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Grave of Maksim Bahdanovich's grandfather found in Cherven

The grave of Afanasy Myakota, grandfather of great Belarusian poet Maksim Bahdanovich (1891-1917), has been found at a cemetery in Cherven, Minsk region.

Vladimir Doroguzh, a local historian, told BelaPAN that he had found the grave accidentally this past summer.

"I think many saw the text engraved on the gravestone but simply did not know who Afanasy Myakota was. He was the father of the renowned poet's mother, Marylya Myakota," he said.

Afanasy Myakota was born in 1814 into a family of a Greek Catholic priest, which originated from the village of Myakota near Uzda. He served as a petty officer and a warden at an Orthodox monastery. For his participation in the 1853-1856 Crimean War between the Russians and the Ottoman empire, he was awarded an honorary medal and a noble title.

Afanasy Myakota married Tatyana Malevich in the mid-1860s. They had five children.

Galina Gamezo, head of the Cherven District Executive Committee's ideological work department, told BelaPAN that the local authorities intended to put up a fence around the grave, fix a Greek Catholic cross on the gravestone and renovate the inscription.