Dyła Jazep (also spelled Dyla Iazep; Дыла Язэп), writer, political, and cultural leader. Jazep Dyła was born into the family of a postal clerk in the town of Słucak on April 2(14), 1880. He died in the city of Saratov on April 7, 1973. Dyła studied in Słucak and later at the University of Derpt. Because of his revolutionary activities Dyła was expelled from the university. He began to write for various newspapers, including Naša Niva, where he became a regular columnist, contributing to other Belarusian-language newspapers as well. Jazep Dyła was closely associated with the activities of the Belarusian Socialist Hramada and was active on its behalf in various industrial cities of Russia, organizing Belarusian workers. He took part in the conference of the Hramada in Miensk in October of 1917, where he was elected to the Central Committee of that party. Dyła also participated in the organization of the All-Belarusian Congress in December 1917 which he was privileged to open. Dyła was elected to the membership of the Executive Committee of the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. In 1918, when the Belarusian Socialist Hramada split into various factions, Jazep Dyła and some other original members of the Hramada leaned toward the left and entered Bolshevik-supported groups. During this period Jazep Dyła was one of the most active Belarusian politicians working for the establishment of a Soviet Belarusian Republic. Later he held numerous administrative positions in the BSSR and was especially active in the foundation of Belarusian cultural programs. Jazep Dyła was arrested in 1930 and exiled. He was never permitted to return to Belarus. Even when the Republic of Soviet Belarus celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1969, Dyła did not receive an invitation to take part in the celebrations of the stale that he and some of his colleagues had worked to establish.
References: Jazep Dyła. Tvory, Minsk 1981, 350 p.; Anton Łuckievič. Za 25 hadoŭ pracy, Vilna 1928, 51 p.; Biełaruski Zvon, Vilnia, no. 15, Oct. 7, 1921.
