Maksim Haretski

Maksim Haretski (18 February 1893 – 10 February 1938) was a Belarusian prose writer, journalist, folklorist, lexicographer and educator. He is recognized as the first Belarusian existentialist author. Haretski was active in the Belarusian national renewal movement and published under several pen names, including Maksim Biełarus and Kuźma Batura. His work explores human existence and national identity.

Haretski served in the Russian Army during the First World War and was imprisoned several times by both Polish and Soviet authorities, experiences that run through his writing. He was executed by the Soviet NKVD in 1938.