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Piotra SychPiotra Sych (Belarusian: Пятро Сыч or Пётра Сыч) (January 18 1912 - June 20, 1963), a Belarusian writer and journalist, born in Baturyna, Western Belarus, near Vileyka. He started his journalistic career in Wilno in 1930's, initially writing for the Polish language newspapers, and studying philosophy in Wilno university. In 1939 he was drafted for the Polish army, then arrested by the Soviets, spent some time in a jail in Polatsk, eventually sentenced to 10 years and sent away to Komi. As a citizen of Poland under a special aggreement between Soviets and Great Britan he was released and sent to Samarkand in September 1941, where he joined the Polish brigade of general Wladyslaw Anders, just like hundreds of other Belarusians from Western Belarus (Kresy). He spent the rest of the war fighting against fascists in general Anders' Polish II Corps, was wounded four times, was a participant of the famous Battle of Monte Cassino. After the war he spent some time in England, then moved to Munich, Germany in 1951, where he started publishing a magazine in Belarusian. In 1954 he became one of the first employees of the newly opened Belarus Service of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In fact, the script of the very first radio programme that was aired on May 20, 1954 in Belarusian language was written by him. The piece was called "Azimuth of the Heart", it was an exhortation and greeting to Belarusian people under Soviet rule "from the compatriots in the free world." In 1960's several years before his death he started writing a memoir about Belarusian soliders at the Battle of Monte Cassino (according to various estimates there were 1000-2000 Belarusians in this battle, and about 200-250 of them died in that battle). The novel was called "Death and nightingales" (Сьмерць і салаўі). It was published in installments in the Belarusian magazine in Munich "Backaushchyna" in 1962-1963. The book was not completely finished though, when Piotra Sych unexpectedly died at the age of 51. His wife Elza helped to prepare and publish it as a separate book several years after his death. Sych, Piotra Sych, Piotra Sych, Piotra
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