Kireenko, Kastus Tikhonovich

Born Dec. 12, 1918, in the village of Gaishin, in present-day Slavgorod Raion, Mogilev Oblast. Soviet Byelorussian poet. Member of the CPSU since 1943.

Kireenko participated in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. He first appeared in print in 1939. He is the author of the collections of lyrical verses Morning Comes (1945), After the Storm (1947), My Republic (1949; Russian translation, 1952), Lighthouses (1952), Love and Friendship (1955), Bright Wave (1959), The Living Go Forward (1964), and Warm Rainbow (1966; Russian translation, 1970). Kireenko has also written a collection of stories entitled Brooks in Search of the River (1969) and several books of children’s verses and prose. He has been awarded two orders and several medals.