1937 mass execution of Belarusians

October 29–30, 1937 executions in Belarus refers to a mass extermination of Belarusian writers, artists and statespeople by Communist authorities. This event marks the peak of the Great Purge and repressions in the Soviet-controlled East Belarus.

More than 100 notable persons were executed, most of them in the night between 29 and 30 October 1937. Their innocence was later admitted by the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's death.

On September 7, 1937, Joseph Stalin signed a list of persons to be judged by a Soviet Military commission. The list was also signed by Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Klim Voroshilov and Nikolay Yezhov. The results of the trials related to persons from the Belarusian SSR were formulated in a different list dated 15 September 1937 and signed by Stalin, Molotov and the senior state security official Vladimir Tsesarsky. The list of people from the Belarusian SSR sentenced to execution included 103 persons, six more persons were sentenced to ten and more years of concentration camps.

The initial list was extended by the NKVD of the Belarusian SSR. People added to the list by the NKVD of Belarus are marked with an asterisk (*) in the list below. The executions took place in the Minsk internal NKVD prison (known as the Amerikanka). According to historian Leanid Marakou, between March 3, 1937, and May 22, 1938, over 100,000 people were victims of repressions by the Soviet authorities.

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