Sergey Pritytsky

Sergey Osipovich Pritytsky (1 February 1913 – 13 June 1971)

Childhood Pritytsky was born on 1 February 1913, in Harkawicze in the Polish-Belarusian borderlands, then part of the Russian Empire, as the third son of a school watchman.

Activism and imprisonment in West Belarus In 1931 Pritytsky became Secretary of the youth branch (Komsomol) of the illegal Communist Party of West Belarus in Krynki in the Second Polish Republic. In 1932 he became member of the party and was elected secretary of the local party branch in Hrodna In 1933 Pritytsky was for the first time arrested by Polish authorities and imprisoned in Hrodna, but soon released. Jakub Strelczuk in the Polish court at Vilnius on 27 January 1936, shooting from two Nagant revolvers. Following the protests, the Polish authorities changed the sentence to life imprisonment.

In September 1939, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, Pritytsky was freed. He was elected into the People's Assembly of West Belarus and made a presentation demanding West Belarus to join the Soviet Union. In Minsk, there two memorial plaques on the walls of the buildings where he lived. In 1978, the book "Life given to the people" was published, in which articles and speeches by Pritytsky, documents and memoirs about him were placed. It was opened with the introductory article "The People's Hero" by Pyotr Masherov.