{"id":281164,"date":"2010-12-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/?page_id=281164"},"modified":"2010-12-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-07T00:00:00","slug":"uladzimir-karatkevich","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/welcome-to-the-archives-of-belarus-website\/subject-guides-to-archival-records\/famous-people\/uladzimir-karatkevich","title":{"rendered":"Uladzimir Karatkevich"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Uladzimir Siamionavich KARATKEVICH, a classic writer of Belarusian literature, a poet,\r\nprose writer, playwright, script writer, publicist, translator. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

He was born 26 November 1930 <\/b>in the town of Orsha, Vitebsk region, Belarus. His\r\nfather, Siamion Tsimafeevich (1887-1959), finished a vocational school in Orsha, earned a\r\nliving at a young age, worked in the treasury area, was a clerk in the tsarist army, and\r\nafter the October Revolution served in the finance institutions. His mother, Nadzeia\r\nVasileuna (1893-1977), nee Grynkevich (among her relatives were clergymen, clerks,\r\nteachers), after completing the Mariinsky high school in Mogilev taught for a time in\r\nschool and then was a housewife. The family had three children: son Valery (1918-1941),\r\ndaughter Natallia (1922-2003), and son Uladzimir. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The family was noted for high intelligence. In the words of Karatkevich himself, in\r\nchildhood he was in many ways influenced by his relatives. He was greatly affected by his\r\nmaternal grandfather, Vasil Yullianavich Grynkevich (1861-1945), a man of rich experience,\r\na witty story-teller, from whom his grandson Valodzia heard many tales and folk legends\r\nand learned to love nature. “The \r\nnature phenomena still interest me more than some of the books”, admitted Uladzimir\r\nKaratkevich in a mature age. The family had a home library. Valodzia learned to\r\nread at the age of three and a half and wrote his first verse, according to his relatives,\r\nat the age of six. In childhood his talents manifested in a passion for painting\r\nthat he pursued his whole life and that he had an absolute pitch for music; for a short\r\ntime he studied in a music school.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1938, <\/b>Valodzia entered a school in Orsha. On completing the third year in\r\nsummer 1941, he went to Moscow to visit his elder sister Natallia, who studied there in a\r\ncollege of chemical technology. Then the Great Patriotic War began and Valodzia could not\r\nreturn home. Together with other Moscow children he was evacuated\u00a0 into the Riazan\r\nregion and then Molotov (Perm) region in the Urals. He made several attempts to run to the\r\nfront. Later he knew that his parents managed to evacuate and lived in the town of Chkalov\r\n(Orenburg) in Russia. Only in August 1943 his sister brought him to their parents. The\r\nfamily, however, made their part of contribution to the Soviet war effort. In October\r\n1941, Valodzia’s elder brother Valery died on the front. Valery’s wife Olga, who remained\r\nin the Nazi-occupied area, was killed by the occupiers. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

