Attempt to Get Rehabilitation for Larysa Heniyush

On 1 November the Organizing Committee on Commemoration of Stalin repressions victims, the Union of Belarusian Writers, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee has sent a proposal to rehabilitate a well-known Belarusian poet Larysa Heniyush (Heniusz).

The proposal has been written by Academician of the Belarusian Academy of Science Radzim Haretski, writers Vasil Yakavenka, Ales Pashkevich, Nil Hilevich, human rights activists T.Protska, H.Pahaniayla and more than 70 other well-known public figures of Belarus

Since 1937 Larysa Heniyush was living in the Czechoslovakia and was a citizen of that country. However in 1948 on order of Moscow she was repatriated to the Soviet Union. There she was arrested and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment for ‘assisting world bourgeoisie in hostile activities against the Soviet Union’ and ‘counter-revolutionary activities’.

Larysa Heniyush was released on 1 July 1956, but the unfair sentence hasn’t been reversed.

The name of Larysa Heniyush could be compared to names of Belarusian classics Kupala, Kolas and Tsiotka and other prominent Belarusian workers of culture. Her books Trammel Net from Niman”, Thyme infusion and others show their nobleness of thoughts and feelings. A film Birds without nests based on Confession by Larysa Heniyush was created by Belarusfilm studio. A play White Dream was created. A documentary about Larysa Heniyush Thorn Wreath of Cornflowers was created by Letapis studio. Her monuments have been put up in Zelva and Staryi Darohi.