People’s writer Vasil Bykau would have marked his 85th birthday today
- 19.06.2009, 9:11
“Once having sold freedom, one remains a prisoner forever,” the writer used to say.
Vasil Bykau chose not to curry favour with the authorities like many other writers did. He had his own view on independence, different from that Lukashenka had, whose regime Bykau founded to be anti-national.
The writer had to live abroad his last years due to his non-acceptance of the political course conducted by Alyaksandr Lukashenka. He moved to Finland, then to Germany, and then to the Czech Republic on a personal invitation of playwright and president Havel. Bykau returned home only in 2003, a month before his death.
“In the unfree, totalitarian time, there’s a popular opinion that conformity and a coming to terms with one’s conscience won’t last long, it can be changed later, but it is a great delusion. Once having sold freedom, one remains a prisoner forever,” Vasil Bykau told shortly before he died.
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Vasil Bykau was born on June 19, 1924, in Bychki village (the Ushachy district, the Vitsebsk region). In 1939–1940 he was a student of the department of sculpture of the Vitsebsk Art College.
He drafted for military defense works at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. He served in the Red Army since summer 1942, graduated from the Infantry School in Saratov. Since 1943, he was a soldier of the 2nd and 3d Ukrainian Fronts. He was injured twice, was hospitalized.
In 1944, his parents received a notice saying their son was killed in action against Nazi troops near Kirovograd. Vasil Bykau went through Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria with the acting army. He was a senior lieutenant, a commander of a regiment artillery platoon and than of army artillery platoon. He served in Ukraine, Belarus and on Far East.
He was quitted the army in 1947, worked in Hrodna in art shopworks, for “Grodenskaya Pravda” newspaper. He lived in Minsk since 1978.
He told about the truth of the Second World War, unveiling the Soviet myths. For this reason, his works often had problems with censorship in the Soviet times. However, the works published were translated into several languages. Some of Bykau’s novels, among them The Alpine Ballad, The Obelisk, Sign of Misfortune, were cinematized.
People’s writer Vasil Bykau died on June 22 2003. The authorities continue taking revenge on Bykau even after his death. Books by Vasil Bykau are not reprinted in Belarus, films about his life and works are forbidden.