Kastus Kalinovsky the Fighter for Independence of Belarus

  K.Kalinovsky was born in 1838 on the 21-st of January  not  far

from Grodno in Belarus. His parents were not rich. There were  18

children in the family. Kalinovsky's mother  Veronica  Rybinskaya

died early and the elder brother, Victor,  a  student  of  Moscow

University, took care of Kastus. In 1855 Kastus graduated from  a

secondary school in Svisloch and entered Moscow  University.  But

in 1856 he changed his mind and became a student of St.Petersburg

University. There  Kalinovsky  met  Russian  democrats  Belynsky,

Chernyshevsky, Dobrolubov. He shared  their  ideas  and  followed

them. In 1861 K.Kalinovsky came  back  to  Belarus.  He  took  an

active part in organizing the uprising of  1863  in  Belarus  and

Lithuania. But the tsarist army dispersed the uprising.  In  1864

Kastus Kalinovsky was arrested and hanged as the learder  of  the

uprising. He fought for  national  independence  of  Byelorussian

people, the development of national culture  and  education.  His

name became a symbol of action and struggle  for  the  rights  of

oppressed people in Belarus and Lithuania.