Yakub Kolas

Yakub Kolas (also Jakub Kołas, , – 13 August 1956), real name Kanstantsin Mikhailavich Mitskievich (Канстанці́н Міха́йлавіч Міцке́віч, , ) was a Belarusian writer, dramatist, poet and translator. People's Poet of the Byelorussian SSR, member (1928) and vice-president (from 1929) of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences.

In his works, Yakub Kolas was known for his sympathy towards the ordinary Belarusian peasantry. This was evident in his pen name 'Kolas', meaning 'ear of grain' in Belarusian. He wrote collections of poems Songs of Captivity (, 1908) and Songs of Grief (, 1910), poems A New Land (, 1923) and Simon the Musician (, 1925), stories, and plays. His poem The Fisherman's Hut (, 1947) is about the fight after unification of Belarus with the Soviet state. His trilogy At a Crossroads (, 1925) is about the pre-Revolutionary life of the Belarusian peasantry and the democratic intelligentsia. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946 and 1949.

In his honor, the Yakub Kolas Square and the Yakub Kolas Street in the center of Minsk bear his name.