Belarus marks 100th birth anniversary people's writer of Belarus Pimen Panchenko

23 августа 2017

Today, Belarus marks 100th birth anniversary people's writer of Belarus Pimen Panchenko. During his lifetime, Pimen Panchenko was one of the most published and recognized authors – he is the author of over 35 poetic collections, he received numerous medals, orders, and state awards of the BSSR and the USSR.

In the late 1990s, the widow of Pimen Panchenko transferred to the Belarusian State Archives-Museum of Literature and Art a unique family collection – over 2,000 items of Pimen Panchenko’s personal belongings and manuscripts. Chronologically, the collection starts with the original manuscript of Panchenko’s first collection of poems – Confidence, published in 1938. It includes 31 poems about Belarusian landscapes and peasant life. Panchenko was born in Tallinn, Estonia. He spent his childhood in Begoml, Belarus, and he always was very proud of the simple rural life that he lived at those times.

The collection also has items that tell about Panchenko’s teaching career in Mogilev prior to WWII, as well as tokens of his meetings with Yanka Kupala and Yakub Kolas at the House of Writers.

Pimen Panchenko took part in the Second World War – he fought at the Bryansk, Kalinin and Northwestern Fronts – the collection features a number of letters to his friends that Panchenko wrote during this period.

The Great Patriotic War revealed a journalist in Panchenko. From the first days of the war, the writer worked as a correspondent in such newspapers as For Soviet Belarus, For Free Belarus, The Red Army Truth, and many others. He wrote ardent anti-fascist articles and leaflets in his unique satirical style.

Pimen Panchenko finished the war with The Iranian Dairy. In 1944-1945 he was a member of the Red Army in Asia. His writing reveals his deep homesickness. Later, he created an entire collection of poems devoted to his parting with Belarus during the 1950s.

After the war, Pimen Panchenko enjoyed a successful literary, social, and political career. He was a Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR and the Chairman of the National Peace Protection Committee.

His favorite poet was Vladimir Mayakovsky. His translated his works into Belarusian, along with the works of Friedrich von Schiller, Mikhail Svetlov, and Rainis.