In summer 1944,<\/b> Uladzimir Karatkevich together with his mother moved to recently\r\nliberated Kiev, where his relatives lived. The short staying in Kiev left a deep imprint\r\nin his memory. It was here that he took first interest in history, influenced by the great\r\nmonuments of the old town on the Dnieper and the excavations carried out by\r\narchaeologists. Later, under the impression of those times, Karatkevich wrote a novella\r\ncalled Listse Kashtanau<\/em> (The Foliage of Chestnuts). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In autumn 1944, <\/b>the family returned to their home town of Orsha. In late 1946,\r\nthey began to live in their own house, into which Karatkevich would often come later to\r\ncreate his works. He would dedicate to this town and its people the verse\r\n“Orsha” expressing his sincere love for the native places that “…probably\r\nwill not disappear even with my life”. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Another hospitable place for his creativity was the house of his relatives in Ragachou\r\nbuilt by his grandfather Vasil in 1914. Here he had a separate room into which he would\r\noften come\u00a0to find a piece of mind, and brought his friends and colleagues. In\r\nRagachou he designed and wrote many of his famous works. The importance of these places\r\nfor Karatkevich is even sometimes compared with what Boldino was for Pushkin. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1949, <\/b>Uladzimir Karatkevich finished a secondary school and entered the\r\nDepartment of Russian Philology at the Taras Shevchenko State University in Kiev. He was\r\ninterested not only in literature (classics of world literature, the Ukrainian, Russian,\r\nPolish and Belarusian authors) but was also keen on history, primarily Belarusian. Here he\r\ngot acquainted with many works on the national liberation uprising of 1863-1864 that had\r\nlong interested him. According to the family legend, one of Karatkevich’s descendants –\r\nTamash Grynevich (Grynkevich) – was shot in Ragachou for participating in the uprising.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In Kiev, Uladzimir Karatkevich continued to write poetry in\r\nBelarusian and Russian and tried his hand in Ukrainian and Polish. In his student papers\r\nhe elaborated on several literary topics: the works of Pushkin, Bagdanovich etc. At this\r\ntime he conceived a plan of a great historical work intended to show in detail the events\r\nof the 1863-1864 Uprising. And in summer 1950, he created the first version of his\r\nfamous novella, The Wild Hunt of King Stakh<\/em>, a historical detective, the events\r\nof which take place in the1880s. \u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1951, the Orsha-based newspaper “Leninski\r\npryzyu”\u00a0 published his two poems, “A Canal Will Be Here” (in Russian)\r\nand “To Yakub Kolas” (in Belarusian). In summer 1952, under the impression from\r\nhis trip to Viazynka, a home place of Yanka Kupala, Karatkevich wrote an essay called\r\n“Viazynka”, which he sent, together with his letter, to Yanka Kupala’s wife,\r\nUladzislava Frantsauna. At the same time he sent a number of his early works (tales,\r\nverses, stories) for review to Yakub Kolas. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1954, <\/b>Uladzimir Karatkevich graduated from the\r\nUniversity. His diploma work on the theme “Tales. Legends.\r\nTraditions” produced an ambiguous response, and only due to the efforts of the\r\nacademician A. Bialetski and teacher A. Nazarouski, he received the highest mark. The\r\nchances for further research were however limited. Only later Karatkevich managed to enter\r\ncorrespondence courses in postgraduate study. In the years 1954-1956, he taught the\r\nRussian language and literature in the village of Lesavichi, Tarashchany district, Kiev\r\nregion in Ukraine.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In July 1955, the magazine <\/em>“Polymia” published his verse Masheka<\/em>\r\n(The Shaggy Wolf) dedicated to the hero of Belarusian\r\nlegends. According to Karatkevich, this event became a turning point in his life, when he\r\nfinally turned his attention to literary activity, and historical themes occupied a\r\nconsiderable place. In the same year, Karatkevich’s essay “Viazynka” was\r\npublished in the book on the life and work of Yanka Kupala. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In autumn 1955, Karatkevich participated in the conference of young writers in Minsk,\r\nwhich gave a high assessment of his poetry. In 1955, he started a regular correspondence\r\nwith the chief editor of Polymia<\/em>, the future people’s poet of Belarus Maksim\r\nTank, an elder colleague with whom he shared his creative plans and thoughts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1956, <\/b>Uladzimir Karatkevich returned to his home\r\ntown of Orsha, where he taught in high school No 3 until 1958. Apart from intensive work\r\nat school, he tried to engage in research; he started a scholarly dissertation on the\r\nliterary representation of the national liberation uprising of 1863-1864, but he failed to\r\nfinish it.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

This was a time of fruitful work for the writer. In 1956,\r\nKaratkevich wrote a legend called Matsi Vetru<\/em> (Mother of Winds) dedicated to the\r\nevents of the anti-feudal uprising at Krychau in 1743-1744, about which he heard from his\r\ngrandfather Vasil. In 1957, he wrote a play, Mlyn\r\nna Sinikh Virakh<\/em> (A Mill in the Blue Swamps), whose heroes are the Soviet resistance\r\nfighters in the Second World War (televised in Belarus in 1959, first published in 1988).\r\nIn the same year he finished a novella, U Snegakh Dramae Vesna<\/em>\r\n(The Spring Sleeps in Snows) about the student life in the early 1950s (first published in\r\n1988). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In April 1957, Uladzimir Karatkevich won the official recognition of his colleagues; he\r\nwas admitted to the Union of Writers of Belarus. Despite this fact, the Orsha-based Leninski\r\nPryzyu<\/em> published several critical articles in which Karatkevich was accused of taking\r\nan excessive interest in history, disrespect for the heroic daily life of the Soviet\r\npeople, pessimism, and isolation from the reality. The verse “Vadarod<\/em>”\r\n(Hydrogen) was sharply criticised. Here the author, though he\r\nrecognized the great potential of nuclear power in peaceful purposes but, according to his\r\nopponents, largely overestimated its danger. Various conferences were organised for the\r\nreaders; angry letters were sent to the capital. In February 1958, however, the\r\nrepublic-level newspaper “Zviazda” published an article in support of the young\r\nauthor. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The first book of his poetry Matchyna Dusha<\/em> (Mother’s Soul) came out in 1958.\r\nIn the same time he finished the novella “The Wild Hunt of King Stakh” and wrote\r\nthe play “A Little Farther from the Moon”, which was never published, about the\r\nfate of a man who suffered from Stalin’s regime. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1958-1962, <\/b>Uladzimir Karatkevich studied in Moscow, first at the advanced\r\nliterature courses and from 1960 at the cinematography courses.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

