Yakub Kolas

Yakub Kolas (real name and surname Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich) was a Belarusian writer, playwright, poet, translator, and public figure. He was one of the classics and founders of modern Belarusian literature. People’s Poet of the Byelorussian SSR (1926). Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR (1928). Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR (1934). Honored Scientist of the Byelorussian SSR (1944). Member of the VKP(b) from 1945.

He was born on 22 October (3 November) 1882 in the village of Akinchitsy (now part of the town of Stowbtsy, Stowbtsy District, Minsk Region, Belarus), into an Orthodox family of forester Mikhail Kazimirovich (Mikhas) Mitskevich and homemaker Anna Yurevna Lyosik. His paternal ancestors were Catholics.

He graduated from a public school, and in 1902 from the Niasvizh Teachers’ Seminary. He worked as a teacher in the Pinsk region (1902–1906). In 1906, his first publication appeared: the poem “Native Land” in the Belarusian newspaper Nasha Dola. In 1907 he headed the literary department of the Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva in Vilnius. For participation in organizing an illegal teachers’ congress in 1906, he was sentenced to imprisonment, which he served in Minsk prison (1908–1911). In 1912–1914 he taught in Pinsk. There in 1914 his eldest son Daniil was born, who later became the creator and first director of his father’s museum. In 1917 his middle son, Yuri Konstantinovich Mitskevich, was born, and in 1926 his youngest son, Mikhail Konstantinovich (Mikhas) Mitskevich.

In 1915 he was evacuated with his family to the Moscow region, where he worked as a teacher in Dmitrov Uyezd. In the same year he was mobilized into the army. He graduated from the Alexander Military School (Moscow, 1916) and served in a reserve regiment in Perm. At that time his family moved to Oboyan (Kursk Governor