Nadzeja Sznarkiewicz

Nadzeja Sznarkiewicz, née Kaladzianka was a Belarusian feminist, teacher and editor.

Life

Nadzeja Sznarkiewicz was born on 12 October 1897 in Brest, Russian Empire. After her father died in 1904, she and her mother moved to the village of Wostrawa, near Kobryn, and later to Pruzhany. She graduated from the women's gymnasium in 1914 and then qualified as a teacher five years later, although she'd been working as a teacher after graduating. She fled the advancing German troops in mid-1915, and returned four years later. After the Russo-Polish War of 1920–21, the victorious Poles incorporated western Belarus into Poland and pressured the Belarusians to adopt the Polish language. Sznarkiewicz moved to Wilno, Poland, in 1925 where she worked for the Wilno Belarusian Gymnasium. She was active in the Belarusian School Association which promoted Belarusian language and culture. She married Jazep Sznarkiewicz, a political activist and teacher, in 1926. Sznarkiewicz was crippled by paralysis for the last quarter century of her life, but nonetheless remained active before dying on 21 May 1974.

Activities

Sznarkiewicz co-founded the short-lived Alaiza Pashkevich Belarusian Women's Organization in 1931 and was one of the founders and the editor-in-chief of Women's Cause, the first independent women's magazine in the Belarusian language.

Publications

Успаміны з працы ў Таварыстве Беларускае Школы ў Вільні. Рунь,,