Kalachinskii, Mikhas Ivanovich

(Mikhail Ivanovich Kalachinskii). Born Dec. 30, 1916 (Jan. 12, 1917), in the urban-type settlement of Krupki, in present-day Minsk Oblast. Soviet Byelorussian poet. Member of the CPSU since 1942.

The son of a peasant, Kalachinskii took part in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–40 and the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. He was first published in 1932. He is the author of the narrative poems for children Kostia the Chekist (1938) and The Package (1940). His published collections of verses and narrative poems include The Sun in the Blue Sky (1949), Facing Life (1951; Russian translation, 1962), The Great March (1952), The Small Station in the Forest (1955), The Reaping Season (1956), Pines and Dunes (1960), A Cluster of Rowanberries (1964), Forest Tales (1967), and Belts (1968). Since 1960 he has been the editor in chief of the journal Belarus’. He does many translations from Russian, Ukrainian, and other languages. Kalachinskii has been awarded four orders and a number of medals.