protests. The channel had gotten nearly 800,000 new subscribers within a week. In September 2020 Protasevich left Nexta. On 5 November 2020, Protasevich and Putsila were accused of organizing mass riots (article 293 of the Belarusian criminal code), actions that grossly violate public order (article 342) and incitement of social enmity based on professional affiliation (article 130, part 3). On 19 November, the Belarusian KGB put them on the "list of organizations and individuals involved in terrorist activities" for "mass unrest". On 2 March 2021, Protasevich announced that he had begun working for the "Belarus of the Brain" Telegram channel formerly edited by a detained blogger, Ihar Losik. On 23 May 2021, Ryanair Flight 4978 (Athens–Vilnius), with Protasevich on board, received a false bomb threat and was diverted by Belarusian air traffic control to Minsk National Airport. While in Athens, Protasevich sent messages through Telegram saying he had seen a bald man at the airport following him and taking photographs of him. Minsk airport staff said they landed the plane due to a report of a bomb aboard. Lithuanian airport authorities stated that they had not been informed of a bomb threat. The plane changed course just before it would have entered Lithuanian airspace. According to a witness cited by Reuters, upon hearing of the diversion to Minsk, Protasevich immediately gave some of his luggage to his girlfriend. In Minsk, Protasevich and his girlfriend were arrested at the passport control. No bomb was found aboard. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko's press service announced that he personally ordered the plane redirected to Minsk and sent a Belarusian Air Force MiG-29 fighter aircraft to escort it, however subsequently the International Civil Aviation Organization fact-finding task force determined the MiG-29 was just tasked for communications back-up and did not contact, approach or escort the flight. Shortly after the landing in Minsk, Protasevich was taken away by Belarusian police. A fellow passenger was reported to have heard Protasevich speak of the possibility of facing the death penalty, which exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya warned about the same day. The mass unrest charges against Protasevich could carry a prison sentence of up to fifteen years. He had traveled to Athens to cover a visit by Tsikhanouskaya to the Delphi Economic Forum, an international forum in Greece. On 19 July 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said that the grounding of the flight was illegal and blamed senior Belarusian officials, also condemning Protasevich's arrest, calling the bomb threat "deliberately false". The day after the arrest, Belarusian state television released a video of Protasevich, with dark markings on his forehead, in which he stated that he would confess to organizing "mass unrest" and that he did not have health problems, after unconfirmed reports of a heart condition. Protasevich's father said the video appeared forced and his nose seemed to have been broken, while allies of Protasevich, including exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said the video "is how Roman looks under physical and moral pressure". The Viasna Human Rights Centre and other Belarusian human rights organizations named Protasevich a political prisoner in a joint statement and demanded his immediate release. Amnesty International called for the release of Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, saying "their arrest is arbitrary and unlawful, and its circumstances are nothing short of horrifying". The authorities prevented Protasevich's parents and a hired lawyer Inessa Olenskaya from visiting him and obtaining information about his location and medical condition until 27 May 2021. On 25 May, Olenskaya was not allowed to enter SIZO No.1 prison in Minsk and did not get a call back from the Investigative Committee officers. The Minsk branch of the Investigative Committee delayed the process of signing the charging documents, and the SIZO staff later claimed that they did not have Protasevich. On 27 May 2021, his mother held a press conference, calling for medical help to Protasevich. She said she had no information about his location and complained that she could not send him any things or messages via his lawyer. Olenskaya made a formal complaint to the office of Belarusian Prosecutor-General for being denied access to her client and made a motion for a medical examination of Protasevich. According to Protasevich's grandparents, on 23 May a man visited them, introducing himself as a "Roman's first lawyer" and unsuccessfully asking them to sign a document making him a legal representative of Protasevich. On the evening of 27 May, Olenskaya was allowed to meet with Protasevich, but due to a non-disclosure agreement with authorities, she was not allowed to tell journalists his location or legal status. On 3 June 2021, another video of Protasevich was aired by Belarus state media in which he, apparently under duress, repeated his "confessions". On 14 June 2021, he appeared again in public at a news conference in Minsk to repeat that he felt fine and had not been beaten. On 25 June 2021, Protasevich and his partner Sapega were transferred to house arrest. Investigators stated the pair had agreed to a plea deal in which they will "expose their accomplices and do their best to compensate for the damage they caused". Allegedly, Protasevich was provided an internet connection on 7 July 2021 and he created a Twitter account, stating he was staying with Sapega in a private house with a courtyard outside the city and that no one had beaten him. According to Reuters, journalists were "unable to verify whether the account belonged to Protasevich or whether he was drafting his comments unassisted". On 18 August 2021, his Twitter posts stopped. The last contact his parents had with him was via Sapega by phone in October 2021. Protasevich pleaded guilty to the initial charges against him and his trial opened on 16 February 2023. He was not put into a cage during the first hearing, as it is usual with defendants facing a trial, and he said that he was "prepared to face any outcome." When questioned for the other activists who left, Protasevich said that had he not been removed from the Ryanair flight, he would have never returned to Belarus, and added that "no one [of the exiled activists] in their right mind will come back." On 13 April 2023, prosecutors charged Protasevich with further criminal accusations, including the charges of "inciting social hatred", organizing mass riots, and organizing and running extremist groups which called for the overthrow of the Lukashenko government. In response to the new charges of extremism, Protasevich pleaded not guilty and denied the accusations. On 21 April 2023, the trial