Ales Adamovich

Soviet Belarusian writer (1927–1994)

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Adamovich (, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Адамо́вич; 3 September 1927 – 26 January 1994) was a Soviet Belarusian writer, screenwriter, literary critic and democratic activist. He wrote in both the Russian and Belarusian languages. Having fought as a child soldier in the Belarusian resistance during World War II, much of Adamovich's work revolved around the German occupation of Byelorussia during World War II and the Belarusian partisan movement. Among his best known books are Khatyn and The Blockade Book. Adamovich also wrote multiple screenplays, including that of Come and See. A prominent critic of Stalinism and the Soviet system, he supported several democratic causes in the former Soviet Union, including Soviet dissidents, the Inter regional Deputies Group, the Belarusian Popular Front and President of Russia Boris Yeltsin.

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Adamovich was born 3 September 1927 in the village of Konyukhi in Minsk Region of what was then the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. Both his parents were doctors. Shortly after his birth, he moved, along with his parents, to the village of Glusha, in Bobruysk Region. During World War II, Adamovich, aged 15, became a partisan unit member from 1943. Adamovich resumed his education following the end of fighting in Belarus in 1944. After the war, he entered the Belarusian State University where he studied in the philology department and completed graduate course; he later studied in Moscow at the Higher Courses for Screenwriters and in the Moscow State University.

Adamovich was a member of the Union of Soviet Writers from 1957, although he disliked the organisation and considered it to be too strongly supportive of the Soviet government. In 1976, he was awarded the Yakub Kolas Belarus State Prize in literature for Khatyn. Most of Adamovich's works were about the German occupation of Byelorussia during World War II, with his most well regarded works including the novella Khatyn and the memoir collection I am from the Fiery Village. For I am from the Fiery Village, Adamovich collaborated with two other Belarusian writers, Janka Bryl and Uladzimir Kalesnik, in interviewing three hundred survivors of the German occupation of Belarus. In 1982, Adamovich represented the delegation of the Byelorussian SSR to the United Nations General Assembly. From 1989 to 1991, Adamovich was a member of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union, from the anti communist Inter regional Deputies Group. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Adamovich chose to remain in Russia, where he had lived since 1986. In Russia, he continued his anti communist activism, leading to him becoming co chair of the Memorial organisation. In October 1993, amidst the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, Adamovich was a signatory of the Letter of Forty Two, indicating his support for Yeltsin remaining in office.

Adamovich died on 26 January 1994, at the age of 66, shortly after testifying for a property dispute involving two former literary organisations. According to his wife, the cause of death was a heart attack. Adamovich was remembered by Russian government news agency TASS as a "prominent public activist who devoted much of his strength and energy to the strengthening of democracy in Russia".