Biography
Yakub Kolas (also Jakub Kołas November 3 ,1882 – August 13, 1956), real name Kanstancin Mickievič was a Belarusian writer, People's Poet of the Byelorussian SSR (1926), and member (1928) and vice-president (from 1929) of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences.
In his works, Yakub Kolas was known for his sympathy towards the ordinary Belarusian peasantry. This was evident in his pen name 'Kolas', meaning 'ear of grain' in Belarusian. He wrote collections of poems Songs of Captivity (1908) and Songs of Grief (Belarusian 1910), poems A New Land (Belarusian 1923) and Simon the Musician (Belarusian 1925), stories, and plays. His poem The Fisherman's Hut (Belarusian: 1947) is about the fight after unification of Belarus with the Soviet state. His trilogy At a Crossroads (1954) is about the pre-Revolutionary life of the Belarusian peasantry and the democratic intelligentsia. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946 and 1949. In honor of Yakub Kolas, a square and a street in the center of Minsk bear his name.
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