Ivanoŭski Vacłaŭ (also spelled Iwanowski Vatslaŭ; Іваноўскі Вацлаў), engineer, scholar, political leader. Ivanoŭski was born near the town of Lida in 1880. His parents were both well-educated, his father an engineer and his mother a natural scientist. Ivanoŭski graduated from the gymnasium in St. Petersburg where he received excellent training in mathematics and the sciences as well as becoming fluent in West European languages. He studied for a few semesters in Western Europe. He received a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Imperial Technological Institute in St. Petersburg. After graduation he was invited to stay at the Institute. He did so, becoming an assistant professor and then professor at the Institute. He also was awarded a Ph.D. degree. However, his high academic position and his involvement in scientific research did not hinder him from being one of the pioneers in the Belarusian political movement. Visiting Belarusian territory, he became very closely associated with the Łuckievič brothers (Ivan and Anton). Together with the Łuckievič brothers and A.Ułasaŭ, Ivanoŭski was the founder of the Belarusian Socialist Hramada. He collaborated with the newspaper Naša Niva. In St. Petersburg he was the founder of the publishing enterprise Zahlanie sonca i ŭ naša vakonca, which played a major role in establishing modern Belarusian publishing. During the years he lived in St. Petersburg, Ivanoŭski assisted greatly in organizing Belarusian students and in formulating ideas about the future of the Belarusian lands. After the February Revolution, Ivanoŭski devoted all his time to organizing the political conference of Belarusian organizations and the All-Belarusian Congress. He was one of the first to be arrested by the Bolsheviks in 1918. He escaped imprisonment and returned to political activities. He held numerous important positions in the administration of the Belarusian Democratic Republic.
After the revolutionary years, Ivanoŭski lived in Warsaw, where he taught at the University. While he never discontinued his Belarusian involvements, career considerations had to take precedence. However, Vacłaŭ Ivanoŭski was deeply engaged in Belarusian politics at the outbreak of the Soviet-German war in 1941. He was appointed to numerous important administrative positions by the Germans, continuing, at the same time, his contacts with the independent Belarusian political activists and the Polish underground. His last position of influence was that of the Mayor of the city of Miensk. He was assassinated under mysterious circumstances in Miensk on December 7, 1943.
References: Hołas Vioski, Miensk, no. 50, Dec. 17, 1943; Novy Šlach, Miensk-Riga, no. 2(38), Jan. 1944, p. 12; Biełaruskaja Dumka, South River, N.J., nos. 27-28, 1983, pp. 11-16; Biełarus, New York, nos. 89, 1964; 286, 1981; 325, 327, 1985.
