Ales Adamovich

Ales Adamovich (1927-1994) was a Belorussian author, literary critic, and screenwriter. During World War Two he fought as a partisan, an experience which inspired his influential novel Khatyn. After the war he went on to receive this PhD in philology from the Belarusian State University and also took graduate courses in directing and screenwriting at the prestigious Moscow film school VKSR.

Adamovich was a professor and a member of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. He was an active teacher and political figure. As a result of refusing to testify against his colleagues and to sign letters condemning political dissidents, he was barred from teaching at Moscow State University. However, he was a member of many public and professional unions. In 1989 he was one of the first writers to join the Belorussian PEN Center, and in 1994 the Center instituted the Ales Adamovich Literary Prize.

Ales Adamovich's writing is still widely read and the importance of his legacy to Belarusian history and culture cannot be overstated. His fiction and non-fiction make a profound case against the necessity of war, and are a testament to the kind of knowledge and wisdom so needed by humankind today.