[1][2][3] One of his teachers at secondary school (who was an acquaintance of famous Belarusian poet Jakub Kolas) encouraged Siadnioŭ's interest in literature.
[1][3] In the last year of his studies in October 1936, he was arrested on charges of participation in the "National Democratic" movement.
[1][2] After 5 years in the Gulag, Siadnioŭ was brought to Minsk for retrial, however the invasion of Belarus by the Nazis allowed him to escape and he returned to farming in his native village.
[1][2][3] Fearing re-arrest, he fled the advancing Soviet troops in 1943 and ultimately settled in the United States where he would spend the rest of his life, having taught Russian at Indiana University (1960–1967).
[1] He died in the United States on 5 February 2001 and was buried in the Belarusian cemetery of South River, New Jersey.