At this time, another collection of his poetry, Viacherniia Vetrazi<\/em> (Evening\r\nWinds, 1960) and a book of prose, Blakit I Zolata Dnia<\/em> (The Blue and Gold of the\r\nDay, 1961) were published. The latter one included a number of stories and two historical\r\nnovellas, Sivaia Legenda<\/em> (A Grey Legend) about the people’s uprising in Mogilev\r\nregion in the 17th century and Tsyganski Karol<\/em> (The Gypsy King), set in the\r\nsecond half of the 18th century, about the upheavals in the life of the Belarusian\r\nnobleman Mikhal Yanouski, the local gypsy ‘monarch’ Yakub Znamiarouski of Lida, and the\r\n‘republicans’ who opposed him. Then he wrote his first novel entitled Leanidy ne\r\nVernutstsa da Ziamli<\/em>, in which the life of the\u00a0intelligentsia and the relations\r\nbetween the novel’s characters (descendants of the insurgent in the\u00a0 1863 uprising\r\nand the tsarist officer) are shown through the prism of historical events. The novel was\r\npublished in Polymia<\/em> in 1962 under the title of “Nelga Zabyts<\/em>”\r\n(Impossible to Forget). At this time Karatkevich became interested in cinematography and\r\nactively worked on scripts for feature films and documentaries. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The 1960s <\/b>was a a fruitful time for Karatkevich, when his talent unfolded most\r\npowerfully. From 1962 he constantly lived in Minsk; the time began when the young writer\r\ncould totally focus on his work. In 1964, his novella The Wild Hunt of King Stakh<\/em><\/em>\r\nwas published for the first time. In the 1960s, he also wrote novels, Ears of Rye\r\nunder Thy Sickle<\/em> (1962-1964, published in 1965, a special edition in 1968), a\r\nlarge-scale work about the events on the eve of the uprising of 1863-1864, Christ Has\r\nLanded in Garodnia<\/em> (1965-1966, published in 1972) devoted to medieval Belarus, and a\r\nnumber of other historical pieces – the play Kastus Kalinouski<\/em> (1963, published\r\nin 1980), the novella Zbroia<\/em> (The Weapon, 1964, published in 1981) about\r\nKalinouski’s insurgents, and the legend Laddzia Rospachy<\/em> (1964, published in\r\n1968) about the tragic events of the war with Moscovia in the 17th century and the bravery\r\nof the Belarusian warriors. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Uladzimir Katratkevich made a lot for the Belarusian cinematography. He wrote scripts\r\nfor the documentary films “The Witnesses of the Eternity” (1964),\r\n“Memory” (1966), and “Be Happy, the River” (1967). In 1967, a fiction\r\nfilm “Christ Has Landed in Garodnia” was made from his script. An ‘excessive’\r\nattention, in the view of some ideological inspectors, to the ‘macabre medieval ages’\r\nbecame the reason why the film was ‘put on the shelf’ and came to the public only many\r\nyears later in 1989. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1969, a collection of his poetry “My Iliad” came out in print. In 1970, a\r\nbook of prose “Chazenia” was published, which included the novella of the same\r\nname about the young intelligentsia in the Far East in the 1960s, several stories on\r\nhistorical and contemporary topics, and “Tales of the Amber Country” devoted to\r\nLatvia. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Undoubtedly, a central place in Karatkevich’s heritage is occupied by the Ears of\r\nRye under Thy Sickle<\/em>,\u00a0actually the first Belarusian historical novel. According\r\nto the author, the novel’s plan matured for twelve years, and “the outset of the\r\nnovel came to mind on 7 August 1959 near Aziaryshcha in Ragachou region”. In Ragachou\r\nthe author wrote many of the novel’s pages. “With this book I tried to pay debt to\r\nthe Dnieper, the people of the 1863 uprising, to Belarus”. The author thought this\r\nwork would become the first part of the trilogy providing a broad picture of the people’s\r\nstruggle for freedom, but did not manage to realize his plans in full. The novel,\r\npublished in Polymia<\/em> in 1965, met a positive response from the readers. It was\r\nhighly estimated by most critics. But there were negative responses, too. The author was\r\nreproached of\u00a0showing the nobility, rather than the peasantry, as the main acting\r\nforce in the novel. In preparing the book edition, he was demanded to remake the work.\r\nKaratkevich strongly refused to change the main conceptual accents in the novel. At the\r\nmeeting of the Union of Writers, he was supported by Ales Adamovich, Yanka Bryl, Nil\r\nGilevich, Genadz Kisialeu, Adam Maldzis, Ivan Navumenka and other writers. The novel \r\nwas published in a single book, but the author had to divide the\r\nfirst part of the trilogy into two books and accept some of the reviewer’s remarks. On\r\nthe theme of the 1863 Uprising Karatkevich\u00a0 worked\u00a0 in the course of his whole\r\nlife, dwelling on the topic in many of his poetic pieces, stories, dramatic works,\r\npublications and, according to one researcher of his life, spreading the ‘cult’ of Kastus\r\nKalinouski. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In the late 1960s, Uladzimir Karatkevich met with his future wife, Valiantsina\r\nBranislavauna Nikitina, who was his associate and assisted him in many ways. She was a\r\nhistorian, with a scholarly degree in history. Before she met Karatkevich, she had taught\r\nin a teachers college in Brest. After moving to Minsk, she worked as a research assistant\r\nat the Institute of Cultural Studies, Ethnography and Folklore at the Academy of Sciences\r\nof Belarus, studied the issues of the traditional and national culture, went on many\r\nethnographical expeditions, often accompanied by her husband. In 1990, for her\r\nparticipation in preparing “The Collection of Historical and Cultural Monuments in\r\nBelarus”, together with other authors, she was awarded the State Prize of the BSSR. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Uladzimir Karatkevich was fond of travelling. One may surely say that he travelled\r\nthrough the whole Belarus. (“I love all places in Belarus. And I know all of\r\nthem.”). He visited many places in the Soviet Union and in Poland; on the invitation\r\nfrom the Slovak colleagues, together with his wife, he visited Czechoslovakia several\r\ntimes and was very impressed by its nature and historical monuments. “Life\r\nis impossible to invent. It can only be reproduced”, – wrote Karatkevich and he\r\nfollowed this principle in both his historical works and journalistic articles, as well as\r\nhis essays and sketches on regional studies. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The 1970s<\/strong> were marked by new achievements in\r\nKaratkevich’s literary career. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

