Yanka Bryl Belarusian Soviet writer Date of Birth: 04.08.1917 Country: Belarus

1. Biography of Yanka Bryl
2. Early Life and Education
3. Writing Career
4. Translation Work

Biography of Yanka Bryl

Yanka Bryl was a Belarusian Soviet writer and People's Writer of the Belarusian SSR (1981). He was awarded the third degree Stalin Prize in 1952 and the Yakub Kolas State Prize of the Belarusian SSR in 1982.

Early Life and Education

Yanka Bryl was born on July 22, 1917 in Odessa, Ukraine, to a family of a railroad worker. In 1922, he moved with his parents to their homeland in Western Belarus, specifically the village of Zagora in the Korelichsky district of the Grodno region (at that time part of Poland).

In 1931, Bryl completed a Polish seven-year school and entered a gymnasium. However, due to financial difficulties, he was unable to continue his studies there and pursued self-education instead.

Writing Career

Starting from 1938, Bryl began publishing poetry and publicistic articles in the Vilnius Belarusian magazine "Shlyakh Moladzi" ("The Path of Youth"). In 1939, he was conscripted into the Polish army and served in the naval infantry. In September 1939, he was captured by the Germans near Gdynia but managed to escape and returned to his homeland in the fall of 1941. He joined the Soviet partisans and became a liaison for the Zhukov partisan brigade since October 1942. From March to July 1944, he worked as a partisan scout for the "Komsomolets" brigade and served as the editor of the newspaper "Stsyag Svabody" ("The Banner of Freedom") and the satirical leaflet "Partyzanskaye Zhigala" ("Partisan Joker").

After October 1944, Bryl lived in Minsk and worked in the editorial office of the newspaper "Razdavim Fashystskuyu Gadzinu" ("Crush the Fascist Reptile"), as well as in the magazines "Vozhyk" ("Hedgehog"), "Maladosc" ("Youth"), "Polyamia" ("Flame"), and the State Publishing House of the BSSR. He became a member of the CPSU in 1945 and served as the secretary of the board of the Belarusian Union of Writers from 1966 to 1971. He was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council of the BSSR twice (1963-1967, 1980-1985). Bryl was also the Chairman of the Belarusian branch of the "USSR-Canada" society from 1967 to 1990 and became a member of the Belarusian PEN Center in 1989. In 1994, he became an honorary member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

Translation Work

Yanka Bryl was also known as a translator from Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish languages. He translated works by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Pavel Bazhov, and many others into the Belarusian language.

Yanka Bryl passed away on July 25, 2006 and was buried in Kolodishchi, Belarus.