The biography of Yakub Kolas is a story of life and creativity, which definitely deserves attention. This is not another dry set of facts and dates, but a touch on the life of a person who managed to influence several generations and made a more than tangible contribution to the history of Belarusian literature.
First years of life
Initially, it is worth noting that the real name of the famous writer and poet is Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich. And he came to this world on the Okinchitsa farm on November 3, 1882. This place is located near the village of Nikolayevshchina, which is part of the Minsk region.
Konstantin Mitskevich’s father was a forester and worked within the territory that belonged to tycoon Radziwill.
The biography of Yakub Kolas can not do without a description of the places in which the future writer spent his childhood, since it was they who aroused a creative spark in his soul. These lands were very beautiful - one of the most picturesque in Belarus. We are talking about dense forests and the Neman River.
Later in the poet’s work, emotions related to childhood impressions received in this village will be repeatedly expressed. If we talk about places where young Konstantin visited most often, then it is worth recalling such farms as Lastock, Albut and Okinchitsy.
Study
The biography of Yakub Kolas inevitably includes this period of the writer’s life. For the first time, Konstantin was able to touch on knowledge at home teacher lessons. The next stage was the Nikolaev National School. Within its walls, Yakub Kolas wrote the first poems.
The literary experience of a talented young man began with the fable “Crow and the Fox”, as well as the poem “Spring”. Such creativity was due to the craving of Konstantin Mikhailovich for the works of such writers as Pushkin, Krylov, Zhukovsky, Lermontov and others.
Yakub graduated from elementary school at age 12. At the same time, the boy’s father really wanted his son to remain in the bosom of science and realize his potential. The result of such an initiative was the admission of Konstantin Mickiewicz to the Nesvizh Teacher Seminary. It was 1898, and a bright future filled with creativity awaited the writer.
Key impact
Student years - this is an important stage, which must contain the biography of Yakub Kolas. A brief assessment of this period makes it possible to understand that the literary teacher Fedot Kudrinsky had a significant influence on the creative component of Konstantin. It was he who inspired Yakub to begin collecting and recording oral folk art, as well as materials within the framework of a topic such as ethnography. Later, these recordings will become the basis of the first novel of the famous author "On the Rosts."
As for the pseudonym, such a choice was influenced by Konstantin's passion for the work of Yakubovich-Melshin.
After the seminary was completed in 1902, Yakub got a job as a teacher in Polesie, which included the villages of Pinkovichi and Lyusino. At this time, Konstantin manifested a revolutionary spark, which found expression in the convening of an illegally teacher’s congress. It was 1906, and Jakub intended to influence the overthrow of the tsarist regime. But nothing came of the efforts of the police, and a talented teacher lost his job.
Formation in creativity
The biography of Yakub Kolas in Russian also includes such a stage in the life of a Belarusian writer as work in the newspaper Our Share (1906). It is here that he first officially publishes his poem "Our Homeland".
But Konstantin had to go to prison because of his revolutionary ideas. It was a period from 1908 to 1911. Nevertheless, the bonds did not stop him from writing his first collection, Songs of Complaint. At the same time, ideas for other great works are born.
When the prison days were behind, Yakub, not without the help of friends, obtained a testimony confirming his political reliability, and then again began working as a teacher in the city of Pinsk. At the school, where he taught, Yakub met his love - teacher Maria Kamenskaya. In June 1913, Konstantin Mickiewicz became a family man.
It was in Pinsk that the writer was finally forming the facets of his work, which attracted the attention of well-known Belarusian and Russian critics at that time. Other writers also showed interest in the works of Yakub.
War and Follow Up
The year 1915 was marked by the beginning of the imperial war, as a result of which Constantine was mobilized. Until 1917, the writer managed to get the rank of second lieutenant, fought on the Romanian front, but due to health reasons he was demobilized in September.
After that, until 1921, Yakub Kolas served as inspector of public schools in the villages of the Kursk region and the city of Oboyan (we are talking about Russia).
The next fact, which contains the biography of Yakub Kolas, is a call to Minsk at the initiative of the government. In the capital of the BSSR, Konstantin becomes a member of the commission at the Institute of Belarusian Culture. In parallel with this, he is teaching the native language at the Belarusian State University.
During the Great Patriotic War, the writer was evacuated, and he was able to return to Minsk that became his native only in 1944. Before leaving this world on August 13, 1956, Yakub Kolas managed to become a deputy, a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR and an Honored Worker of Science.
This is what the biography of Yakub Kolas looks like, a brief summary of which even without diving into the details is conveyed by the fact that he was an unlimitedly creative person who had a significant influence on his people.