Vasil Yakavenka, 81-years old Belarusian writer, publicist and public figure died on January 22th.
Vasil Yakavenka was born in a peasant family on May 5, 1936 in the Svietlahorsk District, the Gomel region.
In 1956 he graduated from the Belarusian Industrial Technical School, specializing in geology. In 1956–1958 he served in the Soviet Army. He worked as a master, technician, engineer in various geological parties and project institutes of the republic, editor at the Belarusian Radio. In 1966 he graduated BSU in absentia. In 1972–1977 he worked as an editor of the department of science and art, essay and journalism department of the Polymya magazine. Since 1977 he was a member of the BSSR and the USSR Writers' Union. In 1977–1978 he was a Secretary of the Board of the Union of Cinematographers of the BSSR. Since 1990 he worked as a President of the Belarusian Socio-Ecological Union Chernobyl.
The writer gave a lot of energy to the disclosure of realities in covering the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, the glasnost establishment, the irradiated and weakened children rehabilitation.
In recent years, as coordinator of the civil initiative Institute of National Memory, Vasil Yakavenka focused his attention on uncovering unknown pages of Stalinist repressions in Belarus, "found" his grandfather Vasil, a peasant arrested and shot in Mozyr in 1938. He also edited the public bulletin Reha Gulaga (The Gulag’s Echo) (2007).
Together with famous Belarusian scientists and creative intelligentsia, he held a large-scale actions for the revival and development of the Belarusian language (2009, 2011).
Vasili Yakavenka is known as the author of the historical novel Nadlom (Rupture), the trilogy Pakutny vek (Age of Pain), the books Krushenne na rostani (Crash on Crossroads), Drugoy zyamlі ne budze (It will Be No Other Land) and many others.
From: Naviny.by
The collective of the National Library of Belarus expresses its sincere condolences to the writer's relatives and friends.
