Polish city council votes to keep Belarusian figure's street name
Branislaw Taraszkiewicz.
Bielsk Podlaski city authorities have voted to keep Branislaw Taraszkiewicz Street. 12 deputies voted in favor, 1 person voted against and 6 people abstained, Radio Liberty reports.
The Polish authorities had planned to rename Taraszkiewicz Street in order to meet the requirements of the recently effected decommunization law. The local Belarusian lyceum named after him is also set to lose Taraszkiewicz's name. The final decision is yet to be made by the governor of Podlachia.
Branislaw Taraszkiewicz (1892 — 1938) is a famous Belarusian political activist and linguist who lived in the inter-war Poland. He was the leader of the Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union that consisted of 100 thousand members. He was sent to the USSR during the political prisoner exchange programme in 1933. Taraszkiewicz is considered to be a communist figure in Poland. However, he is the author of the famous book Belarusian Grammar and his grammar is one of the symbols of independent Belarus nowadays, Belarusian historians note. Besides, Branislaw Taraszkiewicz became a victim of the Soviet regime after his stay in USSR.
