The Belarusian Statehood (the beginning of the 20th c.)

Sierada Ivan (Серада Іван), doctor of veterinary medicine, scholar, political leader. Biographical data are scarce, despite the fact that Sierada was a rather prominent leader during the revolutionary period. In the rank of Colonel in the Russian Army, Dr. Ivan Sierada stood very tall among the Belarusian activists in 1917-1918. In fact he was associated with the Belarusian Movement long before the revolution. It was his organizational skills and his moral authority that were the factors which led to his being elected Chairman of the First All-Belarusian Congress in December of 1917. He also served as chairman of the Council elected at that Congress which carried out the mandate of the Congress, viz., the establishment of the Belarusian State. Dr. Ivan Sierada was elected the first President of the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic on March 25, 1918. During 1918-1919 he served in many capacities within the Government of the BDR as well as serving for a very short period as the Chairman of the People's Secretariat. He identified himself as a Social Democrat and chose not to emigrate with the Government of the BDR but to remain in Soviet Belarus. He occupied several important administrative positions in Soviet Belarus and was on the faculty of the Hory-Horki Agricultural Academy. Arrested as a National Democrat in the 1930s, Sierada vanished in the Soviet prison system.

References: Belarusian Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, Archives.

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