Jan Sierada

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Mikitavič and the family name is Sierada.

Ivan Mikitavič Sierada^[a] (13 May [O.S. 1 May] 1879 – after 19 November 1943), better known by the pseudonyms of Jan^[b] or Janka^[c] was a Belarusian statesman, pedagogist and writer who served as the first president of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic.

Jan Sierada
Ян Серада
Sierada in 1918
Chairman of the People's Secretariat of the Belarusian Democratic Republic
In office 22 July 1918 – 11 November 1918 Serving with Raman Skirmunt
Preceded by	Jazep Varonka
Succeeded by	Anton Luckievich
President of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic
In office 9 March 1918 – 14 May 1918
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Jazep Losik
Personal details
Born	Ivan Mikitavič Sierada (1879-05-13)13 May 1879 Zadzvieja [be], Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire (now Belarus)
Died	after 19 November 1943(1943-11-19) (aged 64) Soviet Union
Political party	Belarusian Socialist Assembly
Alma mater	Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Profession	Scientist, agricultural technologist
Military service
Allegiance	Russia
Branch/service	Imperial Russian Army
Years of service	1905–1906 1914–1918
Battles/wars	Russo-Japanese War World War I

Biography

Ivan Mikitavič Sierada was born in the village of Zadzvieja [be] in Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Brest Region, Belarus).

From 1905 to 1906, Sierada served in the Imperial Russian Army in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War, and was also mobilized during World War I.

He graduated from a veterinary school in Warsaw in 1903 and worked as a veterinarian in the Minsk Governorate in 1907–1911. At the same time he was a teacher at an agricultural college in Marjina Horka.

Jan Sierada was an active member of the Belarusian Socialist Assembly. In 1917, he was elected the chairman of the First All-Belarusian Congress. In 1918, he was elected president of the short-lived Belarusian Democratic Republic. In February 1918, he was a member of the Belarusian delegation (together with Simon Rak-Mikhailovsky and Alaksandar Ćvikievič) at the peace talks in Brest-Litovsk.

In the 1920s, Sierada worked on different positions in the Agriculture Ministry of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, and was also a teacher at several colleges and published several works on agriculture.

On 4 July 1930, Sierada was arrested by the NKVD as part of the so-called Case of the Union of Liberation of Belarus. In April 1931, he was sentenced to 5 years of exile in Yaroslavl, in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. After this, he was again sentenced in 1941 to 10 more years in the Gulag. He was set free, on 19 November 1943, from the gulag camp chain (Krasnoyarsk Krai) and his further fate is unknown.

He has been rehabilitated on his cases in 1988 and 1989.

Works

• Yak treba kavats horses. Mn., 1926.
• Veterinary and zoohygiene. Book. 1-2. Mn., 1927-1928.
• Pabudov's strength in Kalgas and Saugas. Mn., 1930.

Notes

1. Belarusian: Іван Мікітавіч Серада
2. Belarusian: Ян
3. Belarusian: Янка

References

• Маракоў Л.У. Рэпрэсаваныя літаратары, навукоўцы, работнікі асветы, грамадскія і культурныя дзеячы Беларусі, 1794-1991. Энц. даведнік. У 10 т. Т.2. —Мн:, 2003. ISBN 985-6374-04-9