Barys Rahula ( be, Барыс Рагуля, Boris Ragula, 1 January 1920 – 22 April 2005) was a

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

ian political activist. He served as a military commander with the pro-German

Belarusian Home Defence The Belarusian Home Defence, or Belarusian Home Guard ( be, Беларуская краёвая абарона, , BKA; german: Weißruthenische Heimwehr) were collaborationist volunteer battalions formed by the Byelorussian Central Council (1943� ...

(BKA) during the Second World War. After the war he studied medicine in the West and became a doctor in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Life

Barys Rahula was born near

Navahrudak Novogrudok ( be, Навагрудак, Navahrudak; lt, Naugardukas; pl, Nowogródek; russian: Новогрудок, Novogrudok; yi, נאַוואַראַדאָק, Novhardok, Navaradok) is a town in the Grodno Region, Belarus. In the Middle A ...

and spent his early years in

West Belarus Western Belorussia or Western Belarus ( be, Заходняя Беларусь, translit=Zachodniaja Bielaruś; pl, Zachodnia Białoruś; russian: Западная Белоруссия, translit=Zapadnaya Belorussiya) is a historical region of mod ...

, then part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

. In 1938, he became student at the University of Vilnius but was mobilized into the Polish army after the Nazi-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

. He soon became a German

POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

, but in 1940 escaped from German prison to West Belarus occupied by the Soviets. In Belarus, he got arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

but managed to escape from prison in the first days after Germany's attack on the USSR.У Канадзе памёр Барыс Рагуля
at Радыё Свабода 2014 (www.svaboda.org) Under German occupation, Rahula commanded Schutzmannschaft Battalion 68, taking part in anti-partisan actions against Polish and Soviet partisans. 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 University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of ...

. 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 The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

, Rahula organized fund raising to support victims of the catastrophe. He died in 2005.

References

Bibliography

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahula, Barys 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 Byelorussian Home Defence personnel Vilnius University alumni Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Soviet emigrants to Canada Soviet politicians Soviet expatriates in Belgium