Долгая дорога домой

by Vasil Bykaŭ

Василь Быков (1924—2003) — прозаик, драматург, киносценарист, литературный критик, публицист, общественный деятель. Народный писатель Беларуси, президент Белорусского ПЭН-Центра, Герой Социалистического Труда, лауреат Ленинской премии, Государственных премий СССР и БССР, многих престижных литературных премий.

Творческая судьба В.Быкова — непревзойденный образец гражданского мужества, нонконформизма, стоицизма. В советской литературе он явился первооткрывателем так называемой окопной правды о войне. Писатель — несомненный лидер мировой "военной" прозы второй половины XX века.

Эта книга — воспоминания писателя о пережитом почти за 80 лет его богатой событиями жизни. Василь Быков рассказывает о наиболее ярких страницах своей биографии, дает оценку общественно-политическим и культурным процессам, которые происходили на его глазах.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Vasiĺ Bykaŭ was born in the village Byčki, not far from Viciebsk in 1924. In 1941 he was in Ukraine when Germany attacked the USSR. At first seventeen-year-old Bykaŭ dug trenches – then he volunteered for the Red Army. For years after the war he continued to serve, returning to the USSR only in the mid-1950s. There he started to work as a journalist for the Hrodna Pravda newspaper. In that same decade his first novellas began to come out, of which the most famous are "Sotnikaŭ", "The Obelisk", "To Go and Not Return", and "To Live Till Sunrise". During and after the Perestroika, he participated in pro-reform movement (e.g. Popular Front of Belarus). In October 1993, he signed the Letter of Forty-Two.

Bykaŭ's literary achievement lies in his sternly realistic, albeit touched by lyricism, depictions of World War II battles, typically with a small number of personages. In the ferociousness of encounter they face moral dilemmas both vis-a-vis their enemies and within their own Soviet world burdened by ideological and political constraints. Bykaŭ's novellas that are available in English translation, such as "The Dead Feel No Pain" (1965), "The Ordeal" (1970), "Wolf Pack" (1975) and "Sign of Misfortune", challenged the official version of the war. This brought upon the writer vicious accusations of "false humanism" from some Red Army generals and the Communist Party press. "Vasil Bykov is a very courageous and uncompromising writer, rather of the Solzhenitsyn stamp," wrote Michael Glenny in Partisan Review in 1972. Bykaŭ was one of the most admired writers in the Soviet Union. In 1980 he was awarded the honorific title of People's Writer of the Belarusian SSR.

Outside of his native country, Vasiĺ Bykaŭ is the most widely read Belarusian writer. During the Soviet period, his works were translated into most major languages of the world. However, most of the translations were done on the basis of Russian rendering. Bykaŭ wrote all of his works in his native Belarusian language, and translated several of them into Russian by himself. Vasiĺ Bykaŭ's stature in the life of his country remains enormous. An opponent of Alexander Lukashenko's regime and a supporter of the Belarusian People's Front, he lived abroad for several years (first in Finland, then in Germany and the Czech Republic), but returned to his homeland just a month before his death. The memory of his turbulent life and uncompromising stance on the war have only enhanced his reputation at home and abroad ever since.

Belarusian: Васіль Быкаў
Russian: Василь Быков

Reviews

[Maša · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Я не лідар і не «сумленне нацыі», я просты, біты жыццём беларус, які мае толькі адну мэту — застацца сумленным. Хацелася яшчэ дажыць да свабоды, ды тое, відаць, марнае памкненьне".
Праз аўтабіяграфію Быкава магчыма назіраць пакутную гісторыю Беларусі ад калектывізацыі/межваенага падзела да канца СССР (з невялікімі каментарамі аб пост 1991 рэчаіснасці). Ёсць выразнае падабенства з сучаснай Беларусю, магчыма зразумець як 2020 год спрабаваў вырываць праблемы не 26 гадовай даўнасці, а хутчэй 90 гадовай.
Вельмі цікава, must read

[Aleś Karoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Успаміны падаліся мне настолькі шчырымі, наколькі магчыма.

Тут няма спроб паказацца лепшым, чым ёсць насамрэч. Згадваецца і алкагалізм, і складаныя выбары, якія ўсім прыходзілася рабіць у тыя часы. Тут няма спробы выдаць сябе за героя ці дысідэнта. Ёсць чэсны расповед аб тым, як жылося на фронце, як было пасля, чым быў позні СССР, і чым стала Рэспубліка Беларусь.

Дзякуй за вашае жыццё і творчасць, спадар Васіль. Дзякуй!

[Viachaslau Tsikhanovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Пакінула пачуццё паверхневасці і няпоўнасці. Лёс беларуса ў 20 стагоддзі.

[Ivan Bachcin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Жалезны быў дзядзька. А нам усё яшчэ ісьці тою дарогаю.