[3][5] In December 1917 he took part in the First All-Belarusian Congress where he made a "passionate“ pro-independence speech: "When we are told to forget our homeland,  I do not understand this.

[3][5] In 1920 he resigned in protest against the partition of Belarus by the Bolsheviks and Poland and re-enlisted in the Red Army to “liberate the Motherland from the occupation by the White Poles”.

[3] However, in April of the same year he was arrested by the Red Army’s counterintelligence and accused of "talking to military specialists" and possible espionage.

[2][5] He was posthumously exonerated in independent Belarus in 1992 and is regarded as “the first victim of Bolshevik terror in Belarusian politics and literature”.

[1][3] In the book Šantyr discussed the history of the Belarusian people and its relationship with its neighbours and questions of national revival and self-determination.