March 4 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Anatoly Andreevich Delendik (1934–2019), a talented Belarusian novelist, playwright and screenwriter.
Anatoly Andreevich was born in the village of Kulaki in the Soligorsky district of the Minsk region in the family of an employee. During the Great Patriotic War, when he was very young, he was in a partisan detachment, was a scout. In 1944, he was appointed "adjutant" to General Vasily Ivanovich Kozlov, Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the formation of partisan detachments of the Minsk region. Much of what was seen, experienced and accomplished at that time was later reflected in creative activity.
On the partisan radio station
In 1957, he graduated from the medical faculty of the Minsk Medical Institute and began working as a psychiatrist at the Republican Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Minsk (until 1968).
Anatoly Delendik is a second-year student
Then he studied at the Drama Department of the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow (in absentia, 1963–1969). For more than 10 years he was a member of the screenwriting and editorial board of the Belarusfilm film studio.
He made his debut in print in 1955. He wrote in Russian and Belarusian. Anatoly Delendik first attracted the attention of readers and theatre lovers with the play "Challenge to the Gods" (staged in 1965, another name is "Four Crosses in the Sun"). She made a real splash in the theatrical life of the republic. The story of a love capable of performing a miracle amazed the audience. This psychological drama has been staged by more than 100 theatres of the former Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Germany. The TV movie "Know Yourself" (1972) was based on the play, which received the Grand Prix at the international festival in Varna, Bulgaria.
In 1970-1990, the dramas "Sinful Love", "Night Duty", "The Master", the comedies "Amazons", "Hippopotamus", "Operation Polygamist", "Sultan of Brunei", "Apple Spas", etc. were created. They have become a significant asset of the Belarusian dramatic art and the national theatre.
A. Delendik's pen belongs to the books of prose "Don Juan in the age of risk" (2003), "Beautiful Girls" (2013), "Who will warm Galatea?" (2015), a collection of humorisms "The Death of the Titanic" (1963), "Games on the edge of the abyss: a collection of irony, humour, satire" (2015), "Ironic memoirs: (the comic and sad in the life of a playwright)" (2015), etc.
The works of A. Delendik help a person to know himself, and most importantly – to find faith and hope. The master's comedies are imbued with kindness and light, they are encouraging, inspiring, and a kind of medicine for the soul. The main topics are moral and ethical problems, the complexity of human characters, family relations, personal and collective relations.
The master paid great attention to cinematography. He is the author of the screenplays of the TV films "Tomorrow will be late" (together with M. Krno, 1972), "An Inconvenient Man" (1985), "Wolves in the Zone" (1990), "Anastasia Slutskaya" (2003; received 17 prizes at international film festivals, including in the USA and China), radio plays "Silk herbs", "Diagnosis", etc.
Anatoly Delendik is an Honoured Artist of the Republic of Belarus (2014), a member of a number of creative unions – writers, cinematographers, theatre workers of Belarus and the Guild of Screenwriters of Russia, Cavalier of the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, awarded with medals "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of I and II degrees, medals of Francysk Skaryna (2006), Jan Nalepka (Slovakia; 2012), etc.
You can get acquainted with A. Delendik's books, as well as literature about his life and work, by referring to the electronic catalog of the National Library of Belarus, text materials and bibliography about him are contained in the online encyclopedia "Belarus in Persons and Events" and his personal website.
The material was prepared by the Research Department of Bibliography.
