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Belarusian writers visit Zelva to observe 100th birthday anniversary of Larysa Heniyush

Members of the Union of Belarusian Writers visited Zelva, a small city in the Hrodna region, this past weekend to observe the 100th birthday anniversary of prominent Belarusian poetess Larysa Heniyush, who lived in the city from 1956 until her death in 1983, BelaPAN reports.

They were barred from attending a government-organized rally held on the occasion at the local House of Culture, and that is why a book-launch event for a two-volume of Heniyush’s works was held near the entrance into the building with more than 30 people in attendance.

The collection, published in 400 copies by the Minsk-based Limarius publishing house, featured 74 poems never published before, other selected poems, two memoir-novels, and letters, with most of them never published before.

Participants also visited the poetess’ grave, where they laid flowers, and put up a new memorial plaque on the house where Heniyush lived. The old one remained there for a few days before being removed by police officers who explained that it had been installed without permission.

Larysa Heniyush was born in a village near Vawkavysk, Hrodna region, on August 9, 1910, and lived in Prague after graduation from a school in Vawkavysk. She worked as secretary for Vasil Zakharka (Zacharka), president-in-exile of the Belarusian National Republic from 1928 to 1943. She kept the presidential archives, supported Belarusian emigrants, political refugees and prisoners of war. Heniyush was arrested on March 5, 1948 and held in prisons in Czechoslovakia and then in Soviet prisons in Vienna, Lviv and Minsk. In 1949, she was sentenced in Minsk to 25 years for an alleged conspiracy against the Soviet Union. She served her term in Stalinist labor camps. Heniyush was released in 1956 before the end of her term, but she was never cleared of the charges against her. The poetess lived in Zelva until her death on April 7, 1983. She never accepted Soviet citizenship.

In December 2007, the then prosecutor general, Pyotr Miklashevich, rejected a petition to exonerate the poetess, which was signed by more than 70 prominent Belarusians. Mr. Miklashevich explained in his reply that he was not authorized to overrule the decisions of the Supreme Court of Belarus. The Supreme Court ruled on November 24, 1999, that Larysa Heniyush was not eligible for exoneration.

Heniyush published two collections of poetry and verses for children with the help of her friends in 1967. A book of her poetic heritage and memoirs, in which she recalls the years that she had spent in labor camps, the tragic destiny of her family and co-prisoners, was published after her death.

Heniyush’s works were removed from the general school curriculum soon after Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s election as president in 1994.

In photos:
1 – Participants lay flowers at Larysa Heniyush’s grave;
2 – The poetess’ notebook of verses;
3 – A memorial service at a local church;
4 – Historian Mikhas Charnyawski presented with the Larysa Heniyush Medal;
5 – The poetess’s grandson Mikhas, a resident of Bialystok, Poland;
6 – Poet Uladzimir Nyaklyayew;
7 – Sculptor Henadz Loyka fixes a memorial plaque on the house where Larysa Heniyush lived;
8 – Mikhas Skobla, deputy chairman of the Union of Belarusian Writers, shows books about Larysa Heniyush.