The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has called on all the indifferent people to give a helping hand to the widow of our famous poet Ryhor Baradulin.
As her pension is low, Valiantsina Baradulina has found herself in a difficult financial situation. The journalists urge Belarusians to financially back this woman who always supported Uncle Ryhor, an iconic cultural professional of Belarus. Unfortunately, there is every likelihood that state officials, workers of the Ministry of Culture, will not be able to provide any assistance taking into account Mr Baradulin’s political opinions: he was critical of president Lukashenka.
One can send a money order to:
Valiantsina Baradulina
Ivan Melezh Street, 4-256
220113 Minsk, Belarus
(In Belarusian: 220113, Менск, вул. Мележа д. 4, кв. 256, Барадулінай Валянціне Міхайлаўне.)
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Ryhor Baradulin, a man who descended from a peasant family, has become the nation’s pride. He was a close frend of prominent Belarusian writers Vasil Bykau and Uladzimir Karatkevich.
The Soviet authoities was always watchful of him; in recent years the poet has been in opposition to Lukashenka’s regime. Mr Baradulin became a member of the Belarusian People Front Council in 1989.
Ryhor Baradulin was born in a village in Ushachy district, Vitsebsk region, on February 24, 1935. A graduate of Belarusian State University’s Philology Faculty, he contributed to a number of periodicals and was an editor at Mastatskaya Litaratura publishing company for more than 20 years.
Ryhor Baradulin is the last Belarusian who was given the title of the People’s Poet (1992). He received some other important awards for several books of poems and translations. The poet has published around 70 books of poems (including poems for children, satiric and humorous poems), articles, essays, translations. His poems have been translated into some 40 languages.In 2006 Ryhor Baradulin was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his book of poems ‘Ksty’.
He died in Minsk on March, 2 at the age of 79.
