Pavel Prudnikau

Pawel Prudnikau, 1981

Pawel Ivanavich Prudnikau (born July 1, ^jul. / 14. July  1911 ^greg. In the village of Stary Dzedzin , Mogilev Governorate , Russian Empire (now Belarus ); † 16th March 2000 in Minsk , Belarus) was a Belarusian poet and writer.

Youth and first works

Pavel Ivanavich Prudnikau was born on July 14, 1911 in the village of Stary Dsedsin into a large farming family. He was the cousin of Ales Prudnikau, who also appeared as a poet . He experienced his childhood during the difficult times of the First World War , the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War . Prudnikau was only able to finish school in 1930.

He began to write poetry with his cousin Ales Prudnikau at school. In 1932 his first collection of poems, The Songs of the Carriers ( Песні грузчыкаў , with Janka Subatsch) appeared in Minsk .

In 1933 Prudnikau moved to Leningrad and studied at the university in the philological faculty until 1937. He prepared to become a scientist, but the Stalinist purges in the Soviet Union changed his fate.

In the gulag and the subsequent ordeal

Prudnikau was arrested on August 11, 1937. He was charged with participating in the murder of Kirov and sentenced to eight years' exile in the Gulag in Siberia , in the Buryat ASSR , in Omsk , Krasnoyarsk and Norilsk . There he witnessed terrible examples of the cruelty and inhumanity of the gulag system. He later processed what he experienced in his works.

After his release from prison in 1945 he went to Smolensk Oblast . There he met his future wife Anna. They left Smolensk Oblast to avoid being arrested again, and in 1952 they moved to Slobodka on the Braslawseen in Vitebskaya Woblasz , Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic . After Stalin's death in 1953, Prudnikau was rehabilitated in January 1956.

Late literary activity

In 1959 he began again to poetry and write. His second book "The Time of My Birth" ( "Час майго нараджэння" ) was published in 1968. He soon moved with his family to Minsk and in 1971 became a member of the Writers ' Union of the Belarusian SSR . From 1971 he retired and found plenty of free time to write poetry; it was his most fruitful creative period. He created the new poetry collections "Meine Verkehrsader" ( "Мая магістраль" ) (1981) and "Die Quellen" ( "Крыніцы" ) (1991) as well as the memory book "Long gone, but not forgotten" ( "Далёкае, але не забытае" ) (1988). In his works, Prudnikau was inspired by topics from nature and recent history. He told of young Belarusian poets who were murdered in 1937 during the period of reprisals or during World War II . He was also one of the first poets to sing about the beauty of the Braslawseen.

The special place in Prudnikau's activity is taken by his poems "Taimyr" ( "Таймыр" , 1987) and "Every second" ( "Кожны другі" , 1990) and the volume of stories "Jenseits des Bareldrahtes " ( "За калючым дротам" ) (1993) one that he wrote in memory of the Stalinist reprisals. These works are the autobiographical narratives based on his difficult personal life experience.

Past years and unpublished works

In the last years of life, Prudnikau was seriously ill and could not write down his new poems himself. But he continued to write and dictate it. His illness prevented further new works. In the story " Injustice " ( "Апала" ) he wanted to draw attention to the difficult subject of the return of the former prisoners to ordinary life and show his own ordeal from 1945 to 1956.

In 1992 Pawel Prudnikau was awarded the honorary title of Honored Cultural Worker . In 1995 he was awarded the price of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus for his book “Beyond the Barbed Wire” .

So far there are no translations of Prudnikau's works into German .

Works

• “The songs of the porters” , 1932.
• “The time of my birth” , 1968.
• "My traffic artery" , 1981.
• "The Weather Light" , 1987.
• "Long gone, but not forgotten" , 1988.
• "The late berries" , 1990.
• "The Sources" , 1991 (contains the poem "Taimyr").
• "Jenseits des Bareldrahtes " , 1993 (contains the stories "Die Igelfausthandschuhe" and "Die Norte Hölle" ).
• “Paroscha” (the approximate German translation is “Das Schneegestöber” ), 1996 (contains the poem “Every second” ).

Unpublished works

• The story " Injustice" ( "Апала" ).
• The poem "The Displaced Man" ( "Ізгой" ).
• The souvenir tape " Wasn't faded from memory" ( "З памяці не сцёрлася" ).

Literature about Pawel Prudnikau

• Беларуская энцыклапедыя : У 18 т. Т. 13. - Мн .: БелЭн, 2001. - С. 48. (From the Belarusian Encyclopedia; Belarusian )
• Беларускія пісьменнікі (1917–1990): Даведнік / Склад. А. К. Гардзінскі; Нав. рэд. А. Л. Верабей. - Мн., Маст. літ., 1994. - С. 442-443. (From the encyclopedia of the Belarusian poets and writers; Belarusian )
• Маракоў Л. Рэпрэсаваныя лiтаратары, навукоўцы, работнiкi асветы, грамадскiя i культурныя дзеячы Беларусі. 1794-1991. Том II. С. 160-161. (From the book by Leanid Marakou Repressed People from Belarus. 1794-1991 . Vol. II; Belarusian )
• Памяць: Гіст.-дакум. хроніка Клімавіцк. р-на . - Мн .: Універсітэцкае, 1995. - С. 629-630. (From the book Memory , Klimawitschy rajon; Belarusian )

Web links

• Pavel Prudnikau . The story Die Norte Hell ( Belarusian )
• Leanid Marakou. Repressed people from Belarus. 1794-1991 . Vol. II. Prudnikau, Pawel Iwanawitsch ( Belarusian )