# How the Nyasvizh szlachta behaves

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/how-the-nyasvizh-szlachta-behaves/
- Published: 1924-05-18T17:10:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T19:50:06+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/jak-viadzie-siabie-niasvizhskaja-shliachta.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/kak-vyedyot-syebya-nyesvizhskaya-shlyakhta.md

> The szlachta of the Nyasvizh region take revenge on Belarusians who defend their deputies by denouncing them. Because of such a denunciation, Yanka Novik of the Zaluzhye homestead spent a week under arrest.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-1022-1024x585.webp)

The Nyasvizh szlachta are terribly incensed at our Belarusian deputies, who gave an account of their work on 16 March in Nyasvizh at the Belarusian congress. This account, naturally, did not please the landlords, the administration, the police and the others who in one way or another look after the local Belarusian farmers. The petty szlachta of the hamlets also consider themselves Poles and repeat every kind of "lie" about our deputies, calling those we elected by the most indecent names. And they abuse them everywhere. And if a Belarusian should ever dare to defend his representatives, the szlachta try by every means to do him harm. They file denunciations with the police saying that so-and-so is a bandit, a Bolshevik, that he curses the Polish authorities and agitates against Poland.

And, as is well known, the falsely accused man is arrested and dragged around the investigating police so that he will confess to which "band" he belongs.

That is what happened to one class-conscious Belarusian, Yanka Novik of the Zaluzhye homestead in the Lan gmina, who dared to defend the honour of the Belarusian representatives in the Sejm. The neighbouring szlachta lodged a denunciation, and Novik was arrested, but after a week he was released from custody, because the investigator found no guilt in him. And the denouncers from the szlachta, of course, remain unpunished.