Ivan Antonovich "Janka" Bryl (; 4 August 1917 – 25 July 2006) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian writer best known for his short stories. He was one of the older generation of Soviet writers who had begun their literary careers in

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's time, but received a new lease on life in the late 1950s, along with such contemporaries as Ivan Shamiakin and Ivan Melezh.

Biography

Bryl's father, Anton Danilovich Bryl, was a railway worker. In 1922, his family returned to their hometown of Zagorje (then in Poland). He was unable to complete his education, due to financial difficulties. In 1939, he was drafted into the Polish Army and was assigned to their equivalent of the Marine Corps. Although he was captured by the Germans at

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

, he was able to escape and returned to Belarus, where he joined the partisans and served several groups in different capacities. He began his writing career in

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

as an editor for a partisan newspaper, ''The Banner of Freedom'' and contributed pieces to a satirical journal called the ''Guerrilla Gigolo''. Later, he authored various anti-Nazi leaflets for the newspaper '' (Crush the Fascist Vermin). In October 1944, he moved to

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

where he worked on several newspapers and magazines, as well as in the State Publishing House and became Secretary of the local writers' union. From 1945, he was a member of the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers () was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) a ...

. He was also elected to the

Supreme Soviet of Belarus The Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus () was the unicameral legislature of Belarus between 1991 and 1996. It was essentially a continuation of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR of 1938–1991 immediately after the Soviet Uni ...

, serving two terms: 1963-1967 and 1980–1985. From 1989 until his death, he was a member of the Belarusian

PEN Center PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

. In addition, He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1952 and the Jakub Kolas Literature Prize in 1963. In 1981, he was awarded the honorific title of People's Writer of the Byelorussian SSR and in 1994 he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences of Belarus The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB; ; , , ) is the national academy of Belarus. History Inbelkult - predecessor to the Academy The Academy has its origins in the Institute of Belarusian Culture (Inbelkult), a Belarusian acade ...

. Bryl's first story appeared in 1938 and his first short story collection appeared in 1946. The first collection of stories was called ''Apaviadanni'' (Stories). Bryl's books are mostly works of psychological fiction and his characters tend to be sensitive and prone to introspection. They were largely set in Belarusian villages and frequently about the people's fight against the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

External links

References

1917 births 2006 deaths 20th-century Belarusian writers Writers from Odesa Recipients of the Stalin Prize People's Writers of the Byelorussian SSR Recipients of the Byelorussian SSR State Prize Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Polish September Campaign participants Socialist realism writers Belarusian male short story writers Belarusian partisans Belarusian translators Belarusian satirists Soviet children's writers Soviet partisans Soviet short story writers Soviet translators {{Belarus-writer-stub