Jan Zaprudnik Papers

Jan Zaprudnik was born as Sergei Vilchitskii in 1926 in Mir, Navagrad's county (then - Poland).(1) From 1946, he used the name of Janka Zaprudnik. He also used several aliases: Arkadz' Budzich, "Franz", Paval Iankoŭski, Siarhei Iasen', Siarhei Skarakhod, and Arsen' Zagorny at various times in his lifetime. He was born to a family of teachers living in a Belarusian-speaking village.(2) He attended middle and high school in Baranavichy under the Nazi's occupation of Belarus. He left the country in 1944 with the German forces in a wake of the Red Army's liberation of Belarus enlisting himself in the Belarusian First National Regiment.(3) The regiment surrendered to Allied forces, and the enlisted ones were put in internment's camp. To receive a status of a Displaced Person (DP) he assumed the identity of a past camp's resident and became Jan(ka) Zaprudnik.(4) He graduated from the Ianka Kupala's Belarusian gymnasium at the Displaced Persons camp.(5) He was involved into Belarusian Scouts' movement as well. In 1948, he was one of the creators of a young Belarusian intellectuals' group called Dvanatstsatka (The Twelve). In late 1940s, he went to the United Kingdom to work as a miner.(6) He was among the founders of the British Belarusian community. In 1950, he moved to Belgium, where he became a student of Louvain University where he joined the Belarusian students' community. In 1954 he graduated from Louvain University and became a Radio Free Europe\Radio Liberty (RFE\RL) journalist (Belarusian Service) in Munich under the name of Arsen' Zagorny. In 1957, he emigrated to the US. Here he spent ten months being a temporary employee of the RFE\RL American branch, later becoming the full-time journalist of the Belarusian service.

While living in the US, he has been the editor of Belarus (the newspaper published in New York). In 1969, he received a Ph.D. in history from New York University (NYU) defending his dissertation about the "Belarusian question" in the late Russian imperial parliament – the Duma. In the 1970s and 1990s he taught Eastern European and Belarusian history as an adjunct professor at City University of New York (CUNY) and Columbia University. Zaprudnik was an author of Belarus: at a Crossroads in History (1993) and Historical Dictionary of Belarus (1998) (both books were in English).(7)

Zaprudnik was involved in Belarusian social and political life in exile. He was among the leaders of the Organization of Belarusians of the US (BAZA) and later joined the Belarusian government in exile – Rada BNR.(8) He was an active member of local Belarusian community in New Jersey as well. From the 1970s to 2000s he participated in local festivals where Belarusian culture was promoted. He was a parishioner of the Belarusian Orthodox church and contributed to the building of St. Eŭrasinnia Polatskaia Church in South River, NJ. In 2007, he received a medal of St. Kiril Turaŭski from the Orthodox church in Belarus honoring his financial help in reconstructing churches in Belarus.(9)

After his retirement from the RFE\RL in the mid-1990s, Zaprudnik focused on historical and political activity. He became a patron of several academic institutions focusing on Belarusian studies including Center for Belarusian Studies (CBS) and North American Association of Belarusian Studies (NAABS). Governmental and non-governmental institutions including the State Department and the Open Society Foundation hired him as an expert on Belarus in the 1990s. In the 2000s, Zaprudnik participated in preparation of Belarus Democracy Act (2004) that imposed sanctions on Republic of Belarus due to the human rights' violations and lack of political freedoms there.

Zaprudnik was married twice. His first wife, Volha Harytonchyk, was close to The Twelve. She died in 1987. They had two children. Zaprudnik's second wife, Nadzeia Kudasava (b.1928), is an artist and an active contributor to a local Belarusian community.

(1) We will use Jan Zaprudnik as a generic name while referring to him. (2) Western part of today's Belarusian state was a part of a Polish state from 1921 to 1939. We will use the spelling Belarus and Belarusian to describe the state and the people. (3) Zaprudnik mentioned it while he was applying for a Union of Belarusian Veterans membership (see: Box 4, Folder 7). In a later interview, Zaprudnik said that the Belarusian partisans did not let people to have more than elementary education under the Nazis, so in case he remained in Belarus, he would have been incarcerated and possibly deported to Siberia. (4) According to his later memoir, there was certain Zaprudnik who had been a DP, had left the camp, but had not been discarded from the lists, and Viltchiskii was advised to use Zaprudnik's last name to receive a DP status. The Arolzen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution contains an image of a DP card filled by Ivan Zaprudnik. (5) Ianka Kupala (nee Ivan Lutsevich) (1882-1942) was a Belarusian poet, drama writer, and translator. Both Soviet Belarusian and émigré Belarusian communities honored him as one of the founders of Belarusian literature. (6) We will use Library of Congress (LC) Romanization for Belarusian except for the cases when Zaprudnik himself used Belarusian Latin script (Liatsinka). (7) See Zaprudnik's extended bibliography. (8) On Rada BNR see: Box 5, Folder 13. (9) According to his archive, Zaprudnik was involved in construction of the church in South River that belonged to Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople. Moreover, he had certain relations with St Kiril Turaŭski church in Brooklyn that in turn belonged to Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (BAPTs). BAPTs is a non-recognized branch of the Belarusian Orthodox church preaching sermons and making prayers in Belarusian and insisting on its autonomy from Muscovite Patriarchy. On his participation in Belarusian religious life cf.: Box 3, Folders 3-7.

1926

Was born in a family of village teachers and estate owners in Mir, Navagradak County (then - Polish Republic) as Siarhei Vilchitskii.

1942

Joins the Trade School in Baranavichy (then Ostland Reichskomissariat)

1944

Joins the Belarusian Youth's Union and later the First Military National Regiment

1944

Leaves Belarus in a wake of its liberation by Red Army

1948

Participates in a creation of The Twelve – the union of young Belarusian intellectuals

1949-1950

Works as a miner in Great Britain

1950-1954

Attends Louvain University (Belgium), Department of History

1955-1957

Works as a journalist of the RFE\RL Belarusian Service

1957

Emigrates to the US

1957

Starts writing for the US branch of the RFE\RL

1969

Receives a Ph.D from New York University

1974

Starts teaching as an adjunct professor at City University of New York (CUNY)

1975

Publishes his first chapter in an edited volume (The Handbook on Major Soviet Nationalities)

1987

His first wife, Volha Harytonchyk, dies

1991

Pays his first visit to Belarus after emigration

1991

Works as an expert to arrange the Belarusian leader's (Stanislaŭ Shushkevich, then - the head of the Supreme Council) visit to the US

1993

Publishes his first major book, Belarus: at a Crossroads of History

1993-1994

Teaches as an invited professor at Harriman Institute, Columbia University (New York)

1996

Belarusian publishing house translates Belarus: at a Crossroads of History

1996

Marries Nadzeia Kudasava

1996

First Lady of the US invites him to the White House as an appreciation of his charity activity for the Chernobyl Disaster's victims

1998

Publishes the second major book, Historical Dictionary of Belarus

2003-2004

Lobbies the Belarus Democracy Act that imposes sanctions on Belarus due to the human rights violation there

2016

Pays his last visit to Belarus to celebrate his ninetieth anniversary

2017

Publishes his poetry and early diaries in Belarusia

2018

Gives his archive to Rutgers University

2022

Passed away in Somerset, New Jersey