Varvashenia, Ivan

Born Dec. 18 (31), 1904, in the village of Bystritsa, now Kopyl’ Raion, Minsk Oblast; died Mar. 4, 1957, in Minsk. An organizer of the partisan movement in Byelorussia during the Great Patriotic War (1941-45). Member of the CPSU since 1927. Born into a peasant’s family.

Varvashenia graduated from the Moscow Institute of Railroad Transport Engineers in 1934. In 1939 he became chief of the transportation department and in 1941, secretary of the Minsk Oblast Committee of the Byelorussian Communist Party (Bolshevik). After July 1941, Varvashenia was second secretary of the Minsk underground oblast committee and secretary of the Slutsk underground interraion committee of the Byelorussian Communist Party (B) and commissar of the Slutsk Partisan Unit. From 1943 to 1944 he worked in the Central Committee of the Byelorussian Communist Party (B). In 1944-50, Varvashenia was secretary of the Minsk Oblast Committee of the Byelorussian Communist Party (B), and in 1950-57 first secretary of the Minsk City Committee of the Byelorussian Communist Party. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, and various medals.