Ales Adamovich

Known for his straightforward character, Ales Adamovich (1927-1994), an award winning Belarusian author, screenwriter and literary critic, was an active public figure and teacher in the former Soviet Union where he wrote his most influential war novel Khatyn. During WWII he fought as a partisan; this experience became the basis for Khatyn.
After WWII he went on to receive his PhD in philology from Belarusian State University and also took graduate courses in directing and screenwriting at the prestigious Moscow film school VKSR. Adamovich was a professor and a member of the Belorussian Academy of Sciences. As a result of refusing to testify against his colleagues and to sign letters condemning political dissidents he was barred from teaching at Moscow State University. However, he was a member of many public and professional unions. In 1989 he was one of the first writers to join the Belorussian PEN Center, and in 1994 the Center instituted the Ales Adamovich Literary Prize.
Ales Adamovich's works are still read widely and his legacy continues to be an important milestone in Belorussian history. His fiction and non-fiction titles make a profound case against the necessity of war, and are a testament to the kind of knowledge and wisdom being vastly sought after today.

Awards:

Award for Honor and Dignity of Talent, 1997 (posthumous)
Order of the Red Banner, 1987
Order of the Patriotic War, 1985
Gold Medal of Alexander Fadeyev, 1983
Order of the Badge of Honor, 1977
Yakub Kolas Belorussian State Prize, 1976 (For Khatyn)
Ministry of Defense Prize, 1974 (For Khatyn)
Friendship Literary Prize, 1972
Partisan Medal, 1946