Šyła Mikoła (also spelled Shyla; Шыла Мікола), teacher, political leader. Born in the Miensk province. A Belarusian weekly Apošnija Viestki, Braunschweig, West Germany, April 6, 1948 reported: "April 6, on a Saturday, 1948 at the age of 60 died Mikoła Šyła." Then follows a short obituary and in the next issue of the Bulletin a descriptive necrology of a veteran of the Belarusian movement, Mikoła Šyła. Mikoła Šyła was educated as a teacher in Maładečna Teachers' Seminary, where he also joined the Belarusian Socialist Hramada. He taught in numerous schools in Belarus.

He belonged to the generation of the pioneers of the Belarusian political renaissance. One of the founders of the Belarusian Revolutionary (Socialist) Hramada, contributor to Naša Niva, an organizer of the Belarusian masses, and an active leader in organizing the All-Belarusian Congress. Mikoła Šyła was arrested numerous times, as he used to say, "I count till ten, then I lose track of the number of arrests." Alter the partition of Belarus he lived in Western Belarus and was active in several organizations. Then during World War II he became active again and moved westward. Mikoła Šyła left many memoir-articles about the period. In the West the younger generation used to call him the "Belarusian Gandhi."

The Bulletin says "It only seems recently that Belarusians sang 'As long as Šyła, Hryb, Mamońka live, you will live also.'" Then it continues: "First Hryb passed away, Mamońka died in a Soviet concentration camp; now Šyła has passed away too. He tested tsarist, Bolshevik, and Polish prisons."

References: Apošnija Viestki, Braunschweig, no. 30, April 9, 1948; no. 29, April 6, 1948; Za jednaść, Saulgau, no. 1, April 15, 1948.

Паведаміць пра недакладнасьць