Vasil Bykau died 5 years ago (Photo)
3- 23.06.2008, 0:25
On June 22 five years were marked after the death of Vasil Bykau, a Belarusian writer. Today books of the writer are not published in Belarus, films about his life and creative work are banned.
In his last years the writer lived abroad because of his disagreement with the policies of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. First he lived in Finland, and then in Germany, and after that, on a personal invitation of a playwright and former president Vaclav Havel, in the Czech Republic.
He arrived to Minsk on May 23 on a plane. He was hospitalized in the Oncologic centre in Baraulyany. On June 22 at 8.30 p.m. doctors pronounced him dead.
Thousands of people gathered near the House of Writers on June 25 to bid last farewell to Vasil Bykau. After relatives of the writer asked to remove the official red-green flag, and Bykau’s son Syarhei covered the coffin with white-red-white flag, the official commission for funerals organisation headed by the Culture Minister Leanid Hulyaka left the building. Thousands of people took part in the ceremony. The coffin was carried by people from the House of Writers to Yakub Kolas Square in their arms.
Today Belarus misses Bykau. “In a not free, totalitarian time many think that to resort to conformism, a deal with one’s conscience, it’s not for long, it could always be put right later, but it is a huge mistake. A person that has given up freedom once becomes a prisoner forever”. These words were said by Vasil Bykau shortly before his death in exile in one of the countries.
Bykau’s books are not re-published in the country, films about his life and creative work are banned. The Belarusian regime still ignores offers of the public commission created to pay tribute to the memory of the People’s writer. In different cities of Belarus there have been offers heard to call streets or institutions after him. Minsk authorities refused to change the name of Dzerzhynsky’s Avenue for Vasil Bukau’s name. Hrodna city executive committee refused to satisfy appeals of citizens and name Leninski Komsomol’s Boulevard or Sverdlov Street after the writer…
