On the night of October 29–30, 1937, NKVD officers executed 132 people in Minsk. Among them were Belarusian poets, writers, and scholars. Their works were banned, their manuscripts burned, and their names erased from history.
In a video address, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya talks about the Night of the Executed Poets, the lives cut short, and why we recognize today’s Belarus in this tragedy:
“They believed they could erase both the people themselves and the memory of them. Some of their works will never be read. We will never learn about many of the ideas and projects they had planned.
But the poems that survived can still be read today. They continue to speak to us. People read them, translate them, and set them to music. We pass these books on to our children.
Try to find a poem by one of the executed poets today. Read it to yourself or to someone close to you. Learn a little about the poet’s life. Of course, this will not bring the dead back to life. But today, we can hear their words, learn about their dreams, and share in their joy and pain”.
Events commemorating the Night of the Executed Poets will take place around the world. Join them! Find the full list here.
