Belarus: persons and events (Ales Asipenka)

6 september 2024

Interesting

Ales Asipenka belongs to the generation of those Belarusian writers whose youth fell during the fiery years of the Great Patriotic War. He started together with I. Melezh, I. Shemyakin, I. Naumenko, B. Sachenko and other talented prose writers of Belarus, fruitfully developed a realistic and analytical direction in national literature.

Ales (Alexander Kharitonovich) Asipenka was born on September 7, 1919 in the village of Pushkari, Vitebsk region, in a peasant family. Ales became interested in literature at school. Before the war, he entered the History department of the Vitebsk Pedagogical Institute and after completing his first year worked as a teacher in the village of Rudaki, near Vitebsk.

The dream to study further had to be abandoned - the Great Patriotic War began. During the years of occupation the future writer fought in a partisan detachment. After the end of the war A. Asipenka studied at the courses of Soviet party activists in Moscow, continued his studies at the Minsk Pedagogical Institute. He held various positions in the newspaper «Krasnaya Smena», the magazine Youth», was the chief editor of the scriptwriter's magazine. He was editor-in-chief of the script department of the Belarusfilm film studio, editor-in-chief of the newspaper «Literature and Art».

At the beginning of his career Ales Asipenka wrote poems, essays and feuilletons. In 1952, his first story «The girl from the Golden Oak Tree» was published in the magazine «Worker and Peasant Woman». In 1956, he wrote an adventure story «The last version». The writer's first collection «Melting Ice» (1958) was favorably evaluated in literary circles. In 1960, the second collection «The breath of flowers and labor» was published.

As an original prose writer, Alexander Kharitonovich proved himself with the story «The Nestled Corner» (1963), which raises the problem of social transformation of the village, raises the question of the spiritual content of man, his unity with the Earth and his parents' home. A separate place in the work of A. Asipenka takes the theme of war. His novel «Fiery Azimut» (1965) played a significant role in the development of Belarusian military prose. The story «Rye» (1966), which the author dedicated to the life of a post-war village, is written in a realistic and psychological way.

The peak of writing for A. Asipenka was the 1970-80s, when the collection «Steps» (1971), «Thresholds» (1973), novels «The end of Indian summer» (1975), «Two Days and Two Nights» (1977), «The five brave» (1985), a novel with the symbolic title «Unaccustomed new moon» (1971). The second book of the novel saw the light of day in 1980. For this work, Alexander Kharitonovich in 1981 received the literary prize named after I. Melezha.

One of the best and most complex works of Ales Asipenka - the novel «Holy Sinners» (1987). It intertwines various segments of the present and the past: the battle of Nemiga, biographies of Efrosinya Polotskaya, Cyril Turovsky, shooting a movie on a historical theme.

In 1994, the book «The Eternity of the Milky Way» was published, where the author describes his impressions from meetings with K. Cherniy, M. Lynkov, I. Melezh, and V. Korotkevich.

The writer's works were reflected in the Belarusian cinematography. Based on the scripts of Alexander Kharitonovich, the feature films «Five Brave Men» (1971), «A Reliable Man» (1975), «Every Third» (1980, co-authored with N. Safarov), TV film «Yas and Yanina» (1974, co-authored with S. Polyakov), documentary «The Alarms of the First Birds» (1986), etc. were produced.

Ales Asipenka - Honored Worker of Culture of Belarus (1979), laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize of Belarus (1974), awarded the Order of Patriotic War I and II degree, «Badge of Honor», Labor Red Banner, as well as numerous medals and diplomas.

Based on the materials of the National Library of Belarus

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