Michaś Čarot

Michaś Čarot
Native name	Міхась Чарот
Born	Michaś Kudzielka 7 November 1896 (1896-11-07) Rudziensk, Minsk Governorate (nowadays in Puchavičy District, Minsk region of Belarus)
Died	29 October 1937 (1937-10-30) (aged 40) Minsk
Occupation	Poet, playwright, novelist
Language	Belarusian
Notable works	Kupalinka

Michaś Čarot (also spelled Mihas Charot; Belarusian: Міхась Чарот, name at birth: Michaś Kudzielka; 7 November 1896 - 29 October 1937) was a Belarusian poet, playwright, novelist, and a victim of Stalin's purges.

Early years[]

Čarot was born into a farming family in the town of Rudziensk, Ihumienski district, Minsk governorate of the Russian empire (nowadays in Puchavičy district, Minsk region of Belarus).^[1][2]

In 1917 he graduated from a teachers’ colleague in Maladziečna but was mobilised in the Russian Imperial Army.^[1][2]

In the spring of 1918 he returned to Minsk, worked as a teacher, sang in the Teraŭski choir and headed a theatre group.^[1][2]

Later years[]

In the 1920s, Čarot worked as the editor of several Belarusian newspapers and established himself as a poet, playwright and novelist on the waive of the policy of Belarusization.^[1][2][3]

He is regarded as “one of the leaders of the Belarusian Soviet literature of the 1920s” whose works “reflect[ed] all the romantic impulses, contradictions and great illusions of his time”.^[2][3]

As the policy of Belarusization was revered and repression intensified in Soviet Belarus in the 1930th, Čarot became increasingly concerned about his safety. He largely disengaged from literary activity, publicly denounced some of his “national-democratic” colleagues and encouraged people to cooperate with the Soviet security services, State Political Directorate (GPU).^[2][4]

Nevertheless, he was arrested as a "Polish intelligence agent" in January 1937.^[1][2]

Death and memory[]

Čarot was sentenced to death by an NKVD troika in October 1937 and executed on 29 October in the Minsk NKVD prison.^[1][2]

He was posthumously exonerated during the Khrushchev Thaw in 1956. Streets in Maladziečna and Rudziensk are named after him.^[1][2]

Main works[]

Plays[]

• На Купальле (On Kupala Night)

This was a musical play, which featured the famous Belarusian song Kupalinka. Čarot poetically reframed the lyrics of the folk song, and Belarusian composer Uladzimier Teraŭski wrote the music to it. Kupalinka was performed by the main character Alesia. She was played by non-professional actress Aliaksandra Aliaksandrovič, with whom Čarot was in love and to whom he wanted to dedicate the song. The play was a great success and was performed about 400 times.^[5][6]

Until recently, the song's lyrics and music had been described as “folk” without identifiable authors - despite Teraŭski's and Čarot's posthumous exoneration.^[5]

Stories[]

• Дзіўная заява (Strange statement)
• Сон Габруся (The dream of Habruś)

Poems[]

• Босыя на вогнішчы (Barefoot by the fire)
• Балотам снежным праз сасоннік (Through a snowy swamp via a pine wood)
• Бунтар (Rebel)
• Ведай, свет... (You should know, the world ...)
• Вечарам (In the evening)
• Вечная бура (Eternal storm)
• Жывыя акорды (Live chords)
• Завіруха (A blizzard)
• На могілках (In the cemetery)
• Нам добра. Цёпла. Зямля ў пажары... (We’re comfortable. Warm. The earth is on fire ...)
• Поле ціха шаптала калоссем (The cornfield whispered softly)
• Родныя птушкі (Native birds)
• Сенажаці і полі аснежаны (Hayfields and cornfields are covered by snow)
• Шляхам зімнім (On the winter way)^[7]

References[]