Biography

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL DATA

Yakub Kolas (real name Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich) was born on November 3rd, 1882. The father of the future poet, a landless peasant, saved his family from starvation by taking the post of forest warden. Yakub Kolas’ childhood passed in the most beautiful surroundings and his sensitive feeling for nature, his lyricism and the soft aquatone tints of his writings undoubtedly arise from the days of his childhood spent among the boundness Belarusian forests.
In 1898 Yakub Kolas joined the Nesvizh pedagogical seminary and after graduating in 1902 the future poet worked for a few years as a village teacher.
The 20th century began in Russia with the stormy events of the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. The foundation of czarist autocracy was shaken and the remotest corners of the Czarist Empire awoke to active political life.
Through all Belarus ran a wave of revolutionary uprisings, strikes and demonstrations by town and country workers. In one of such demonstrations Yakub Kolas took an active part. In 1906 he was discharged from school and placed under police surveillance.
In September 1908, the Vilensk Court of Justice sentenced Yakub Kolas to three years in prison for taking part in an illegal teachers’ conference. But the main reason was the revolutionary spirit with which his verses and stories were imbued. While the poet was still in prison, in 1910, his first book of poems entitled Songs of Complaint came out. Many of his poems were devoted to the Belarusian nature. My Native Land is considered to be one of his best verses. His poem New Land belongs to the classical literary heritage of the Belarusian poets and writers.
The World War I… A few months of training in the Alexandrovsky Military College in Moscow - and the newly-fledged ensign Mitskevich was sent to serve in Perm, and later in the army on active service.
Soon after, on account of illness, Yakub Kolas was released from military duty and sent to the town of Oboyan in Kursk Region where his wife and two children were living. While he was there, the Great October Revolution broke out and Kolas entered with enthusiasm into public life and activity.
In 1921 Yakub Kolas moved with his family and settled permanently in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The following ten years were the years of his creative activities not only in literature but also in scientific work. He was elected vice-president of National Academy of Sciences. Yakub Kolas developed as a writer under the strong influence of the best examples of Russian literature that supported the growing and still immature poet. His poems and stories appeared in print in the dramatic days of the First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) when the depressed countryside whipped up by the revolutionary storm began to speak of its adversities and suffering at full voice.
The First Russian Revolution brought forward a whole pleiad of Belarusian writers among whom was Yakub Kolas. Through his works Belarus revealed itself as a talented, but humiliated, rich in spirit, but not recognized nation, a people who saw their bright future days, and their nationhood in revolution, and in the struggle for the “right to be called humans”.
The poetry of Yakub Kolas expressed the ideals and the mood of the Belarusian peasantry. He depicted in all his greatness and wise simplicity the powerful figure of Belarusian peasant – humble and rebellious, the producer of the country’s wealth and culture.
The establishment of a national Belarusian literature went parallel with the development of a Belarusian literary language. Kolas introduced a new tendency, freeing the Belarus tongue from layers of accretions that it rang out in full rich tones, epically, yet tenderly, with lyrical penetration. It absorbed the singing melody of the folk-song, and the mighty uproad of the crowd stirred by a call for the struggles, and also the voice of the rich and gifted soul, sensitive to the beauty of the surrounding world.
The expression of great grief and sorrow, and yearning occupy no small place in Kolas’ poetry but do not exhaust nor limit its scope. The poet believes that the poor peasant has the right to a better life and that he will win a happier future for himself. That is why this grief and sorrow so often culminate in the protest against the injustice of social conditions. The traditionally melancholy song becomes a song of righteous anger inspired by the social truth that the First Social Revolution had revealed to the poet.
In his prose Yakub Kolas presents and solves the very same problems as he does in his poetry: one will find many motifs, ideas and images met with in his lyrics. His prose takes up sharp social problems with which the Belarus countryside lived. Along with that the generalized image of the peasant – the character of his lyrics – more frequently gives place in his prose to individualized images of the peasants described with deep psychological penetration, with many more facets to their contradictory character.
This tendency in Yakub Kolas’ prose led to a character with a complicated internal life and a wide range of social-ethical interests. It found its most complete expressions in the long poems New Land and Symon the Musician which not only marked a stage in Yakub Kolas’ literary development but have become the events in the whole of Belarusian literature; they presented wide epic canvas covering the whole historical epoch in the life of the people.
The many-sided talent of Yakub Kolas blossomed out with new vigor after the Revolution. The reality of the post-revolutionary days dripped the poet with its wide sweep of construction and creation.
After the Revolution numerous collections of Kolas’ stories came out: First Steps, In Quiet Waters, Tales of Life, and the novels On Life’s Expanses, A Chip Off the Old Block and The Quagmire. His most significant prose work was a trilogy At a Distance (1923-1954). This work was of major importance for the future development of Belarusian prose. It describes the events in Belarus at a crucial moment of history (1905-1907 Revolution) and develops the theme of New Land and Simon the Musician. The sleepy countryside turns into a revolutionary countryside growing increasingly aware of its strength and its rights. The character of the trilogy, a young village teacher Lobanovich, embodies the revolutionary spirit of the times, the thoughts and feelings of progressive intellectuals seeking a path to unity and finds the support and understanding of the peasants.
The Great October Revolution changes the tune of Yakub Kolas’ poetic muse and after so many melancholy songs it switched to a far happier key. His protagonist finds himself the master of his life, his boldness knows no limits, and he is active by nature and that is the source of his optimism. Many of Kolas’ poems are based on the contrast between the pre-revolutionary and Soviet realities.
The simple and wise lyrics of Yakub Kolas written during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) were penetrated with deep patriotic feeling: it called to arms, to revenge, to believe in the victory of people’s righteous cause.
Yakub Kolas died in 1956.
Yakub Kolas is much read and loved. His books are distributed in editions of many thousands because true poetry never loses its power. He is one of these genuine artists whose powerful talent blends with the aspirations of his people promoting their self-awareness and helping them reveal to the full their spiritual powers and expresses their most cherished hopes. The appearance of such an artist gives new impetus to the society’s spiritual development and speeds up its further progress. Yakub Kolas helped his native people to feel their strength. He was the chronicler of Belarusian history and will remain with his people forever.

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