Ліквідацыя. Без цэнзуры

by Vasil Bykaŭ

Аповесць народнага пісьменніка Беларусі Васіля Быкава "Ліквідацыя" ("Сотнікаў") не стала выключэннем у тым шэрагу твораў, што апынуліся пад жорсткім наглядам савецкай цэнзуры: толькі па цэнзурна-рэдактарскіх меркаваннях у творы было зроблена больш за сто купюр. упершыню апублікаваная ў часопісе "Полымя" ў 1970 г. аповесць з таго часу друкуецца ў такім скалечаным выглядзе, да таго ж не пад сваёй назвай. Між тым знаходкі апошняга часу (ранні, нападцэнзурны варыянт аповесці быў адшуканы малодшым сынам пісьменніка Васілём васільевічам Быкавым у Гродне) дазваляюць узнавіць першапачатковы, аўтарскі варыянт твора. Больш за тое, на сённяшні дзень вядомы тры рэдакцыі аповесці: дзве раннія, чарнавая і чыставая, пад назвай "Сотнікаў", — са мноствам купюр і перапісаннымі эпізодамі.
У гэтым выданні хрэстаматыйная аповесць Васіля Быкава ўпершыню друкуецца з узнаўленнем усіх купюр, без цэнзуры. Другая частка кнігі апавядае пра гісторыю стварэння, публікацыі і крытыкі аповесці; у "Каментарыях" разглядаюцца тэксталагічныя разыходжанні паміж рознымі публікацыямі твора.
Выданне ажыццёўлена да 90-годдзя з дня нараджэння Васіля Быкава.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

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