Naumenko, Ivan Iakovlevich

Naumenko, Ivan Iakovlevich 

Born Feb. 16, 1925, in the settlement of Vasilevichi, in what is now Rechitsa Raion, Gomel’ Oblast. Soviet Byelorussian author and literary scholar. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR (1972). Member of the CPSU since 1948.

The son of a worker, Naumenko graduated from the Byelorussian University in 1950. He fought in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. He was first published in 1955, as a short-story writer. His collections of short stories Seventeenth Spring (1957), Lads and Contemporaries (1958), Heather Grows on the Charred Land (1960), Poplars of Youth (1966), and Veronika (1968) portray the heroism and moral purity of Soviet youth in the war years. The partisan struggle in the German rear is the theme of the trilogy comprising the novels The Pine Tree by the Roadside (1961), The Wind in the Pines (1966), and ’Forty-three (1973). His prose is deeply lyrical. Naumenko is also noted for his studies on the works of Ia. Kupala and Ia. Kolas. He has been awarded the Order of the Red Star as well as medals.

WORKS

Padarozhzha u iunatstva: Vybranae. Minsk, 1972.
Ianka Kupala: Dukhouny voblik geroia. Minsk, 1967.
Lakub Kolas: Dukhouny voblik geroia. Minsk, 1968.
In Russian translation:
Druz’ia-tovarishchi. Moscow, 1959.
Golubinyi vzlet. Moscow, 1961.
Puteshestvie ν iunost’. Moscow, 1967.
Sosna pri doroge. Moscow, 1971.

REFERENCES

Kuleshov, F. “Chelovek na puti k podvigu.” Druzhba narodov, 1963, no. 6.
Ovcharenko, A. “Vroven’s vekom.” Druzhba narodov, 1965, no. 9.

F. I. KULESHOV