January 8 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the talented novelist, publicist, public figure Ales Savitsky (1924 – 2015), whose creative activity occupies a special place in modern Belarusian literature.
The purpose of literature, art, and culture
in general is always responsible: to accumulate,
multiply the intellectual stratum of society,
to support, restore, and consolidate,
above all, the historical experience of the people.
A. Savitsky
Ales (Aleksander Anufrievich) Savitsky was born in Polotsk. The first years of his life were spent in this city, and he went to school here. In 1939, the family moved to Grodno, where Ales continued to study at secondary school.
During the invasion of the Nazi invaders, the young man defended the freedom and independence of the Motherland with weapons in his hands: first in the partisan detachments in the Vitebsk region, and after the liberation of Belarus – in the Soviet army. He has more than ten blown up echelons, many burned and blown up bridges behind enemy lines, participated in the battles for the liberation of Lithuania, Poland, and the capture of Berlin. Ales Savitsky was wounded three times. After demobilization, he worked in the editorial office of the Polotsk regional newspaper "Balshavitski scyag" ("Bolshevik Flag"), on the pages of which in 1948 his first work was published – the story "Fishing Happiness".
In 1958 he graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow, and in 1961 he completed postgraduate studies at it. In 1961–1962 he worked as the head of the editorial office of the publishing house “Urajai” (“Harvest”), in 1962–1969 he was the scientific secretary of the Yakub Kolas Literary Museum. Then, until 1973, he headed the fiction sector of the Cultural Department of the Central Committee of the CPB.
Since 1973, Ales Savitsky has devoted himself entirely to creativity. Before that time, his novels "Cedars by the Sea", "After the Flood", the novel "Woman", the story about builders – "The Highest Floor" (awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize of Belarus, 1972) had already been published.
Later, the novels "Faithfully and truly" (1976), "Don’t wait for merci" (1982), "You will always have time to die" (1983) were written, which made up a kind of trilogy. The result is a wide artistic canvas that deeply and convincingly reproduces the historical panorama of the partisan struggle against the fascist occupiers on Belarusian soil from the first days of the war to liberation. The trilogies are similar in subject to the novels "The Earth will not tell" (1980), "Verasy" (“Heather”) (1987), the story "White star" (1984).
A. Savitsky opened another page of the heroic struggle of the Belarusian people against the fascist invaders in the novel "Obal". Thanks to this work, the railway station Obal, near Polotsk, went down in history as a place of struggle of the Belarusian young Guards, united in the Komsomol underground organization "Young Avengers".
According to T.I. Shamyakina, Doctor of Philology, the courage and openness of the truth, the pathos of humanity is the moral foundation on which the artistic world of the writer rests in all his military works. The literary critic noted: "To preserve the memory of his generation, to convey it to all new generations of Belarusians – this is his patriotic and human duty carried through his life by the writer-citizen Ales Anufrievich Savitsky."
The range of creative interests of the writer is quite wide: the problems of village life (the novel "Wormwood – bitter grass", the stories "The village was beyond the forest", "Mitulitsa"), the spiritual world of a contemporary (the story "And nothing in return", the novel "Only once", the stories "Seasonalists","Olga has arrived"), the theme of childhood ("Miracles on Bald Mountain", "The Joys and Tribulations of the Golden Crucian Bublik", "Zhenya, Linda and Rick", "The Adventures of Murka", etc.). Ales Savitsky is the author of a number of journalistic articles. Many of his works have been translated into Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Georgian, Slovak and other languages.
Numerous awards attest to the recognition of the military and creative merits of Ales Savitsky: the Order of the Red Star, Glory of the III degree, the Patriotic War of the I degree, the "Badge of Honour", Francisk Skaryna and numerous medals. The writer was awarded the title of "Honourary Citizen of Polotsk" (1987). His works have repeatedly won various prizes.
Additional information about Ales Savitsky can be found in the resources of the National Library of Belarus: the electronic resources of the National Library of Belarus: the electronic catalog and the online encyclopedia "Belarus in persons and events".
The jubilee book exhibition "Writer-Citizen" dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ales Savitsky is taking place in the Hall of Belarusian Literature (room 205) from January 6 to February 4.
The material was prepared by the Research Department of Bibliography.
