Sergey Pritytsky

{{Short description|Polish-born Soviet Belarusian politician and partisan commander (1913–1971)}} {{Family name hatnote|Osipovich|Pritytsky|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Sergey Pritytsky | native_name = {{nobold|Сяргей Прытыцкі}} {{nobold|Сергей Притыцкий}} | native_name_lang = be | image = Siarhei_Prytytski.png | office = Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR (Head of state of the Byelorussian SSR) | leader = Pyotr Masherov | 1blankname = Head of government | 1namedata = Tikhon Kiselyov | term_start = 22 January 1968 | term_end = 13 June 1971 | predecessor = Vasily Kozlov {{ill|Fyodor Surganov|ru|Сурганов, Фёдор Анисимович}} (acting) {{ill|Valentina Klochkova|ru|Клочкова, Валентина Алексеевна}} (acting) | successor = Ivan Klimov (acting) {{ill|Valentina Klochkova|ru|Клочкова, Валентина Алексеевна}} (acting) {{ill|Fyodor Surganov|ru|Сурганов, Фёдор Анисимович}} | office1 = Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia | term_start1 = 1962 | term_end1 = 1968 | office2 = Deputy Head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic | term_start2 = 1962 | term_end2 = 1968 | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|02|01|df=y}} | birth_place = Harkawicze, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire (now Poland) | death_date = {{death date and age|1971|06|13|1913|02|01|df=y}} | death_place = Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union (now Belarus) | party = Communist Party of the Soviet Union | other_party = Communist Party of West Belarus | spouse = Tatyana Pritytskaya<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sb.by/obshchestvo/article/poslednie-listya.html |title=Последние листья |trans-title=The last leaves |last=Ruzecka |first=Aliaksandr |date=6 December 2008 |website=Sovetskaya Belorussiya |access-date=23 September 2016 |language=ru}}</ref> | awards = {{plainlist| * Order of Lenin (4) * Order of the Red Banner }} | allegiance = Soviet Union | branch = Soviet partisans | battles = {{tree list}} * World War II ** Siege of Mogilev ** Belarusian resistance ** Polish resistance {{tree list/end}} }}

'''Sergey Osipovich Pritytsky'''{{efn|{{langx|be|Сяргей Восіпавіч Прытыцкі|translit=Siarhei Vosipavich Prytytski}}; {{langx|pl|Sergiusz Prytycki}}; {{langx|ru|Сергей Осипович Притыцкий}}}} (1 February 1913 – 13 June 1971)<ref name="Rąkowski"/> was a Belarusian Soviet communist activist, politician, and partisan commander. Having started as a communist activist in Western Belarus (then part of the Second Polish Republic), after the Soviet invasion of Poland he became a high-ranking politician in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.<ref name="kresy24.pl">{{cite web |url=http://kresy24.pl/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Glos_znad_Niemna_7-2011.pdf |title=Białostocki ulubieniec Stalina |publisher=Głos znad Niemna (Voice of the Neman weekly), Nr 7/60 |work=Ogólnokrajowy tygodnik SZ «Związek Polaków na Białorusi» (Association of Poles of Belarus) |date=June 2011 |accessdate=24 May 2014 |author=Andrzej Poczobut, Joanna Klimowicz |format=PDF file, direct download 2.40 MB |pages=6–7 of current document}} </ref>

==Childhood== Pritytsky was born on 1 February 1913, in Harkawicze ({{langx|be|Гаркавічы}}) in the Polish-Belarusian borderlands, then part of the Russian Empire,<ref name="Rąkowski">Grzegorz Rąkowski, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=EL3eK2oG2C4C&dq=%22Sergiusz+Prytycki%22+-Wikipedia&pg=PA211 Komunisci z Harkawicz: Polska egzotyczna, Part 1.]'' Oficyna Wydawnicza "Rewasz" 2005, page 211. {{ISBN|8389188376}}</ref> as the third son of a school watchman.<ref name="kresy24.pl"/> In 1914 his family fled to Nizhny Shkaft (within Russia) from the approaching front of the First World War.<ref name=sb>{{cite web | url=http://www.sb.by/obshchestvo/article/shkola-ulits-sergeya-pritytskogo.html |title=Школа улиц Сергея Притыцкого |trans-title=The school of the streets of Sergey Pritytsky |date=June 2008 |website=Sovetskaya Belorussiya – Belarus' Segodnya |access-date=23 September 2016 |language=ru}}</ref>

==Activism and imprisonment in West Belarus== In 1931 Pritytsky became Secretary of the youth branch (Komsomol) of the illegal Communist Party of West Belarus in Krynki in the Second Polish Republic. In 1932 he became member of the party and was elected secretary of the local party branch in Hrodna<ref name=beldumka>{{cite web|url=http://beldumka.belta.by/isfiles/000167_235225.pdf |title=Сергей Притыцкий: хроника жизни |trans-title=Sergey Pritytsky: a chronicle of life |last=Ioffе |first=Emanuil |date=June 2008 |website=Bielaruskaja Dumka |publisher=BelTA |access-date = 23 September 2016 |language=ru}}</ref> In 1933 Pritytsky was for the first time arrested by Polish authorities and imprisoned in Hrodna, but soon released.<ref name=beldumka/>

Between 1933 and 1934 he was a member of the local committee of the CPWB Komsomol in Slonim and led strikes of forestry workers in the area. From 1934 to 1935 he studied at the CPWB school in the then-Soviet Byelorussian city of Minsk. In 1935 he became Secretary of the local youth branch of the CPWB in Slonim.

