1. Zianon Pazniak was the Belarusian Popular Front nominee for President of Belarus in the 1994 election.
17 Facts About Zianon Pazniak
1. 2.
Zianon Pazniak has lived in the United States since 1996.
3.
Zianon Pazniak was born in the village of Subotniki in Baranavichy Region during the German occupation of Belarus.
4.
Zianon Pazniak graduated from the Belarusian State Institute of Theatre and Arts in 1967 and completed his postgraduate studies at the Institute of Ethnography, Art and Folklore in 1972.
5.
Zianon Pazniak's specialisation was the Late Middle Ages in Belarus.
6.
Zianon Pazniak was heavily involved in efforts to preserve the remaining section of the historic centre of Minsk, which was considerably damaged by the redevelopment efforts undertaken by the Soviet administration after the end of the Second World War.
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In 1981 Zianon Pazniak successfully defended a doctoral dissertation on the history of the theatre.
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In 1988, Zianon Pazniak made public his researches of NKVD mass executions in the forest of Kurapaty near Minsk.
9.
From May 1990 until January 1996, Zianon Pazniak was a deputy of the Belarusian parliament.
10.
Zianon Pazniak's candidacy was supported by the famous Belarusian writer Vasil Bykau and a number of representatives of the Belarusian scientific community.
11.
In 1996, Zianon Pazniak fled Belarus, citing a potential arrest by the forces of the Belarusian president Aliaksandar Lukashenka.
12.
Zianon Pazniak was granted political asylum in the United States.
13.
Zianon Pazniak is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.
14.
In 2018, Zianon Pazniak received the Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal from the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in Exile.
15.
Jan Zianon Pazniak took part in the activity of the Belarusian Christian educational movement and was a member of the Christian Democratic Union since its founding in May 1917 in Petrograd.
16.
When she died in April 2012, Zianon Pazniak didn't come to the funeral, fearing persecution by the authorities.
17.
Zianon Pazniak was a deputy of the Minsk City Council of Deputies.