November 26 marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of satirist, playwright and translator Mikhail Skripka (1907-1991).
Mikhail (Mikhas) Skripka was born in 1907 in the village of Mestino, Berezinsky district, Minsk region, to a peasant family. When he was a pupil in the Bogushevichi seven-year school, he had begun to try his hand at writing poetry, which first appeared in print in 1927. In 1930, he finished the Rogachevsky Pedagogical School, after which he taught in the Rogachevsky district and had been the head teacher of the Pogorelichskaya secondary school of the Osipovichi district. In 1940, he graduated from the Literature Part-time Department of the Minsk Pedagogical Institute named after A.M. Gorky.
He began serious literary work only in the post-war period, gaining fame as a satirist. In his work, Mikhas Skripka was distinguished by a high civic position, the ability to raise pressing life problems, and the mastery of artistic speech. In humorous stories, fables, and parodies, he actively opposed evil, in whatever form it might manifest itself, masterfully created negative social types and aptly ridiculed them.
The writer's principled, serious, and sincere work yielded significant results: he is the author of collections of fables, poems, and miniatures "Satire and Humor" (1958), "Satirical Spinning Wheel" (1967), and "You Can't Run Away from Laughter" (1975); collections of novellas, short stories, and humoresques "My House Is Not the Last" (1959), “Under the root” (1962), “Everything happens...” (1963). A number of works are addressed to children: a collection of short stories “Miracle in a sieve” (1963), a collection of poems “Under a Funny Rainbow” (1971). In 1977, a book of selected works “And with Pepper and with Heart” was published.
The writer also acted as a playwright. He wrote the script for the short television comedy “Akademik” (staged in 1963), more than thirty one-act plays, and comedies for amateur performances: “To the house” (1958), “A Telegram” (1959), “Fellow-countrymen” (1962), “New Year's Meeting” (1963), “A Dangerous Guest” (1964), “On their own head” (1966), etc. The creative achievements of the writer are also reflected in his translation work, thanks to which the poems of Russian and Ukrainian poets such as A. Tvardovsky, S. Marshak, S. Mikhalkov, A. Barto, S. Aleinik, A. Vishny and others were translated into Belarusian. Skripka's works have been translated into Russian, Ukrainian and Georgian.
With his work, Mikhas Skripka made a significant contribution to the history of the development of Belarusian literature. The recognition of his talent is evidenced by his victories in competitions of the newspapers “Zvyazda”, "Krasnaya Smena", and “The Minsk’s truth”, during which the writer was awarded three times for the best short story. In 1985, he was awarded the prize of the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR for the comedy “The Adventures of Patapka”, twice awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR.
The name of Mikhail Skripka takes pride of place among the names of famous figures of Belarusian literature. Identifying various vices in people's characters, exposing them to general ridicule, the writer asserts high ideals on which contemporaries should be educated.
Biographical data, information about the work of M. Skripka can be found in the electronic catalog of the National Library of Belarus, the online encyclopedia "Belarus in persons and events", the National Database of authoritative / normative records.
The article was provided by the Bibliography Research Department.
