Yakub Kolas

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Yakub Kolas, Jakub Kołas (Belarusian: Яку́б Ко́лас, November 3 [O.S. October 22] 1882 – August 13, 1956), real name Kanstancy Mickievič (Міцке́віч Канстанці́н Міха́йлавіч) was a Belarusian writer, People's Poet of the Byelorussian SSR (1926), and member (1928) and vice-president (from 1929) of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences.

He wrote collections of poems Songs of Captivity (1908) and Songs of Grief (Песьні-жальбы, 1910), poems A New Land (Новая зямля, 1923) and Simon the Musician (Сымон-музыка, 1925), stories, and plays. His poem The Fisherman's Hut (Рыбакова хата, 1947) is about the fight after unification of Belarus with the Soviet state. His trilogy At a Crossroads (1954) is about the pre-Revolutionary life of the Belarusian peasantry and the democratic intelligentsia. He was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1946 and 1949.