Kastus Kalinovsky (the fighter for independence of Belarus)

K.Kalinovsky was born in 1838 on the 21-st of January not far from Grodno in Belarus. His parents were not rich. There were 18 children in the family. Kalinovsky's mother Veronica Rybinskaya died early and the elder brother, Victor, a student of Moscow University, took care of Kastus. In 1855 Kastus graduated from a secondary school in Svisloch and entered Moscow University. But in 1856 he changed his mind and became a student of St.Petersburg University. There Kalinovsky met Russian democrats Belynsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolubov. He shared their ideas and followed them. In 1861 K.Kalinovsky came back to Belarus. He took an active part in organizing the uprising of 1863 in Belarus and Lithuania. But the tsarist army dispersed the uprising. In 1864 Kastus Kalinovsky was arrested and hanged as the learder of the uprising. He fought for national independence of Byelorussian people, the development of national culture and education. His name became a symbol of action and struggle for the rights of oppressed people in Belarus and Lithuania.