1. Stanislav Stanislavovich Shushkevich was a Belarusian politician and scientist who served as the first head of state of independent Belarus after it seceded from the Soviet Union, serving as the first chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1991 to 1994.
Stanislav Shushkevich supported social democratic reforms and played a key role in the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Stanislav Shushkevich's parents were teachers who came from peasant families.
Stanislav Shushkevich subsequently studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Physics of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, conducting research in the field of radio electronics.
Stanislav Shushkevich was married to his wife Irina from 1976 onward.
Stanislav Shushkevich was admitted to hospital and placed in an intensive care unit in April 2022, due to complications from COVID-19.
When Supreme Soviet chairman Mikalay Dzyemyantsyey was ousted for his support of the August 1991 coup attempt, Stanislav Shushkevich became interim speaker, and presided over Belarus voting to secede from the Soviet Union.
Stanislav Shushkevich thus became the newly minted nation's first leader.
Stanislav Shushkevich had the vestigial Soviet nuclear arsenal withdrawn from Belarus, without preconditions or compensation from Russia or the West.
Stanislav Shushkevich was replaced by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov and later by Myechyslau Hryb.
In 2002 Stanislav Shushkevich sued the Belarusian Ministry of Labor and Social Security: due to inflation, his retirement pension as a former head of state was the equivalent of US$1.80 monthly.
Stanislav Shushkevich continued to be active in politics, heading the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly party from 1998 until 2018.