Šantyr Fabijan (also spelled Shantyr Fabian; Шантыр Фабіян), writer, journalist, lawyer, political leader. He was born into the family of a bricklayer in the town of Kapyl, near Słucak, in 1887. He was shot by a Soviet firing squad in the Spring of 1920. Šantyr became involved in the revolutionary movement in his school years. He contributed to the newspaper Naša Niva, writing mostly on literary topics. He was imprisoned and spent a few years in jail. During World War I he became active in the Belarusian political movement and was one of the activists who prepared the All-Belarusian Congress. At that time he wrote a brochure entitled The Need for Belarusian National Activities and for Self-determination of the People, 1918. However, during the revolutionary years Šantyr began to cooperate closely with the left wing of the Belarusian socialists and the Bolsheviks. He became a member of numerous pro-Bolshevik oriented groupings. This fact, however, did not prevent Šantyr from being one of the first Belarusian leaders in the newly-established government of Soviet Belarus to protest the dismemberment of the Soviet Republic of Belarus. He left the Soviet Belarusian Government as a sign of protest against the prevailing Soviet policies. He was soon arrested, accused of counter-revolutionary activities, and shot. Fabijan Šantyr was the first Belarusian national victim who began to cooperate with the Bolsheviks, with the hope of achieving positive results; he paid for this attempt with his life.
References: Ant.Adamovič. Opposition to Sovietization... N. Y., 1958, pp. 191-192; BSSR, Karotkaja Enc., vol. 5, 1981, p. 660; Baćkaŭščyna, Munich, no. 433, November 7, 1958.
