Valery Marakou ( be, Валеры Маракоў; russian: Валерий Дмитриевич Моряков; 29 October 1937) was a Belarusian poet and translator.
Biography
First verses of poetry by Marakou were published as ''Petals'' in 1925 (as stated by Leanid Marakou,
though the cover (illustrated) states 1926), and attracted the attention of the famous Belarusian poet
Yanka Kupala
Yanka Kupala, also spelled Janka Kupała ( be, Янка Купала; – 28 June 1942), was the pen name of Ivan Daminikavič Lutsevič (), a Belarusian poet and writer.
Biography Early life
Kupala was born on July 7, 1882, in Viazynka, ...
who supported the young poet. During Marakou's short lifetime, four books of his poetry had been published.
In March 1935 Marakou was arrested by agents of the
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...
for the first time. He was arrested again on 6 November 1936.
In October 1937, after a year of torture, Marakou was charged with being "a member of a counter-revolutionary national-fascist organisation", at a session of
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
's
"troika". He was executed by firing squad in the
1937 mass execution of Belarusians
In October 1937, there was a mass extermination of Belarusian writers, artists and statespeople by the Soviet Union occupying authorities. This event marked the peak of the Great Purge and Soviet repressions in Belarus, repressions of Belarusians i ...
on 29 October in the internal NKVD prison in Minsk, together with other 22 Belarusian intellectuals and social activists.
Valery Marakou was posthumously rehabilitated by a military board of the Supreme Court of the USSR on 23 April 1957.
The works of Valery Marakou were re-discovered for the Belarusian reader and his tragic fate were investigated by his nephew, the writer
Leanid Marakou
Leanid Marakou ( be, Леанід Маракоў; russian: Леонид Моряков; April 15, 1958 in Minsk – December 17, 2016) was a Belarusian journalist, writer.
Biography
Marakou ( Belarusian: Леанід Маракоў, Russian: ...
. Leanid Marakou has published a monograph
[Marakou, Leanid, 1999.] dedicated to the life and works of the poet, and placed his uncle's books in electronic format (in Belarusian) on his web-site.
Bibliography
Poetry
* Marakou, Valery. ''Пялёсткі'' (''Petals''), Minsk 1925.
* Marakou, Valery. ''На залатым пакосе'' (''On the Golden Mowing''), 1927.
* Marakou, Valery. ''Вяршыні жаданняў. Паэзія'' (''Summits of Wishes''), 1930.
* Marakou, Valery. ''Права на зброю'' (''Rights to the Weapon''), 1933.
* Marakou, Valery. ''Лірыка'' (''Lyrics''), 1959.
* Marakou, Valery. ''Вяршыні жаданняў'' (''Summits of Wishes''), 1989.
* Marakou, Valery. ''Рабінавая ноч: Выбранае. Вершы, паэмы, проза, публіцыстыка, крытыка, пераклады'' (''Ashberry Night'', (selected works in poetry and prose)), 2003.
Biographies
* Marakou, Leanid. ''Valery Marakou. Fate, Chronicles, Context''. Minsk, 1999
Monograph (in HTML)(in Belarusian)
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marakou, Valery
1909 births
1937 deaths
Writers from Minsk
Great Purge victims from Belarus
Soviet rehabilitations
Soviet poets