Pritytsky made a widely publicized unsuccessful assassination attempt on Polish agent provocateur<ref name=beldumka/><ref name=narb/><ref name=nn>{{cite web|url=http://nn.by/?c=ar&i=104503 |title=Шчаслівы лёс беларускага тэрарыста нумар адзін |trans-title=The lucky fate of Belarus's number one terrorist |last=Mikulevic |first=Siarhiej |date=16 February 2008 |website=Nasha Niva |access-date=23 September 2016 |language=be}}</ref> Jakub Strelczuk in the Polish court at Vilnius on 27 January 1936, shooting from two Nagant revolvers.<ref name="kresy24.pl"/> The operation was planned and organized by the leader of the West Belorussian Komsomol Mikalai Dvornikau, who also was the backup of the main executor. After the shooting, Pritytsky was arrested and sentenced to death. The death sentence provoked wide international protest in West Belarus, Poland, France, Czechoslovakia and the United States.<ref name=narb>{{cite web |url=http://narb.by/rus/details/prityckiy_s |title=Притыцкий Сергей Осипович |trans-title=Sergey Pritytsky: biography and collection of archive documents |website=National Archives of Belarus |access-date=23 September 2016 |language=ru |archive-date=4 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204013035/http://narb.by/rus/details/prityckiy_s |url-status=dead }}</ref> Following the protests, the Polish authorities changed the sentence to life imprisonment.

In September 1939, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, Pritytsky was freed. He was elected into the People's Assembly of West Belarus and made a presentation demanding West Belarus to join the Soviet Union.<ref name=narb/>

== Career in the Soviet Union == After the reunification of West Belarus with the Byelorussian SSR, in late 1939 Pritytsky was made deputy head of the executive committee of the newly established Belastok Region.

After Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Pritytsky escaped to the eastern part of Belarus still under the Soviet control. In June–August 1941 he led the defense preparations around Mogilev and the creation of defense militia near Gomel.<ref name=narb/>

Between 1942 and 1944 Pritytsky was Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Byelorussian branch of the Komsomol. From 1944 to 1945 he was head of a pro-Soviet Polish<ref name=narb/> partisan command staff. For his command of Polish partisans, he was awarded one of his Orders of the Red Banner.<ref name=beldumka/>

After the end of the Second World War, Pritytsky became one of the most successful Soviet statesman from the ranks of the former West Belarusian pro-Soviet activists.<ref name=nn/>

He served as the head of regional party branches in Grodno, Baranavichy, Maladzyechna and Minsk Regions.<ref name=narb/> During his work, he organized collectivization of local agriculture.<ref name=beldumka/> In the first post-war years, Pritytsky was close to being arrested under accusations of anti-Soviet espionage for Poland.<ref name=beldumka/>

In the 1960s, Pritytsky has held senior posts in Soviet Belarus.

From 1962 to 1968 he was Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia and Deputy Head of the Government of Belarus.

From 1968 to 1971 Pritytsky was Head of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.<ref name=marakou/>

== In popular culture == * Vladimir Korsh-Sablin, a notable Belarusian Soviet director, filmed the movie ''"Red Leaves"'' (Belarusfilm, 1958) about Pritytsky's underground experience in Western Belarus. * There are streets named after Pritytsky in Minsk, Hrodna, Maladziechna and Baranavichy (''Vulica Prytyckaha'').<ref name="marakou">{{cite web|url=http://www.marakou.by/by/davedniki/represavanyya-litaratary/tom-ii?id=19732 |title=Рэпрэсаваныя літаратары, навукоўцы, работнікі асветы, грамадскія і культурныя дзеячы Беларусі. 1794-1991. » Том II » ПРЫТЫЦКІ Сяргей Восіпавіч |trans-title=Repressed writers, scientists, education workers, public and cultural activists of Belarus. 1794-1991 - Volume II - PRITYTSKY Sergey Osipovich |website=marakou.by |publisher=Leanid Marakou |access-date=23 September 2016 |language=be}}</ref> * In Minsk, there two memorial plaques on the walls of the buildings where he lived. * In 1978, the book ''"Life given to the people"'' was published, in which articles and speeches by Pritytsky, documents and memoirs about him were placed. It was opened with the introductory article ''"The People's Hero"'' by Pyotr Masherov.

== Notes == {{notelist}}

==External links== * [http://archives.gov.by/index.php?id=602680 Documents about Pritytsky in the state archives of Belarus] * ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpbub1LUlA0 "Red Leaves"]'' movie (in Russian)

==Sources== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pritytsky, Sergey}} Category:1913 births Category:1971 deaths Category:People from Sokółka County Category:People from Sokolsky Uyezd Category:Communist Party of Western Belorussia politicians Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Category:Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia Category:Heads of state of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Category:Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Category:First convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Second convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Third convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Fourth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Fifth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Sixth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Seventh convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Eighth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Poland Category:Belarusian prisoners sentenced to death Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II Category:Soviet partisans Category:Belarusian partisans Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Category:Failed assassins