15 Facts About Vasil Zacharka

Vasil Zacharka was a Belarusian statesman and the second president of the Belarusian People's Republic in exile.

Vasil Zacharka was born in a peasant family near Grodno.

In 1898 Zacharka was mobilized to the Russian army and was demobilized in 1902.

Vasil Zacharka was again mobilized in 1904 following the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War and served in the military on several administrative posts till 1917.

Vasil Zacharka was an active participant of the Congress of Belarusian West Front Militarymen on 22 October 1917 in Minsk and became secretary of the newly created Central Belarusian Military Council.

Vasil Zacharka was elected member of the Council of the First All-Belarusian Congress later that year.

Vasil Zacharka was among the creators of appeals to the League of Nations, Great Britain, France, USA and other countries by the Belarusian government.

Vasil Zacharka tried to convince the Soviets to recognize the independence of Belarus and to liberate Belarusian political prisoners held in Russian jails.

In 1925 Vasil Zacharka managed to prevent the government of the Belarusian People's Republic to abandon its authority in favour of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, despite the fact that many members of the democratic government were advocating this idea.

Vasil Zacharka served as deputy president of the Belarusian People's Republic Piotra Krecheuski and became president upon his death in early 1928.

On 20 April 1939 Vasil Zacharka sent together with Ivan Yermachenka a seventeen-page memorandum to Adolf Hitler personally asking him to take into account the interests of Belarus in any future developments.

On 28 June 1941 Vasil Zacharka telegraphed to Hitler, that he wishes him a quick and decisive victory over the Judeo-Bolshevik regime on all fronts.

When it became clear that the Germans were not ready to create a Belarusian government, and Belarusians were given the place of executors of the orders of the German leadership, Vasil Zacharka stopped cooperating with the Germans and began to sharply criticize them in his articles.

In July 1941, as a member of the Belarusian Self-Help Committee, Vasil Zacharka issued a document to the Jewish family Wolfsohn, which they passed off as Orthodox Belarusians, although all committee members were aware that they were Jews.

Vasil Zacharka died in Prague in 1943 and left a rich archive of documents about the Belarusian Democratic Republic.