Łuckievič Anton (also spelled Lutskevich; Луцкевіч Антон), political leader, lawyer, scholar, and literary critic. Anton Łuckievič was born in the town of Šauli, in the province of Kaunas, into the family of a railroad worker, on January 30, 1884. He died in a Soviet prison about 1946. Anton Łuckievič studied in grammar and secondary schools in Miensk, then went to St. Petersburg and Derpt Universities from which he obtained degrees in archaeology, history, and law. From his teenage years Anton Łuckievič devoted his life to the Belarusian cause. Together with his brother Ivan, Anton Łuckievič was the pioneer of most Belarusian programs and initiatives during the first decades of this century. The two brothers founded the Belarusian Revolutionary Hramada. Together with Alaksandar Ułasaŭ, they established the newspaper Naša Niva, the milestone and the foundation of the Belarusian cultural and political revival, the brothers founded a number of other organizations and parties and supported the establishment of several Belarusian printing houses. Later on, in the second decade of the century they established the Belarusian Museum at Vilna, the Belarusian Scholarly Society, and the Belarusian Gymnasium in Vilna. But the backbone of their activities was political work. The brothers, especially Anton, formulated the principles of Belarusian statehood, and in numerous editorials Anton Łuckievič defined the lines along which the Belarusian political movement was to develop. Anton Łuckievič authored hundreds of articles in various languages and a number of books on a variety of aspects of the Belarusian movement. During the years of the February and October Revolutions, Anton's political writings and activities made a tremendous influence upon the establishment of the Belarusian Democratic Republic and provided the theoretical foundation for the proclamation of its independence on March 25, 1918. The crystallization of this idea and its implementation are well analyzed in his monograph devoted to the origins and history of the Belarusian Revolutionary (later Socialist) Hramada, which was published in Vilna in 1928. Anton Łuckievič held several posts in the administrative structure of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, including the position of Prime Minister from June 1918 to December 1919.
After the events of 1917-1920, Anton Łuckievič lived in Western Belarus, in Vilna, and remained active in numerous Belarusian political parties and organizations, at the same time developing and enlarging the Belarusian Museum in Vilna, which grew into an important scholarly institution. Anton Łuckievič was captured by the Soviets when they invaded Belarusian territory in 1939. He vanished into the Soviet prison network. The Belarusian nation lost a great man. Anton Łuckievič and his brother, Ivan, merit the title of "Pioneers of the Belarusian political and cultural revival."
References: Bieł. Sav. Enc., vol. 6, 1972, p. 441; Biełarus, New York, no. 315, January 1984; Problemy Vostochnoi Evropy, New York, nos. 9-10, 1984, pp. 271-272; Biełaruski Śviet, Grand Rapids, Mich., no. 12(41), 1982, pp. 4-5; Anton Łuckievič. Za 25 hadoŭ pracy. Vilnia, 1928, 51 p.