A noticeable work in the writer’s heritage is The Land Under White Wings<\/em>, an\r\nessay about Belarus, its history, nature and culture, written originally in 1971 for the\r\nUkrainian readers and published in a single book in Belarusian in 1977. Following\r\nKaratkevich’s example, this image became deeply rooted as a symbolic name for our country.\r\nThe Foliage of Chestnut<\/em>s, a novella about the young boys and girls in the first\r\nyears after the war, was written in 1972. Photo albums “Belavezhskaia Pushcha\r\nNational Park” and “Memory of the Belarusian Land” were published in 1973\r\nand 1979 respectively, with text written for both books by Uladzimir Karatkevich. A\r\ncollection of stories and novellas, The Eye of the Typhoon<\/em> was published in 1974\r\nand a book of historical works, From Past Ages<\/em> in 1978.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In the 1970s, Karatkevich did not stop his work on dramatic pieces. In 1973 he finished\r\nthe script for the feature movie “The Red Agate”. He also wrote works for the\r\ntheater. His historical play “The Bells of Vitebsk” (written in 1973, published\r\nin 1977) is devoted to the events of 1623, the time when the Union of the Orthodox and\r\nCatholic churches was established on our land. In 1978, the play “Kastus\r\nKalinouski” was staged at the theatre (in 1973 Karatkevich wrote a libretto to the\r\nballet of the same name). In 1982 Karatkevich wrote a social-historical drama “Kalyska\r\nChatyrokh Charaunits<\/em>” (staged in the same year), in which he turned to the\r\nchildhood and youth of Yanka Kupala. The events of the Krychau Uprising of 1743-1744 are\r\ndepicted in the tragedy “Mother of Storms” (1982, published in 1985, performed\r\nin 1988). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Karatkevich also wrote for young readers; his book “Tales” was published in\r\n1975. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The continuity of different ages is embodied in another famous work by Karatkevich – an\r\nadventure and detective novel, The Dark Castle Alshanski<\/em>, in which a detective\r\nplot, social-psychological and historical aspects, and colourful human characters are\r\nclosely intertwined (1979, published in a single book in 1983). <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In the course of his whole literary activity Uladzimir Karatkevich worked as a\r\npublicist and journalist. He created works on Frantsysk Skaryna, Kastus Kalinouski, Yanka\r\nKupala, Maksim Bagdanovich and such world names as George Byron, Anton Chekhov, Mikhail\r\nSholokhov. The themes for his numerous stories, essays and articles were the places in\r\nBelarus and other countries. These are old Vitebsk, Turau, Mstislavl, Vilnius, Kiev, also\r\nLatvia, Belarusian Palesse… He was also interested in the spiritual heritage of the\r\nworld’s peoples. An example is the story “The Great Shan Yan” in which he turned\r\nto the history of Old China.\u00a0Karatkevich completed many translations from Latvian,\r\nLithuanian, Georgian, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Slovak, Czech, Turkmenian; he wrote a\r\nnumber of critical articles on the issues of literary translation. Among his friends were\r\nthe Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak, Bulgarian, Lithuanian and Latvian writers. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Karatkevich always stayed in the thick of events. His various contacts were many\r\nfriends, writers, artists, cinema men. His close circle included the famous Belarusian\r\nwriters such as Yanka Bryl, Vasil Bykau, Rygor Baradulin, Adam Maldzis and many others.\r\nBut he could also find common language with the people whom he met on numerous trips and\r\nexpeditions, fishermen, foresters… Karatkevich showed himself in the field of education.\r\nIn the second half of the 1970s he began to work on Belarusian television where he had his\r\nown programme called “Heritage” devoted to the history and culture of Belarusian\r\nland. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The late 1970s \u2013 early 1980s <\/b>were the years when Karatkevich’s talent received\r\ninternational recognition, but was also a time of great personal trials. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1980, in connection with his 50th anniversary Uladzimir Karatkevich was awarded the\r\n‘Friendship of Nations Order’. To mark this date, a book of his select works was issued in\r\ntwo volumes. In1983, he was awarded the Ivan Melezh Literary Prize for his novel\r\n“Impossible to Forget”.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In his personal life Uladzimir Karatkevich suffered an irreplaceable loss. In 1977, his\r\nmother, Nadzeia Vasilleuna, with whom he had long lived together, died. In 1983, his wife\r\nValiantsina Branislavauna, died from a severe disease. Uladzimir Siamionavich suffered\r\nenormous grief. His own health was undermined but he continued his trips. In one of them,\r\nhis disease worsened and on 25 July 1984 at the age of 54 Uladzimir Karatkevich died. He\r\nwas buried at Eastern Cemetery in Minsk. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Uladzimir Karatkevich is probably one of the most brilliant figures in the Belarusian\r\nliterature of the second part of the 20th century. His talent, deep erudition and\r\npatriotism served as a basis for his creative literary achievements.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

