ZIANON PAZNIAK  (born 24 April 1944) is a prominent Belarusian politician, archaeologist, one of the founders of the Belarusian National Front (BNF), and from 1990 to 1996 a member of the parliament of the Belarusian SSR and later the Republic of Belarus. He is best known for exposing the mass graves of Stalin’s victims in Kurapaty in 1988, which was a key event in sparking the Belarusian national revival movement. Pazniak has been a tireless advocate of Belarusian independence and the preservation of Belarusian culture and language. In 1996, following Alexander Lukashenko’s tightening of authoritarian control over the country, Pazniak fled Belarus and lived in exile, where he remains active in the struggle for Belarusian sovereignty and democracy.