Budźka Eduard (also spelled Budźka Advardy; Будзька Эдуард), teacher, economist, political leader. Eduard Budźka was born in the town of Budsłaŭ (Vialejka district) on March 22, 1882. Budźka entered the Belarusian national movement at an early age and was one of the pioneers in organizing the Belarusian colony in Riga at the turn of the century. He frequently contributed to the newspaper Naša Niva, often visited the editorial offices in Vilna, and was one of the most successful promoters of this newspaper in the countryside. Budźka lived and studied in St. Petersburg where he founded and edited the Belarusian newspaper, Śvietač, in 1916. He maintained close contacts with Belarusians in Miensk and assisted in organizing the Belarusian administration and Belarusian schools in his native region. Eduard Budźka was among the pioneers who convened the Belarusian political conference in Miensk in March of 1917 and the First All-Belarusian Congress in December of the same year. After the December Congress, he became very actively involved in the organization of Belarusian cooperative enterprises and Belarusian schools. Budźka was the secretary of the Commission for the establishment of the Belarusian State University by the Government of the BDR in Miensk, June 1918. He was the initiator in establishing the first Belarusian Teachers' Seminary in the town of Budsłaŭ in 1918. Budźka moved to Latvia from Poland in the early 1920s and was also involved in the organization of the Belarusian school system, and administered the Belarusian Teachers' Courses in Latvia. He returned to Poland and spent the years prior to World War II there.
During World War II Budźka was active in the Belarusian school system and in numerous educational and economic enterprises. After World War II he emigrated to the United States where he was active from 1950 on in the local Belarusian community. Eduard Budźka died in Chicago August 14, 1958.
During his life he was a very prolific contributor to numerous Belarusian journals and his short reminiscences about the events and the personalities of the Belarusian movement during the first quarter of the century are of especial importance.
References: Źnič, Rome, no. 48, Nov. 1958. pp. 6-7; Biełarus, New York, no. 70, Sept. 30, 1958; Baćkaŭščyna, Munich, no. 430, Nov. 16, 1958.
