Janka Filistovich

Janka Filistovič (; 14 January 1926 – 22 November 1953) was an active participant in the Belarusian independence movement and a member of the underground anti-Soviet resistance in Belarus in the 1950s.

Early years Filistovič was born into a large farming family in the village of Paniacičy, Wilejka county, Wilno Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic (nowadays, Viliejka district, Minsk region of Belarus). After the Soviet invasion of Poland his father was arrested by the Soviet authorities as a kulak and incarcerated in a local prison until the beginning of the German-Soviet War.

To avoid deportation to Germany as an Ostarbeiter, Filistovič joined the Belarusian Auxiliary Police in 1943 but was not involved in any wartime atrocities.

Life in exile After the war, Filistovič moved to France. He studied history at the Sorbonne (France) and Leuven (Belgium) universities, published the magazine " Maladość” (“Youth") and was one of the leaders of a Belarusian youth organisation in France. In 1951 he became a member of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic.