Źmitrok Biadula

Samuil Jafimavič Płaŭnik (Самуіл Яфімавіч Плаўнік; שמואל בן חיים פּלאַווניק; 23 April 1886 – 3 November 1941), better known by the pen name Źmitrok Biadula (Зьмітрок Бядуля), was a Soviet and Belarusian poet, prose writer, translator, and political activist in the Belarusian independence movement. He is considered one of the fathers of modern Belarusian literature.

Biography
Zmitrok Biadula (Samuil Jafimavič Płaŭnik) was born on 23 April 1886 in the small town of Pasadziec (now in Lahoysk District, Minsk Region) to a Jewish family. He began writing Hebrew poems at age 13, based on medieval liturgical poetry. He later started writing in Russian and Belarusian, publishing works in the Saint Petersburg press and the Vilnius magazine Mołodyje Porywy. In 1910 he published poetic prose in Nasha Niva. Following the Soviet takeover of Belarus, he began writing novels in the Socialist realist genre.

After the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Biadula fled Belarus. He lived first in Pizhma, Gorky Oblast, then, until the end of October 1941, in the village of Novye Burasy, Saratov Oblast. He died near Uralsk in Kazakhstan, where he was buried.

In February 2020, the remains of Źmitrok Biadula were exhumed and delivered to Belarus. On 3 November that year, the 79th anniversary of his death, the remains were reburied at the Eastern Cemetery (Minsk) in Minsk in a Christian ceremony.