Ivan Shamyakin

Ivan Petrovich Shamyakin was a Belarusian Soviet writer, screenwriter, playwright, and public figure.

He was born on January 30, 1921, in the village of Korma, Dobrush District, Gomel Region, Belarus, into a poor peasant family. Father: Petr Minovich Shamyakin. Mother: Sankletia Stepanovna. Wife: Mariya Filatovna. Daughters: Lipa Ivanovna (born 1941), Tatyana Ivanovna (born 1948), and Olesya Ivanovna (born 1960).

Ivan Shamyakin spent his childhood in his native village, in that cherished corner where roosters crowed for three republics at once: Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Perhaps it was the beauty of his native land that helped develop the literary gift of the future great writer. While studying at the technical school of building materials, Ivan Shamyakin wrote poetry and was a member of the literary association attached to the city newspaper Gomelskaya Pravda. In 1940, after graduating from the technical school, he married and went to work at the district industrial combine in the city of Białystok. But soon he was called up to the army. He served as a gun commander in the 33rd Separate Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division in the Murmansk area, where the war overtook him.

Murmansk was bombed mercilessly; during mass raids, anti-aircraft gunners managed to shoot down 3-4 enemy aircraft. Soon Shamyakin was appointed division Komsomol organizer. He was an knowledgeable propagandist and an engaging storyteller, so the soldiers listened to him with pleasure. For the command, he prepared various reports, produced a wall newspaper and combat leaflets. It was then that he began to publish in army newspapers. He wrote and published his first short story. At the beginning of 1945, the military unit that included the 33rd Separate Anti-Aircraft Division was transferred to Poland (to Poznań), and then to Germany. There, on the Oder, Ivan Shamyakin met the Great Victory.

When the fighting ended, while still in the army, he published the novella Revenge, in which he praised the humanism of the Soviet victorious soldier. With free time