Vasil Bykau Would Turn 100 Years Old Today

The authorities fear him even after his death.

Today the classic of Belarusian literature, world-famous and nominated for the Nobel Prize, would have turned 100 years old.

Vasil Bykau entered the history of world literature as the author of novels and novellas dedicated to the Second World War. The author asserts in them the ideological and moral qualities tested in the flames of the struggle against fascism: loyalty to the eternal universal values, love for his native land, the high dignity of the hard-working man and the warrior. He wrote such works as "Sotnikau", "Alpine Ballad", "Until Dawn", "The Sign of Trouble".

Vasil Bykau was among the founders of the Belarusian People's Front. In the mid-1990s the Belarusian authorities began to attack him, which forced the writer to move out of the country for a long time. The last years of his life were spent in Finland and the Czech Republic. The writer, who was called "the conscience of the nation", sharply opposed the strengthening of authoritarianism in the country.

The national writer died on June 22, 2003. The authorities take revenge on Bykau even after his death. Vasil Bykau's books are not republished in Belarus, films about his life and work are banned.