December 15 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth (1921‒1986) of literary critic, critic and publicist, Doctor of Philological Sciences Sciapan Alieksandrovich. For forty years, he worked in the field of Belarusian culture and gained wide and reliable recognition as one of its most diligent promoters, discoverer of little-known names in Belarusian literature, of forgotten facts and pages of its history.
Sciapan Alieksandrovich was born in Kopyl in the family of a leathersmith. His passion for reading influenced the choice of his future literary career. "For four years I held a book in one hand and a whip in the other. I read a lot, read avidly, preferring the Belarusian book”, Alieksandrovich recalled about his "shepherd's" childhood. In 1939, after graduating from Kopyl secondary school, he entered the Belarusian State University (BSU), but was drafted into the Red Army a few months later. From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he took part in battles against Nazi invaders. In the summer of 1942, during the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner. Together with his friends, Sciapan managed to escape from the prisoner-of-war camp and returned to Kopyl, where he continued to fight the enemy in a partisan detachment. He was awarded the Order of World War II, the Order of Glory of III degree and medals.
After the war, the young man taught and studied by correspondence at the Faculty of Philology of the Belarusian State University, graduating in 1950, and btaining his PhD in 1958. He worked as a senior academic at the Ja. Kupala Institute of Literature of the BSSR Academy of Sciences and the Ja. Kolas Museum. Associate Professor since 1963, Professor of the Belarusian State University since 1974. In 1984, he was awarded the title of Honoured Worker of Culture of Belarus.
The young literary scholar began to publish his first articles in 1946 in "Litaratura i Mastactva" newspaper and other national periodicals. He wrote regional biographical essays about Francishak Bahushevich, Janka Kupala, Jakub Kolas, Maksim Bahdanovich, Cishka Hartny, Maksim Tank, Kuzma Chorny and Mihas Lynkou. could write engagingly about his research and the fate of the writers who were the subject of his research. It was with these writings that the genre of fascinating biographical essay began, which combined elements of scholarly and fiction styles new to Belarusian literature. The essays were published in the books "Unforgettable Trails" (1959), "In the Footsteps of a Poetic Legend" (1965) and "This is the Land Here" (1974). Works in the genre of literary biography such as the documentary-fiction "From the Native Land" (1962), "Into a Wide Space" (1972) and "The Way of the Cross" (1985). His works "Aliaksandr Nezabytouski, a Freethinker from Niasvizh" (1975), "Books and People" (1976), "The Words is Wealth" (1981) and others were published. From 1955, Alieksandrovich became a member of the USSR Union of Writers.
In 1971, he defended his doctoral thesis "The Issues of Development of Belarusian Literature and Printing in the Second Decade of the 19th–20th Centuries". The dissertation was published in a separate book called "Pathways of the Native Word". It is one of the most significant and in-depth academic publications in national literary studies.
The range of the scholar's scientific interests is nothing short of impressive. He is not only the author of a number of biographical essays and literary portraits of Belarusian writers, an outstanding textologist, but also a researcher of the life and work of Francysk Skaryna, the history of the Belarusian press, the mastery of Kupala the translator, the ties of Adam Mickievich, Taras Shevchenko, Jan Rainis and others with Belarus and Belarusian culture. The scholar's work is characterised by a high degree of specificity, extensive use of archival materials and little-known facts, which the researcher obtained through painstaking searches in the archives of Minsk, Moscow, Leningrad, Vilnius, Krakow and Prague.
Anatol Kryvienka "Portrait of Alieksandrovich Sciapan". 1991
Alieksandrovich devoted much energy to work on textbooks for schoolchildren and students; to the creation of the four-volume "History of Belarusian Soviet Literature", which was published in the 1960s; to the preparation for publication and academic commentary of the writings by many Belarusian writers.
The scholar also spent about four decades teaching, first as a teacher in a school and a lecturer in a library technical school, then as an associate professor and professor at the Belarusian State University. Many of his students have been the pride of national science and culture today.
Throughout his scientific, artistic and pedagogical life, Sciapan Alieksandrovich worked with the full force of the talent. The tireless work of the scholar in the field of Belarusian culture has greatly enriched its history and demonstrated the importance of academic achievements.
The information about the life and work of Sciapan Alieksandrovich and his works can be found in the electronic catalogue of the National Library of Belarus, the online encyclopedia "Belarus in Persons and Events" (in Belarusian), the websites of the Philological Faculty of the Belarusian State University (in Belarusian), the Kopyl Central District Library named after A. Astrejka (in Belarusian).
Bibliology Research Department
To the 100th anniversary of Sciapan Alieksandrovich the Library held an exhibition
