Mikhas Charot

Michaś Čarot (also spelled Mihas Charot; , born Michaił Symonavič Kudzielka ; 7 November 1896 – 29 October 1937) was a Belarusian poet, playwright, and novelist who wrote under the pseudonyms of Maksim Byadneyshi (Максім Бяднейшы), Jurka Kurtati (Юрка Куртаты), and V. Čarot (В. Чарот). He was a victim of Stalin's purges (in particular those in Belarus) and was rehabilitated in 1956 during the Khruschev Thaw.

Early years Čarot was born into a peasant family in the town of Rudziensk, Ihumienski Uyezd of the Minsk Governorate of the Russian empire (nowadays in Puchavičy district, Minsk region of Belarus). Čarot's grandfather was a weaving master and received the surname appropriate to his profession from the lord, while the poet's grandmother worked as a nurse in the lord's palace. He had two brothers and sisters: Pavlo (engineer and home teacher), Alexander (agronomist), Maria (cook) and Nastya (actress).

In 1917 he graduated from the Molodechno Teachers' Seminary in Maladziečna. During the First World War, the seminary was evacuated to Smolensk, where Čarot spent the last two years of his studies.

After graduation, he was mobilized into the army. but was mobilised in the Russian Imperial Army. He is regarded as “one of the leaders of the Belarusian Soviet literature of the 1920s” whose works “reflect[ed] all the romantic impulses, contradictions and great illusions of his time”. He addressed the poem "I am the first to sign a severe sentence..." (1930) to V. Lastovsky, M. Horetsky, A. Dudar, U. Dubovka, J. Pushcha and others arrested in connection with the "Union for the Liberation of Belarus" case, in which he denounced them ("You hid under the broom like mice") for their support for national democracy. He joined the Union of Writers of the USSR in 1934.

Arrest, execution and rehabilitation Čarot was arrested as a "Polish intelligence agent" in January 1937.

Until recently, the song's lyrics and music had been described as “folk music” without identifiable authors - despite Teraŭski's and Čarot's posthumous exoneration.