Camilla Stein celebrates translation of Khatyn, Ales Adamovych

Camilla Stein

WWII memorial celebrations are held in Europe and Russia in the first week of May.

In appreciation of the human cost of war, Glagoslav Publications produced a special edition of KHATYN by Ales Adamovich, revealing to the world a documented story many did not know about.

Now the book is available worldwide!

 
It is a quiet place, with lush green grass covering the location of the former Belarusian village. A village that was burned to the ground with its inhabitants in 1943. Anyone familiar with this small corner of Eastern Europe is chilled to the bone by the events that transpired there, and the village’s name Khatyn has now come to embody a horrific national tragedy.

But tragedy is not all this name embodies, for it also reminds people of the tremendous courage of those who fought for the life and freedom of their country.

It is the story of this village and the events that surround its annihilation that are the focus of Ales Adamovich’s novel Khatyn, which was written on the basis of historical documents. The author, himself a World War II veteran and partisan, depicts the reality of the partisan resistance to fascism in Belarus.

The main character is a man named Florian, who in his memories returns to events that transpired some thirty years ago, when as a teenager he joined a partisan unit and met his future wife, Glasha. He witnesses how the villagers of Khatyn are burned alive as reprisal for supporting the partisan movement. The monstrous cruelty of the death squad and its commanders manifested itself in the act of punishing the entire community for the deeds of those who had helped the partisans. The village, composed mostly of the elderly and mothers with children, was locked inside a barn. After being covered with dry hay, the barn was set ablaze with the families inside.

Over half a century later, Adamovich’s story about the courage of ordinary people has not lost its immediacy. Today, the world is still marred by war crimes committed against communities of noncombatant. Khatyn is a testament to an event that must not be forgotten, and to a reality that must not be repeated.

For more information about this publication please consult the following website dedicated exclusively to Khatyn.

AUTHOR: Ales Adamovich

Awards:

• Award for Honor and Dignity of Talent, 1997 (posthumous)
• Order of the Red Banner, 1987
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1985
• Gold Medal of Alexander Fadeyev, 1983
• Order of the Badge of Honor, 1977
• Yakub Kolas Belorussian State Prize, 1976 (For Khatyn)
• Ministry of Defense Prize, 1974 (For Khatyn)
• Friendship Literary Prize, 1972
• Partisan Medal, 1946

Known for his straightforward character, Ales Adamovich (1927-1994), an award winning Belarusian author, screenwriter and literary critic, was an active public figure and teacher in the former Soviet Union where he wrote his most influential war novel Khatyn. During WWII he fought as a partisan; this experience became the basis for Khatyn.
 

Translated by Glenys Kozlov,
Franes Longman and Sharon McKee
Edited by Camilla Stein

The Nation’s Editor Katrina vanden Huevel quoted Ales Adamovich’s words in her article A memoir of Glasnost: “At the height of glasnost in 1988-89, the writer Ales Adamovich remarked, “Today, it’s more interesting to read than to live.” Anyone who lived during those years of glasnost as a writer, a journalist, an editor, an intellectual, a political person, understood what he meant.”

“…A decent and honest man, popular with his colleagues at the Cinema Institute in Moscow, for his last six years he was at the centre of Moscow’s political and cultural life.” — The Independent’s obituary for Ales Adamovich