Syamyon Georgiyevich Sharetski (, ; born 23 September 1936) is a Belarusian former agricultural scientist and politician. He was the last acting Chairman of the

Supreme Soviet of Belarus The Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus () was the unicameral legislature of Belarus between 1991 and 1996. It was essentially a continuation of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR of 1938–1991 immediately after the Soviet Uni ...

Early life and career

Sharetski was born in 1936 and studied agricultural economics at the Belarusian Agricultural Academy. In 1970 he joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party, where he enrolled in the

Higher Party School Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU () was a higher party-political educational institution in the Soviet Union for the training and retraining of the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Soviet state, ...

. After graduating he taught at the school from 1970 to 1976. After leaving his position as chairman of the Red Banner collective farm in 1993, he transitioned to a new role as an advisor to the

Prime Minister of Belarus The prime minister of the Republic of Belarus (; ) is the head of government of Belarus. Until 1991, it was known as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic as the head of the government of the cons ...

Political career

During the leadup to the

1996 Belarusian referendum A seven-question referendum was held in Belarus on 24 November 1996. Four questions were put forward by Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, on changing the date of the country's independence day, amending the constitution of Belarus ...

Sharetski emerged as among the leaders of the opposition, which viewed President

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

, the main backer of the referendum, as centralising authority in his own hands. Along with the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

, Sharetski led the Supreme Council in opposing Lukashenko's efforts to overhaul the constitution. Sharetski ultimately accepted the proposed referendum following a diplomatic intervention by Russian Prime Minister

Viktor Chernomyrdin Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin (, ; 9 April 19383 November 2010) was a Soviet and Russian politician and businessman. He was the Minister of Gas Industry of the Soviet Union (13 February 1985 – 17 July 1989), after which he became first chairm ...

. On 21 August 1999, when the 1995–1999 ended, deputies of the Supreme Council who remained faithful of the 1994 Constitution of Belarus (but actually out of power) appointed Sharetski acting President of the Republic of Belarus.

Exile

From 1999-2001 he lived in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, where he was treated as a representative of the legitimate power of Belarus. Since 2001 he lives in the US, where he was given a status of

political refugee The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, such as a second country or another enti ...

.Семен ШАРЕЦКИЙ: «Я не горю желанием вернуться...»
// ЭМИГРАНТЫ, Народная воля

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharetski, Syamyon 1936 births Living people Chairmen of the Supreme Council of Belarus Presidents of Belarus Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences