Branislaw Tarashkyevich
Encyclopedia
Branisłaŭ Adamovič Taraškievič was a Belarusian public figure, politician, and linguist.

He was the creator of the first standardization of the modern Belarusian language
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...

 in the early 20th century. The standard was later Russified
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...

 by the Soviet authorities. However, the pre-Russified (classical) version of the standard was and still is actively being used by some groups of intellectuals and the Belarusian diaspora
Belarusian diaspora
Belarusian diaspora refers to emigrants from the territory of Belarus as well for people of Belarusian descent.According to different researches, there are between 2.5 and 3.5 millions of people of Belarusian descent living outside the territory of the Republic of Belarus...

 and is informally referred to as Taraškievica
Taraškievica
Taraškievica or Belarusian Classical Orthography is a variant of the orthography of the Belarusian language, based on the literary norm of the modern Belarusian language, the first normalization of which was made by Branisłaŭ Taraškievič in 1918, and was in official use in Belarus until the...

, named after Branisłaŭ Taraškievič.

Taraškievič was a member of the underground Communist Party of West Belarus
Communist Party of West Belarus
The Communist Party of West Belarus was a banned Belarusian political party in Poland-controlled West Belarus from 1923 until 1939.The party was founded in 1923 in Wilno by representatives of Belarusian communist circles from Wilno, Białystok and Brest...

 (Камуністычная партыя Заходняй Беларусі, КПЗБ/Kamunіstyčnaja partyja Zаchоdniaj Biеłаrusi, KPZB) in Poland and was imprisoned for many years in Poland.

In 1933 he was set free due to a Polish–Soviet prisoner release in exchange of Francišak Alachnovič
Francišak Alachnovič
Francišak Alachnovič was a Belarusian writer, journalist and Gulag survivor.Alachnovič was a well-known theatrical writer, director and journalist in West Belarus...

, a Belarusian journalist and playwright imprisoned in a GULAG, and lived in Soviet exile since then.

He fell victim to the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...

of the late 1930s.

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