Radaslau Astrouski

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Radaslau Astrouski

Radaslau Astrouski ( Belarusian Радаслаў Астроўскі ; born October 25, 1887 in Zapolle, Russian Empire ; † October 17, 1976 in Benton Harbor , USA ) was a nationalist Belarusian politician and activist. From 1943 to 1944 he was chairman of the Belarusian Central Council , a puppet government set up by the German occupiers .

Life

Radaslau Astrouski was born an only child into a wealthy family in Zapolle near Sluzk . During the Russian Revolution in 1905 he took part in demonstrations against the tsarist government. He attended Saint Petersburg State University from 1908 to 1913 , where he studied mathematics . In 1911 Astrouski was arrested for his anti-Tsarist activities. He finished his studies at the University of Tartu . From 1914 he taught mathematics at a grammar school in Czestochowa and from 1915 to 1917 Astrouski taught at a teachers' institute in Minsk . After the February Revolution he was appointed commissioner of the Slutsk region and director of a Slutsk high school. Astrouski introduced the use of the Belarusian language in schools. In June 1917 he joined the Central Committee of the Belarusian Socialist Hramada . After the October Revolution he spoke out against the new rulers and advocated the establishment of an independent Belarusian state. In December 1917 he was a participant in the 1st Belarusian People's Congress, which passed a resolution with the aim of founding a Belarusian People's Republic , in whose government Astrouski was Minister of Education. Astrouski fought in Anton Denikin's army against the Bolsheviks and was a participant in the Slutsk uprising in November 1920 . After the war he settled in Vilnius , where he was the director of a Belarusian grammar school from 1924 to 1936. From 1924 to 1925 he was also President of the Belarusian School Society and from 1925 to 1926 Director of the Belarusian Cooperative Bank. In 1926 Astrouski became Vice President of the Hramada Central Committee and a member of the Communist Party of Western Belarus. When he was arrested in 1927, however, he denied ties to the communists. From 1928 he supported cooperation with the Polish government and was a member of the Sejm . In 1930 Astrouski founded the Central Union for Belarusian Cultural and Economic Organizations together with other people. He later taught mathematics at a school in Łódź .

Second World War

Astrouski during the inspection of Belarusian auxiliary police officers in Minsk

As early as 1940 Astrouski was President of the Belarusian Committee in Łódź and as such established contacts with the German Reich. Between autumn 1941 and autumn 1943 he was successful as mayor of the cities of Smolensk , Bryansk and Mahiljou .

On December 21, 1943, he was appointed President of the Beloruthenian Central Council. Astrouski's powers as president were severely limited as his central council had hardly any legislative or executive functions. Instead, he was only responsible for implementing the occupiers' policies. Astrouski and his followers advocated the extermination of the Jews , but had relatively little to do with carrying out the mass murders. Their main contribution to the German war effort, the recruitment of Belarusians for the SS, was made in 1944, long after the Jews were killed. In June 1944 Astrouski organized the Second Belarusian People's Congress , at which a Belarusian state was proclaimed with German approval. During his tenure, Astrouski dared to criticize the occupying power. He complained in a speech at a meeting in Baranovichi that the Germans, in particular the staff of trade and agricultural organizations söffen, located umgäben with Polish women and a conduct of the put, which is suitable for applying the population against them. He asked for a catalog of demands to be drawn up, which should then be presented to the Germans. Astrouski made a similar negative statement to the leaders of the Belarusian Youth Office . Despite these criticisms, there was never a complete break with the occupying power and Astrouski held his office as president until the end of the war.

exile

After the war, Astrouski first fled to Germany . He stayed in an emigrant camp in Hanover-Buchholz . At the end of October and beginning of November 1950 he immigrated to live with his daughter in Argentina. He later returned to Germany and lived in the house at Volksgartenstrasse 1 in Langenfeld . On March 25, 1948, Astrouski decided to re-establish the Belorussian Central Council as a government in exile and a conflict developed with the Rada BNR , which also claimed to represent the Belarusian nation. He was also a member of the Central Committee of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and almost became vice-president of the organization. In exile, Astrouski offered to work with the CIA . In 1956 he emigrated to the United States and continued to participate in the Belarusian community in exile in South River , New Jersey . Astrouski died on October 17, 1976 in Benton Harbor , Michigan and is buried in the cemetery of St Euphrosynia Belarusian Greek Orthodox Church in South River.

Astrouski was married and had a daughter, Melina, and a son, Wiktor.

literature

  • Stephen Dorrill: MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. Simon and Schuster, 2002. pp. 214-222.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 14.
  2. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 15.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Wojciech Roszkowski , Jan Kofman (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Routledge, Abingdon et al. 2015, ISBN 978-0-7656-1027-0 , pp. 39f.
  4. ↑ Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, No. 424, 2015, p. 4.
  5. ↑ Alexander Brakel: Under Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation . (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76784-4 , p. 219.
  6. ^ Efraim Zuroff : Profession: Nazi hunter. The search with staying power: The hunt for the perpetrators of the genocide (= unwanted books on fascism. No. 10). Ahriman-Verlag , Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, ISBN 3-89484-555-4 . P. 58.
  7. ↑ Alexander Brakel: Under Red Star and Swastika. Baranowicze 1939 to 1944. Western Belarus under Soviet and German occupation . (= Age of World Wars. Volume 5). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76784-4 , p. 223.
  8. ↑ a b CIA document on Ostrowsky, Radislaw on cia.gov (German)
  9. ↑ CIA document on Ostrowsky, Radislaw on cia.gov (English)
  10. ↑ Stephen Dorrill: MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. Simon and Schuster, 2002. p. 222.
  11. ↑ CIA document on Ostrowsky, Radislaw on cia.gov (English)
  12. ↑ John Loftus : America's Nazi Secret. TrineDay LCC 2010, p. 214.
personal data
SURNAME Astrouski, Radaslau
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Астроўскі, Радаслаў; Astroŭski, Radasłaŭ
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belarusian politician and activist
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Zapolle, Belarus
DATE OF DEATH 17th October 1976
Place of death Benton Harbor , USA