| Yakub
Kolas was elected vice-president of National Academy of Scienses and worked
there from 1939 to 1956. He actively participated in linguistic investigations.
Under his guidance the Linguistics Institute of the Academy prepared and
published more than 20 books of Belarusian terms in all the main areas
of knowledge. Yakub Kolas put much effort, together with other scientists,
into editing the greater Russian-Belarusian dictionary published in 1953.
At present, the Linguistics Institute is a leading research institution
carrying out extensive Belarusian, Slavic and general linguistic studies.
Yakub Kolas said: “The word is the primary source of our knowledge of life and the surrounding world. You cannot hold it in your hands, nor can you weigh or measure it to know its true value. All depends on your taste, on your linguistic feeling and aesthetic criterion, and these categories have no clear-cut boundaries or established standards”. |
One of the buildings of National Academy of Sciences. The memorial plaque in honor of Yakub Kolas. |