heard closing arguments from the prosecution. During the hearing, prosecutor Nataliya Sokolova asked for a sentence of 10 years in prison against Protasevich, stating that Protasevich would face a lesser sentence than others who are in exile due to his cooperation after his arrest. On 26 April 2023, the defence made their closing arguments and Protasevich delivered his last words of the trial. Protasevich admitted to being guilty and claimed to have been used by others in his actions. His defence asked for a reduced sentence against Protasevich because a lengthy sentence would "impede [Protasevich] from forming a family." On 3 May 2023, Protasevich was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Minsk District Court on charges including plotting a coup. On 22 May 2023, it was reported that Protasevich had been pardoned. His pardon was confirmed the next day and Protasevich was released from custody. He said: "I am incredibly grateful to the country and of course, to the president personally for such a decision" and that he would go to a "quiet place in the countryside for a couple of days" so that he could "take a breather and start to move forward". After his release, reports leaked that Protasevich testified against his former girlfriend Sapega in order to receive either a reduced sentence or a presidential pardon. According to media, Protasevich's testimony against Sapega was handed to the Vladivostok authorities handling Sapega's prison transfer case. In May 2023, Protasevich's mother returned from Poland to Belarus. In an interview with the state-owned Belarusian Telegraph Agency, Protasevich declared that he would definitely not plan to connect his life with politics. On 13 June 2023, Lukashenko spoke out on why he decided to pardon Protasevich. Lukashenko said to media that he had pardoned Protasevich because "this guy made everything he promised to save his life or to not go to jail ... he confessed that he had done wrong". Lukashenko explained that also because Protasevich had not killed anyone and was not at any front, he decided to pardon him. However, other opposition figures have come to view Protasevich as a traitor. Andrei Sannikov told the New York Times, "Please don't praise him as a freedom fighter. He is a very dark figure in this whole story. We don't want to hear his name ever again. ... He betrayed the whole democratic movement." Franak Viačorka noted Protasevich's change is a "very important story which teaches us how cruel regimes like Lukashenko's are". On 19 June 2023, Protasevich was assigned the conditions of his pardon, including mandatory reports to a supervisor, reports of his residence, and prohibition from leaving Belarus. In July 2023, Protasevich was removed from the list of terrorists by the Lukashenko government. The day after the forced Ryanair landing, Belarusian authorities issued a video in which Protasevich claimed he had been treated correctly and not been harmed, though he looked visibly stressed. On 3 June, Belarusian state TV broadcast an interview with Protasevich in which he confessed to organizing mass unrest in the country and named his associates. His family believed the confession was made under duress. Independent experts noticed numerous marks apparently caused by physical force on his hands and a state of mental breakdown. Belarusian media accused Protasevich of fighting alongside the Ukrainian Azov Battalion. According to the BBC, the "pro-Lukashenko press in Belarus has portrayed the dissident journalist as an extremist with right-wing sympathies". Protasevich said in 2020 that he had spent a year in Ukraine covering the war in Donbas as a freelance photojournalist. Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky wrote about Protasevich, "Roman was indeed together with Azov and other military units that fought against the occupation of Ukraine, though his weapon as a journalist wasn't an automatic rifle but the written word", and that he was wounded at the 2015 Shyrokyne standoff. Luhansk People's Republic, an unrecognized breakaway polity and participant in the war in Donbas, accused Protasevich of having been a member of the Azov Battalion and having "committed a number of particularly serious crimes, which manifested themselves in the shelling of Donetsk People's Republic settlements, which caused the death and injury of civilians, destruction and damage to civilian infrastructure." The Luhansk People's Republic opened a criminal case against Protasevich and asked for his extradition from Belarus. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he was not opposed to Protasevich being interrogated by investigators from the rebel republics involved in the Donbas war against Ukraine, as long as it happened on Belarusian soil. On 16 June 2021, representatives of the Luhansk People's Republic declared that Roman Protasevich had been "interrogated". The Ukrainian embassy in Minsk asked Belarusian authorities for an official explanation. Higgins, Andrew; Kramer, Andrew E. (25 May 2021). "Roman Protasevich: A Belarus Activist Who 'Refused to Live in Fear'". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 May 2021. Vigdor, Neil; Nechepurenko, Ivan (23 May 2021). "Who Is Roman Protasevich, the Captive Journalist in Belarus?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
8. Veronika Tsepkalo (b. 1976)
With an HPI of 34.76, Veronika Tsepkalo is the 8th most famous Belarusian Social Activist. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Veronika Valeryevna Tsepkalo or Veranika Valereuna Tsapkala (Russian: Вероника Валерьевна Цепкало; Belarusian: Вераніка Валер’еўна Цапкала; born 7 September 1976) is a Belarusian political activist.
People
Pantheon has 8 people classified as Belarusian social activists born between 1856 and 1995. Of these 8, 3 (37.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Belarusian social activists include Valery Levaneuski, Roman Protasevich, and Veronika Tsepkalo. The most famous deceased Belarusian social activists include Alexander Parvus, Abba Kovner, and Ignacy Hryniewiecki. As of April 2024, 2 new Belarusian social activists have been added to Pantheon including Ignacy Hryniewiecki, and Veronika Tsepkalo.
Living Belarusian Social Activists
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Valery Levaneuski
1963 - Present
HPI: 36.50
Roman Protasevich
1995 - Present
HPI: 36.29
Veronika Tsepkalo
1976 - Present
HPI: 34.76
Deceased Belarusian Social Activists
Go to all RankingsAlexander Parvus
1867 - 1924
HPI: 62.43
Abba Kovner
1918 - 1987
HPI: 57.61
Ignacy Hryniewiecki
1856 - 1881
HPI: 55.50
Vasily Ignatenko
1961 - 1986
HPI: 51.99
Tuvia Bielski
1906 - 1987
HPI: 49.51
Newly Added Belarusian Social Activists (2024)
Go to all RankingsOverlapping Lives
Which Social Activists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Social Activists since 1700.
