Uladzimir Karatkevich

Uladzimir Karatkevich (http://news.tut.by/culture/376666.html ())

Uladzimir Karatkevich is a famous Belarusian writer, poet and playwright. He was born on the 26th of November 1930 in Orsha, Vitebsk region in Belarus. After the Second World War he studied at the faculty of philology of the Kiev State University.

His first poem was written in 1951 and after it Karatkevich published three collections of his poems. The historians say that the author's most excellent creations were two books: "Spikes Under Your Sickle" (I'm reading it now) and "King Stach's Wild Hunt". There are many other interesting books written by him, but these are the most popular in Belarusian literature even today. U. Karatkevich wanted to show his countrymen the history of Belarus and awoke the consciousness of Belarusians. He wanted, I think, a better future for Belarus and its people.

The cover of the book (English edition) (http://www.glagoslav.com/en/Book/24/King-Stakhs-Wi ())

Karatkevich died on the 25th of July, 1984 at the age of 54. He made a great contribution to the development of Belarusian culture, most of all for development of literature, because he left a great heritage.

The cover of the book (Belarusian edition) (http://www.baravik.org/topic/146/ ())

As for me, I'm not a Belarusian. But I live here and I must respect Belarusian laws, so I study Belarusian literature in Grade 10. It's the end of our school year and the novel we are reading now is the novel "The Spikes Under Your Sickle" by U. Karatkevich. For me Belarusian literature is boring. But this novel I found very interesting. So I feel true history of Belarusians thanks to Karatkevich, because I like to read. I think Belarusian people should respect and be proud of their great writer.