Maksim Bahdanovič

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Maksim Bahdanovič

Maksim Bahdanovič (Belarusian language: Максім Багдановіч December 9, 1891 – May 25, 1917) was a famous Belarusian poet, journalist and literature critiscist.

Maksim Bahdanovič was born in Minsk into a family of a scientist. In 1892 the family moved to Hrodna where his mother soon died on tuberculosis.

In 1896 the poet's father, Adam Bahdanovič moved with his children to Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. At that time Maksim writes his first poems in Belarusian language. In 1902 Maksim Bahdanovic attends a gymnasium. During the Revolution of 1905 he was an active participant of the strikes organised by his commilitodes.

In 1907 Naša Niva for the first time publishes Bahdanovič's works: the novel Muzyka.

In June of 1908 the family of the poet moves to Yaroslavl. After finishing school in 1911 Maksim Bahdanovič goes to Belarus to meet important figures of the Belarusian renaissance: Vacłaŭ Łastoŭski, Ivan Łuckievič and Anton Łuckievič. In the same year he began studies of law at a Yaroslavl lyceum. During his studies Bahdanovič works at a newspaper, writes numerous literature works and is actively published in Belarus and Russia.

In the beginning of 1914 the book of poems Vianok by Bahdanovič was published in Vilnia.

In the summer of 1916, after absolvation of the lyceum, Maksim Bahdanovič went to Minsk and worked there at the local guberniya administration.

In February of 1917 Bahdanovič goes to Crimea for a medical treatment of tuberculosis. The treatment was not effective, and in the same year he died in Yalta.

The poet's archive was kept at his father's house, but was heavily damaged during the Russian Civil War in 1918.

In 1991 – 1995 a full collection of Bahdanovič's poetry was published in Belarus.

Nowadays there are museums of the poet open in Minsk, Hrodna and Yaroslavl. Several streets in major cities of Belarus and Russia are named after him.

The operas Zorka Venera (by Jury Siemianiaka and Aleś Bačyła), and Maksim (by Ihar Palivoda).

Bahdanovič created many examples of social, artistic and philosophical lyrics. He was the first poet to introduce several new lyrics forms in the Belarusian literature.

Maksim Bahdanovič was a translator of Heinrich Heine, Alexander Pushkin, Ovid, Horace and other foreign poets to Belarusian and of Janka Kupała, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko to Russian language.