Yanka Kupala
6/25/1882 - 6/28/1942
Pity (1908)
Hussler (1910)
Shlyakham zhytsya (1913)
Spadchyn (1922)
Impunity (1925)
1882
School, University
Born on June 25 (July 7), 1882 in the village of Vyazynka (now Molodechno district of the Minsk region of Belarus) in the Belarusian Catholic family of Dominik Onufrievich Lutsevich and Benigna Ivanovna Lutsevich (virgin Volosevich). Parents were impoverished Belarusian noblemen who rented land in landowners' lands. The Lutsevich family was known since the beginning of the 17th century. The poet’s grandfather rented land from the Radziwills, but was expelled from their homes by them. This fact formed the basis of the Kupala drama "Raskidane na gnazhesto." В детстве будущему поэту приходилось помогать отцу, который, несмотря на своё шляхетское происхождение, по сути принадлежал к числу безземельных крестьян и вынужден был обрабатывать съёмные участки (у Здзеховских и др.), платя крупные суммы в качестве аренды за использование угодий. After the death of his father in 1902, he worked as a home teacher, a clerk in a landowner estate, a clerk and other work. The questionnaire of the conscript Lutsevich Ivan Dominicovich discovered in the Belarusian National Historical Archive indicates his religion - Roman Catholic and nationality - Russian [3]. Yanka Kupala entered the people's university in September, but his general mobilization announced in connection with the onset of the First World War prevented him from continuing his studies. Already at the beginning of 1916, the poet student was drafted into the army and he entered the road construction detachment, in which he worked until the onset of the events of the October Revolution.
18821903
First publications
The first works of Kupala are several lyric poems in Polish, published in 1903-1904 in the journal Ziarno (Grain) under the pseudonym K-a. The first poem in Belarusian - “May share” dates from July 15, 1904. The poem "Muzhik", published in 1905 in the Minsk newspaper "North-Western Territory", can be considered a successful debut in print and the beginning of the ascent of Yanka Kupala to the literary Belarusian Olympus. His early poems are typical of folklore in 19th-century Belarusian poetry. Since 1907, Yanka Kupala begins the first short-term cooperation with the newspaper Nasha Niva. In 1906-1907, the poems were written “To Winter” (Winter), “To Anyone” (To No One), “Advance by Kahannem” (Payment by Love), on December 18, 1908, “Our Niva” published the poem “At Pilipak”. In the same year, work was completed on the poems "The Eternal Song" and "For what?" The theme of these works is social injustice and the oppression of the landlords.
19031908
Vilensky and Petersburg periods
In 1908, the first collection of Kupala was published in St. Petersburg under the name "Zhaleyka" ("Pipe"). At the end of the year, the St. Petersburg Committee on Press Affairs under the Ministry of Internal Affairs decided to confiscate the collection as anti-state, and bring its author to justice. Soon, the arrest was withdrawn, but in 1909 the circulation of the book was again confiscated, already at the order of the Vilnius Governor-General. In order not to spoil the reputation of Nasha Niva, Kupala stopped working in the editorial office. Nevertheless, the Petersburg period of his life and work can be called one of the most successful and productive: primarily because Janke Kupala had the opportunity to make acquaintances with many representatives of the Belarusian intelligentsia, for example, Yakub Kolas and E. Pashkevich, who worked under the pseudonym Totka, who took shape as a poet and gained fame by the beginning of the 1910s. Back in Vilna, the poet met with the outstanding figure of Russian symbolism V. Ya. Bryusov, who drew attention to the actively published author and expressed a genuine interest in his poetic work. Later, Bryusov and Yanka Kupala continued to work closely at literary meetings in St. Petersburg; Bryusov became the first Russian author to start translating the Belarusian poet into Russian.
19081987
Soviet period
With the onset of the Soviet era, the lyrical mood of Yanka Kupala underwent some changes. In the foreground in his poems came the motive of expectation of a brighter future; the poet had sincere hopes for fundamental changes in the life of the Belarusian people under the influence of the new era. Over the next two decades (until the onset of World War II), the following lyric collections of the Belarusian poet were published: “Inheritance” (1922), “Nameless” (1925), “Song of Construction” (1936), “Order-Bearing Belarus” (1937 ), “From the Heart” (1940), the poem “Over the River Oressa” (1933), “Tarasova Lobe” (1939) and some others Portrait of Yanka Kupala painted by Jacob Kruger, 1923 Despite the publication of optimistic poetry collections, relations between the Belarusian poet and the Soviet regime were mixed. The methodical persecution of the poet began after the accusation of unreliability: allegedly during the difficult historical period of the late 1910s, Yanka Kupala strongly supported the Organization of National Liberation of Belarus and “tarnished” himself by joining it. The play "Tuteyshyya" was banned for nationalism. Her translation into Polish provoked a protest from Polish chauvinists.
19871997
The period of the Great Patriotic War
During the war years, the bright journalism of Yanka Kupala, which was able to ignite people for battle, gained popularity - its new patriotic poems in this period had an anti-fascist orientation. Having left Minsk, Yanka Kupala settled in Pechishchi, a small village near Kazan, in order to find peace for immersion in anti-fascist journalism.
19972003
Death
Yanka Kupala died on June 28, 1942 at the Moscow Hotel. The poet fell into a flight of stairs between the 9th and 10th floors of the hotel, death was instant. There are rumors that the death could not be accidental; there were versions of suicide or murder involving special services [5]. According to one version, at the time of the death of the poet a woman was seen with him. Allegedly, it was Pavlina Myadyolka: a friend of youth, the first performer of the role of Pavlinka. Yanka Kupala was originally buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow. In 1962, his ashes were transferred to Minsk and reburied at the Military Cemetery, next to the grave of his mother (who died the day after her son, whose death she did not know in occupied Minsk). A large memorial has been erected over the grave of Yanka Kupala, as well as Yakub Kolas, buried nearby.
2003