“There is only one way to bring up a man to love his national culture: to\r\ncultivate pride in his people and its history”, – said Uladzimir Karatkevich. He is\r\noften termed the ‘father of Belarusian historical romanticism’. A researcher of\r\nKaratkevich’s life and works, Andrei Verabei, calls him ‘the classic of Belarusian\r\nhistorical fiction’. He compares his role in Belarusian literature to that of Walter Scott\r\nfor the English and Henryk Sienkiewicz for the Polish and particularly marks his\r\nachievements in creating a highly artistic historical prose. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Uladzimir Karatkevich has become one of the spiritual symbols of the modern Belarusian\r\nrevival. His active life position, the conscience of a patriot and citizen, whose main\r\nconcern was about the fate of the Belarusian people, often caused criticism and discontent\r\namong the ideological ‘guards of the order’. Some of his works were published many years\r\nafter their creation and many were published posthumously. Yet the contribution of\r\nUladzimir Karatkevich to the development of Belarusian literature and the awakening of the\r\npeople’s historical memory is unquestionable. His literary output received high\r\nrecognition among the readers both in Belarus and abroad. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

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With the passing time, increasingly more people show interest in Karatkevich’s\r\npersonality and work. A tribute to the writer and a high estimation of his writings by\r\ndescendants can be seen in many spheres of the society’s life. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1984, Uladzimir Karatkevich was posthumously awarded the Yakub Kolas State Prize of\r\nBelarus for his novel “The Dark Castle Alshanski”. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

