“Mastackaya Litaratura” Headed By Former Policemen and Prosecutor :: Charter'97 :: News

On December 16 a new editor-in-chief was introduced to the staff of the publishing house “Mastackaya Litaratura” (“Belles-lettres”). It is a 48-year-old retired police major Viktar Prawdzin. The police major in retirement has replaced poet Uladzimer Maruk in the position of the editor-in-chief of the only state publishing house issuing fiction. At the same time, Mister Maruk had also replaced mister Prawdzin in his earlier position of the deputy editor-in-chief of the “Polymya” magazine. The working contracts of the two of them have not finished yet. They allegedly swapped their working places according to their wish. At least in this way this switch was explained to Radio Svaboda by Uladzimer Maruk.

Viktar Prawdzin is the author of several police detective stories. He writes in Belarusian. Last year after the so-called literature holding was formed and the editors-in-chief of state literature magazines were replaced forcibly, Viktar Prawdzin was appointed deputy editor-in-chief of the Polymya magazine. Before that he worked as one of the Secretaries of the Writers’ Union. Worth mentioning is the fact that at the same time the position of the Secretary was occupied by the present director of the publishing house “Mastackaya Litaratura” Uladzislaw Machulski, a former Prosecutor’s office employee.