Ramuald Ziamkievič

• Name — Romuald Ziemkiewicz • Native Name — Рамуальд Зямкевіч • Born — 7 February 1881 • Birthplace — Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire • Died — 1943 or 1944 • Place of death — Likely Auschwitz concentration camp, Nazi Germany • Occupation — Bibliographer, publicist, literary historian, collector • Political Party — Belarusian People's Party of Socialists • Spouse — Leonia (née Dunin-Borkowska)

Ziamkievič was born in Warsaw. He is known for falsifying his own biography. He claimed his father's name was Aleksander (hence he is listed as Ramuald Aliaksandravič Ziamkievič in some Belarusian encyclopedias), but in reality, his father was Michał Ziemkiewicz (c. 1829–1888). In 1875, Michał Ziemkiewicz, together with Wiktoryn Noakowski, bought a printing house in Warsaw. After his death, the business was run by his wife, Maria, Romuald's mother. Ziamkievič later claimed his parents were from the Slutsk region, but there is no evidence for this. He studied at a Warsaw gymnasium, where he became close to bibliophile Zygmunt Wolski. In 1906–1907, he worked at the antiquarian bookshop of Hieronim Wilder in Warsaw. He collaborated with scholars Yefim Karsky and Michał Federowski. According to bibliophile Jan Michalski, Ziemkiewicz was obsessed with collecting books and was once caught stealing from Wilder and Federowski, but was spared punishment in hopes of reform. After this incident, Ziamkievič moved to Vilnius, where he became involved with the Belarusian national movement. In 1908, he collected folklore in the Braslaw and Barysaw regions. He worked as a tutor in private estates, including Kazimirau near Zembin. He wore the uniform of a student of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, although later investigations revealed he had forged his engineering diploma. From 1909, he published articles in Nasha Niva. He established close contacts with Belarusian organizations and the Belarusian Scientific and Literary Circle of students in Saint Petersburg.

• Illustration — Belarusian circle in Warsaw, 1912. Ziemkiewicz stands third from left. During World War I (1915–1917), he lived in Minsk, working as a military engineer. He wore a colonel's uniform, likely without authorization. He participated in the First All-Belarusian Congress in December 1917 and was a member of the Belarusian People's Party of Socialists. In 1918, he became a member of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic. During the Soviet–Polish War, after the Bolsheviks took Minsk in December 1918, he remained in the city and was arrested. He described the Bolshevik occupation in the newspaper Baćkaŭščyna. After the Polish army took Minsk in August 1919, he joined the Provisional Belarusian National Committee.

Ziamkievič likely left Minsk with the Polish troops in July 1920. He settled in Warsaw. In 1922, he participated in the parliamentary campaign in Poland as part of a Polonophile Belarusian group, supporting Józef Piłsudski's policies. From November 1922, he was an informant for the Second Department of Polish General Staff (intelligence), reporting on Belarusian activists. However, the intelligence service doubted the reliability of his reports. He worked as an engineer in the Supreme Audit Office using a forged diploma but was dismissed in 1929 due to a lack of qualifications. In 1932, he was arrested for stealing autographs of Adam Mickiewicz and Cyprian Norwid from the Polish Library in Rapperswil and attempting to sell them to the National Library of Poland. A year later, he was accused of stealing pages from the album of Maryla Wereszczakówna. During the trial, his forged credentials and pension fraud were exposed, and he was sentenced to prison. Anton Luckievich accused Ziamkievič of misappropriating the entire printed archive of the Belarusian Socialist Assembly, which had been entrusted to him in 1913. After the German occupation of Poland, he was arrested in Warsaw. His collections were lost in the destroyed city. It is believed that he died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 or 1944, although he has not been identified in prisoner databases.

In 1942–1943, under the pseudonym Šeršań (Hornet), he published satirical poems in the Białystok newspaper Novaja daroha. He also wrote poems in Polish. He translated into Belarusian works by the Ukrainian writer Vasyl Stefanyk (published in Nasha Niva) and the Frenchman Alphonse Daudet. Pseudonyms and cryptonyms: Раман Суніца (Raman Sunica); Юры Алелькавіч (Jury Alieĺkavič); Саўка Барывой (Saŭka Baryvoj); Шэршань (Šeršań); Р. Зем. (R. Ziem.); Ром. Зем. (Rom. Ziem.); Р-н Сун. (R-n Sun.); Р. С-ца (R. S-ca).