A collection of his verse under the memorable title “I Was, I Am, I Will Be”,\r\nprepared for publication by the author during his lifetime, came out in 1986. The \u00a0\r\nCollected works by Uladzimir Karatkevich were issued in eight volumes in 1987-1991. His\r\nnovel “Ears of Rye under Thy Sickle” is included into school curriculum in\r\nliterature. His works have been translated into more than twenty languages, including\r\nEnglish, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and others. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Karatkevich’s plays have been staged in many Belarusian theatres. The Belarusian\r\nNational Opera and Ballet includes the opera A Grey Legend<\/em> (composer D. Smolski,\r\nlibretto by Karatkevich) in their repertoire and Uladzimir Soltan’s interpretation of The\r\nWild Hunt of King Stakh<\/em>, awarded with the State Prize of Belarus. A number of feature\r\nfilms, television and radio performances were made after Karatkevich’s works.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

A documentary “I Was, I Am, I Will Be”, several video films and a number of\r\nmonograph publications have been dedicated to Karatkevich’s life and work. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

There is the Uladzimir Karatkevich Museum in Orsha. The papers and documents relating\r\nto his life and work are on display at the Museum of People’s Glory in Ragachou and the\r\nRegional Museum in Vitebsk.\u00a0At the initiative of the writer’s followers, expositions\r\nare held at the vocational college of electronics in Minsk, the\r\nboarding school for builders in Molodechno, and high school No 8 in Orsha. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Monuments to the writer are erected in Orsha, Vitebsk and at the writer’s grave in\r\nMinsk. The commemorative plaques are attached to the house in Orsha, where the writer\r\nlived in the late 1950s and in Minsk, where he had an apartment. The streets in Orsha,\r\nVitebsk and Ragachou bear the name of Karatkevich as a tribute to\r\nhim. His name is given to a high school in Orsha, the Foundation for Assistance to Young\r\nWriters, and the Mastaskaia Litaratura Publishers Prize. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

In connection with the 80th anniversary of the writer’s birth, the Culture Minister of\r\nBelarus adopted a special programme to celebrate the event. The plans have been made to\r\nopen the writer’s monument in Minsk and to publish his collected works in 25 volumes.\r\nUnder process is the work on a serial film based on his novel “Ears of Rye under Thy\r\nSickle”. The plans are to shoot a documentary, to organize a number of concerts and\r\nexhibitions, to issue a commemorative envelope with an original postage stamp devoted to\r\nthe writer, and more. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The outstanding classic of Belarusian literature is honoured beyond the borders of our\r\ncountry. His name is given to the Belarusian Sunday School in Tallinn and the Public\r\nLibrary of the Literature of Estonia’s Peoples. The monument to the writer is soon to be\r\nunveiled in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.\u00a0 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The Archives of Belarus website offers a virtual exposition of 240 documents on\r\nUladzimir Karatkevich, including the writer’s autographs, textual records, excerpts of his\r\nworks, photographs, sound recordings, and film fragments. The documents are organised by\r\nseven topics illustrating various aspects of Karatkevich’s life and creative work.
\r\n
\r\nThe source materials are selected from six Belarusian archives–the Belarusian State\r\nArchives-Museum of Literature and Art, the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs\r\nand Sound Recordings, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the National\r\nHistorical Archives of Belarus in Minsk, the State Archives of Vitebsk Region, and the\r\nLocal State Archives in Orsha.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The survey of documents and the article on Karatkevich’s life and work are prepared by\r\nteamwork of the Belarusian Research Center for Electronic Records with the assistance from\r\nthe Department for Archives and Records Management of the Republic of Belarus. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

The examples of Karatkevich’s poetry in Belarusian and in English translation, as well\r\nas the English version language of the famous novella King Stakh’s Wild Hunt<\/em>\r\n\u00a0can be found on a separate website Belarusian\r\nLiterature in English translation,<\/a> the project implemented by the Yanka Kupala Central\r\nPublic Library with the support of the National Commission of the Republic of Belarus for\r\nUNESCO. <\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archival documents online Overview Uladzimir Siamionavich KARATKEVICH, a classic writer of Belarusian literature, a poet, prose writer, playwright, script writer, publicist, translator. He was born 26 November 1930 in the…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":126943,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-281164","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/281164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/281164\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/126943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.gov.by\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}