Barys Rahula
Barys Rahula (Template:Langx, Boris Ragula, 1 January 1920 – 22 April 2005) was a Belarusian political activist. He served as a military commander of the Belarusian auxiliary police unit Schutzmannschaft Battalion 68.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". After the war, he studied medicine in the West and became a doctor in Canada.[1]
Life
Barys Rahula was born near Navahrudak and spent his early years in West Belarus, then part of the Second Polish Republic. In 1938, he became student at the University of Vilnius but was mobilized into the Polish army after the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland.[2] He soon became a German POW, but in 1940 escaped from German prison to West Belarus occupied by the Soviets. In Belarus, he got arrested by the NKVD but managed to escape from prison in the first days after Germany's attack on the USSR.[3]
Under German occupation, Rahula commanded Schutzmannschaft Battalion 68, taking part in anti-partisan actions against Polish and Soviet partisans.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". The unit numbered about 600 people, mostly recruited from among students and graduates of the Novogrudok teachers' seminary, usually with a strong Belarusian patriotic sentiment.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". In April 1944, the unit fought a battle with Soviet partisans near Karelichy. In May 1944, it took part in a partisan action near Dokshytsy and Hlybokaye.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Contrary to what he states in his memoirs, his unit was never incorporated into the Belarusian Home Defense (BKA) and did not become a Belarusian unit independent of German rule.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". He left Belarus with the German army ahead of the Soviet advance.
After the war, Barys Rahula studied Medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven. In 1954 he moved to Canada and became one of the country's better known oncologists as well as one of the leaders of the Belarusian Canadian community. After the Chernobyl Disaster, Rahula organized fund raising to support victims of the catastrophe. He died in 2005.
References
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- ↑ Against the Current: The Memoirs of Boris Ragula (as told to Dr. Inge Sanmiya) - NYU Langone official website
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- ↑ У Канадзе памёр Барыс Рагуля at Радыё Свабода 2014 (www.svaboda.org)
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Bibliography
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Selected books
- Беларускае студэнцтва на чужыне (Belarusian Students in the Strange Lands)
- Жыцьцё пад агнём (Living under Fire)
- Against the Current
External links
- Boris Ragula. Against the Current on Google Books.
- Сьв. пам. Барыс РАГУЛЯ
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- Pages with script errors
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- 1920 births
- 2005 deaths
- People from Karelichy district
- Belarusian Independence Party politicians
- Members of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic
- Polish military personnel of World War II
- Belarusian Home Defence personnel
- Vilnius University alumni
- Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni
- Soviet emigrants to Canada
- Soviet politicians
- Soviet expatriates in Belgium
- Nazis who fled to Canada