Bieliauskas, Alfonsas

Born Oct. 5, 1923, in the village of Neveronis, near Kaunas. Soviet Lithuanian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1944. Participated in the underground Komsomol movement in bourgeois Lithuania in 1939–40. Served in the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War.

Bieliauskas graduated from the University of Vilnius in 1951 and has been the editor of the magazine Svituris (Lighthouse) since 1954. His most significant works are the novels The Scarlet Roses Are Blooming (1959; Russian translation, 1960), We’ll Meet Again, Vilma! (1962; Russian translation, 1965), and Novel of Kaunas (1966; Russian translation, 1968). These works express the spiritual experience of a generation that matured during the war and in the postwar period and pointedly raise the questions of the purity and adherence to principle of Communist morality. Bieliauskas received the republic’s literary prize in 1959; he has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.