Mikhas Lynkov

(pen name of Mikhail Tikhonovich Lyn’kov). Born Nov. 18 (30), 1899, in the village of Zazyby, present-day Liozno Raion, Vitebsk Oblast. Died Sept. 21, 1975. Byelorussian Soviet author. People’s Writer of the Byelorussian SSR (1962). Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR (1953). Member of the CPSU (1926).

Lyn’kov was the son of a railroad worker. He graduated from a teachers’ seminary in 1917 and took part in the Civil War of 1918-20. He began to publish his works in 1926. Lyn’kov wrote numerous stories and tales, including children’s stories (“The Mikolka Locomotive,” 1937), stories about the Civil War, about the struggle of the working people of western Byelorussia for unification into a single socialist state, and about the partisan movement of the Byelorussian people during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. Lyn’kov’s epic novel Unforgettable Days has become one of the outstanding works of Byelorussian literature (vols. 1-4, 1948-58; winner of the J. Kolas State Prize of the Byelorussian SSR in 1968; Russian translation, books 1-2, 1953-61). In this novel the people are depicted as a moving force in the historical process.

Lyn’kov’s books have been translated into many of the languages of the Soviet Union and into the languages of foreign countries. His works are permeated with lyricism, humor, and a romantic perception of the world.

Lyn’kov served as a deputy to the first through eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR. He received three Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and a number of medals.