Maksim Bahdanovič



Maksim Bahdanovič (Belarusian language: Максім Багдановіч December 9, 1891 – May 25, 1917) was a famous Belarusian poet, journalist and literary critic.

Life
Bahdanovič was born in Minsk to the family of a scientist. In 1892 the family moved to Hrodna where his mother soon died of tuberculosis.

In 1896 the poet's father, Adam Bahdanovič moved with his children to Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. At that time Maksim wrote his first poems in the Belarusian language. In 1902 Bahdanovic attended a gymnasium. During the Revolution of 1905 he was an active participant of the strikes organised by his commilitodes.

In 1907 Naša Niva came out with Bahdanovič's first published work &mdash; the novel Muzyka.

In June of 1908 the poet's family moved to Yaroslavl. After finishing school in 1911 Bahdanovič went to Belarus to meet important figures of the Belarusian Renaissance: Vacłaŭ Łastoŭski, Ivan Łuckievič and Anton Łuckievič. In the same year he began studying of law at a Yaroslavl lyceum. During his studies Bahdanovič worked at a newspaper, wrote numerous works of literature and was actively published in both Belarus and Russia.

In the beginning of 1914 his book of poems, Vianok, was published in Vilnia.

In the summer of 1916, after absolvation of the lyceum, Maksim Bahdanovič went to Minsk and worked there at the local guberniya administration.

In February of 1917 Bahdanovič went to Crimea to be treated for tuberculosis. The treatment was unsuccessful, and that year he died in Yalta.

The poet's papers were kept at his father's house, but the collection was heavily damaged during the Russian Civil War in 1918.

His standing in Belarusian literature
In 1991 – 1995 a full collection of Bahdanovič's poetry was published in Belarus.

Nowadays there are museums of the poet open in Minsk, Hrodna and Yaroslavl. Several streets in major cities of Belarus and Russia are named after him.

The operas Zorka Venera (by Jury Siemianiaka and Aleś Bačyła), and Maksim (by Ihar Palivoda).

Bahdanovič created many examples of social, artistic and philosophical lyrics. He was the first poet to introduce several new lyrical forms to Belarusian literature.

Maksim Bahdanovič was a translator of Heinrich Heine, Alexander Pushkin, Ovid, Horace and other poets into Belarusian and of Janka Kupała, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko into Russian.