Žyłunovič Źmicier (1887-1937), writer and politician. He began his career as a worker in St. Petersburg, where he participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 and later contributed to Naša Niva. In 1918, Žyłunovič was a member of the Belarusian National Commissariat and one of the principal proponents of the proclamation of the Belarusian SSR, whose first government he briefly headed. During the 1920s, he was actively involved in literary and cultural activities, held high positions in the Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) of Belarus, and was elected member of the Academy of Sciences (1928). In 1931, in the waves of political repression, his career came to an end with his exclusion from the party and then arrest in 1936 as an "enemy of the people." Thrown into prison, he committed suicide in 1937.
