Maxim Tank: a brief overview of life and creativity

Maxim Tank is one of the most famous Belarusian poets. His work was important for the development of Belarusian literature, not only in the artistic but also in the national sense: after all, he did a lot to popularize the Belarusian language, translated books to it and strongly supported his development.

early years

Maxim Tank, whose biography is the subject of this review, was born in the Minsk region in 1912. His real name is Evgeny Skurko. He came from a simple, but not poor peasant family. After the outbreak of World War I, he and his family went to Moscow, but after a while returned to his native village. He studied at two schools: Polish and Russian, became a member of the Komsomol, but was soon expelled from the gymnasium for freethinking and disobedience. After that, Maxim Tank entered the Vilnius Russian Gymnasium, where he first tried his hand at the literary field. He published his own handwritten literary magazine, in which he placed his first poems.

The beginning of a literary career

In the 1930s, the poet actively wrote new works under a pseudonym. It was by this time that he became famous throughout the country. However, due to the fact that he lived in Western Belorussia, which was then part of Poland, Maxim Tank was persecuted because of the propaganda of the Belarusian language and for publishing the magazine in this language. Nevertheless, he continued to actively publish in Belarusian publications and to keep a column in Belarusian in the Polish newspaper.

In the decade he created, and large works, poems, for example, "Narach", "Kalosse." His works immediately became a notable phenomenon in the literary life of the country, the young author immediately drew attention, and he began to be perceived as one of the most promising poets. After the unification of Belarus, he was under suspicion of the Soviet authorities, despite the fact that he was considered a Communist. Several times the threat of arrest loomed over him, but this did not stop him from continuing his active literary activity.

Military years

Maxim Tank, a Belarusian poet, devoted a significant place in his work to military topics. For example, he composed the poem "Yanuk Syaliba", and also released several collections of poems, among which you can call "Praz vegennye nebashil." The military theme occupied a prominent place in his work in the following decades, but the poet himself considered them insufficiently strong and expressive.

Features of creativity

Maxim Tank, biography, creativity, whose bibliography are the subject of this review, received national love as the creator of fairy tales in the folklore spirit, as well as works on everyday topics. Here you can indicate his works such as "Yehau Cossack Bai", "Horse and Leu" and others. In 1970 he published a book written in the form of a diary. Critics note the following features of his language and style:

• Free possession of a poetic form;
• He did not always adhere to classical rules and canonical requirements, but wrote in a characteristic, only to him one peculiar manner, often resorting to a white verse.

He was very anxious about his native language and his whole life, creativity and social activities aspired to affirm his enduring value. By the way, he himself was fluent in Polish, and he also knew Russian.

Editorial and public work

M. Tank was actively engaged in editorial work. It has already been said that he began his literary activity with the release of his own manuscript magazine. In the postwar years, he edited the satirical magazine "Vozhyk", then moved to another publication, which was called "Polymya." He was a member of the Writers' Union of the country, was chairman of his board. The poet also worked in the Supreme Council, which indicates that he was finally formed as a recognized author by the post-war time. This is evidenced by the fact that he received the title of People's Poet. Maxim Tank, biography, creativity, awards and titles of which say that he deservedly enjoyed the love and respect of the readers, made a significant contribution to the development of the Belarusian language, for which he received the Stalin and Lenin Prizes, and also became the Hero of Socialist Labor.

Works

The political views of the poet are still disputed. On the one hand, he positioned himself as a communist, but at the same time he came from a family of well-to-do peasants (they were then called kulaks), he was brought up in a capitalist country, for which he was constantly suspected by the party. Nevertheless, the folk themes occupy one of the leading places in his work. He was interested in, first of all, sketches of people's life and the life of ordinary people.

For example, he devoted one of his first poems "Narach" to the strike of ordinary fishermen because they were forbidden to fish under the ice. One of the earliest collections of his poems is called "At the Stages," and then the "Pad Mast" collection was published. Despite the fact that the main place in his work is occupied by philosophical subjects, as well as a satirical genre, he writes and on a military theme. Among these works can be called such as "Cab knew", "At Daroza" and others. The poet died in 1995.

Literary activity of the poet should be considered and evaluated alongside with the work of other such well-known Belarusian poets, like Y. Kupala and Y. Kolas. These authors have glorified the Belarusian poetry with their works. The common feature of their work is that all of them have made the main theme of their works an image of the people's life and everyday life of ordinary people, as well as the problem of war.