This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the People's writer of Belarus, publicist and screenwriter Vasil Vladimirovich Bykov.
On this occasion, the National Library has prepared an anniversary exhibition "Soldier's fate", which highlights the great influence on the work of the Belarusian writer of his participation in the Great Patriotic War.
The beginning of the exhibition introduces the writer's life and creative path. Vasil Bykov is one of the largest representatives of the so-called "lieutenant's prose". The first showcase contains pages from the writer's autobiography, where he talks about important facts of his front-line life-participation in brutal and bloody battles on the Southwestern Front, the victorious path through Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria.
Vasil Bykov made a great contribution to the formation of Belarusian prose of the twentieth century. Most of his works are novels, frontline and partisan, which show the moral choice of a person in the most dramatic moments of life. The biographical and literary works of Dmitry Bugaev, Igor Dedkov, Lazar Lazarev, Valentina Lokun help to look into the creative laboratory of the writer, to learn about his first education-artistic, about his literary interests, reading hobbies.
Vasil Vladimirovich's literary talent was highly appreciated. He became a people's writer of Belarus (1980), a Hero of Socialist Labor (1984). The exposition presents works in chronological order that have been awarded numerous prizes: the Yakub Kolas Literary Prize (1964, for the novel “The Third Rocket”), the USSR State Prize (1974, for the novellas "Obelisk", "To live until dawn"), the State Prize of the BSSR named after Ya. Kolas (1978), for the novellas "The wolf pack", "His battalion"), the Lenin Prize (1986, for the story "3 days of trouble").
The first creative acquisitions attract attention – publications on the pages of the magazine "Vozhyk", the first novel “Crane Cry” (1959), one of the most popular and represented in cinema and on the theatrical stage – "Alpine Ballad" (1963), the only novel "Quarry" (1990).
Vasil Bykov's works have been published in thousands of copies, translated into more than 200 foreign languages. The author's books still arouse the interest of readers, which is evident from the large number of reprints in Belarusian and Russian publishing houses. The exhibition can trace the wide geography of the writer's readership through translations into Azerbaijani, English, Armenian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Mongolian, Moldovan, German, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, French, Czech, Swedish and Hindi.
The famous Kyrgyz creator Chingiz Aitmatov noted that the military fate saved Vasil Bykov for the sake of life and creativity, so that he could convey the whole truth about the war and its cruel, anti-human essence on behalf of a generation of young men whose day of life in the war was equal to age.
We invite you to familiarize yourself with the exhibition and turn to the best works by Vasil Bykov, which embodied all the stages of the courageous and selfless struggle of the Belarusian people against the invaders, which is especially relevant on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders.
The exhibition will be on display from April 18 to September 8 in the ring gallery (2nd floor).
The end date of the exhibition can be changed.
The opening hours of the exhibition corresponds to the library’s opening hours.
Entrance to the exhibition is available by the library ticket or ticket of the library's social and cultural center. The books presented in the exhibition can be ordered through the e-catalog of the National Library of Belarus.
For more info: (+375 17) 293 29 80.
The material is presented by the department of gallery and exhibition activities.
