Stanislaŭ Šabunieŭski (, 1868–1937) was an architect whose buildings "in many respects determined the modern appearance of

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

" and a victim of

Stalin's purges The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the assassination of Sergei Kirov by Leonid Nikolaev ...

Early years

Šabunieŭski was born into an impoverished Belarusian noble family in the village of Skarodnaje (now in the

Yelʹsk District Yelsk district or Jeĺsk district (; ) is a districts of Belarus, district (raion) of Gomel region in Belarus. Its administrative center is Yelsk, Belarus, Yelsk. As of 2024, it has a population of 13,951. Notes References

Yelsk ...

of Belarus). His father served as a postman, later as an assistant postmaster at the

Babruysk Babruysk (, ) or Bobruysk (, ; , ) is a city in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Babruysk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is situated on the Berezina, Berezina River. Bab ...

district post office.Асташкевіч, Ірына (2018-07-10).
Колькі будынкаў у Гомелі пабудаваў зархітэктар Станіслаў Шабунеўскі
" ow many buildings in Gomel were built by the architect Stanislaŭ Šabunieŭski?''www.zviazda.by'' (in Belarusian). Retrieved 2022-10-07 Šabunieŭski graduated from a gymnasium in

Slutsk Slutsk is a town in Minsk Region, in central Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slutsk District, and is located on the Sluch (Belarus), Sluch River south of the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 59,450. Geography ...

, then studied architecture in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. In 1897, he came to

and started working in the local construction department of the

Libau–Romny Railway Libau–Romny Railway was a railway company that built a railway line in the Russian Empire in 1871–74 to connect Romny in Ukraine with the port in Libau (Liepāja) in present-day Latvia. To do so it passed through Minsk. The objective of th ...

Architectural career

In the early 20th century, Šabunieŭski became a prolific designer of buildings in the centre of Gomel, alternating between different architectural styles – from classicism to modernism to constructivism. His first building designed in 1898 was a men's classical gymnasium, which combined the motifs of classical architecture and the then modern engineering techniques. Today, the building houses the

Belarusian State University of Transport Belarusian State University of Transport (BelSUT; ) is a university and a non-profit public higher education institution in Gomel, Belarus. Founded in 1953, this institution has also branch campuses in Orsha and Brest, Belarus, Brest. Until 1993 ...

.Асташкевіч, Ірына (2018-12-13). "Архітэктар Станіслаў Шабунеўскі стаў ганаровым грамадзянінам Гомеля?" rchitect Stanislaŭ Šabunieŭski became an honorary citizen of Gomel''www.zviazda.by'' (in Belarusian). Retrieved 2022-10-07Архітэктура Беларусі. Энцыклапедычны даведнік rchitecture of Belarus. Encyclopaedic guide Minsk, 1993, p. 609 (in Belarusian) He went on to design the offices of the Aroł and Vilna commercial banks, Savoy hotel (destroyed during military hostilities in 1919), fire station as well as grand houses for Gomel merchants and prosperous professionals. In 1913, Šabunieŭski designed a district hospital funded by the last owner of the

Gomel Palace The Rumyantsev-Paskevich Residence (; ) is the main place of historical importance in the city of Gomel, Belarus. The grounds of the residence stretch for 800 meters along the steep right bank of the Sozh River. An image of the residence is featur ...

, Princess . Today the building still functions as a hospital. 1 Советская 28.jpg, Building of the former Aroł commercial bank Гомель. Крестьянская 14. Отделение Виленского коммерческого банка. Фото 02.JPG, Building of the former Vilna commercial bank Комиссарова 27.JPG, Building of the former district hospital

Later life

Šabunieŭski had frictions with the Communist authorities immediately after the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

but was able to resume his professional activities under the new government. In the 1920s, he worked as a provincial architect and district engineer. He managed a drainage project in Gomel, the construction of the city's water supply and restored the parts of the

damaged by fire in 1919. In 1937, Šabunieŭski was arrested on trumped-up charges and sentenced to 10 years in the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. He died in the same year at the age of 69 as a forced labourer at the construction of the infamous

White Sea–Baltic Canal The White Sea–Baltic Canal (), often abbreviated to White Sea Canal (), is a man-made ship canal in Russia opened on 2 August 1933. It connects the White Sea, in the Arctic Ocean, with Lake Onega, which is further connected to the Baltic Sea. U ...

. He was posthumously exonerated during Gorbachev's

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

in 1989. In December 2018, Šabunieŭski was named an honorary citizen of Gomel in recognition of his contribution to the city.

Further information

Рэпрэсаваная архітэктура
�, д/ф, рэж. Марыя Булавінская, 2019 г., Беларусь 'Repressed Architecture'', documentary directed by Marya Bulavinskaja, 2019, Belarus(in Belarusian)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabunieuski, Stanislau 1868 births 1937 deaths Belarusian architects Great Purge victims from Belarus Soviet rehabilitations Architects from the Russian Empire Soviet architects