Kastus Kalinouski

Vincent Kanstancin Kalinouski was born on February 2, 1838, in Mastaŭlyany into an impoverished noble family. Studying law at Saint Petersburg University, Kalinouski joined clandestine revolutionary student circles before returning to Grodno.

In 1862, he launched Muzhytskaya Prauda ('Peasants' Truth'), the first clandestine newspaper in the Belarusian language printed in Latin script, calling upon peasants to rise against Tsarist autocracy. When the 1863 January Uprising broke out, Kalinouski commanded rebel forces across Belarus and Lithuania. Captured in Vilnius, he wrote his famous Letters from Beneath the Gallows before being executed at age 26 on Lukiškės Square.