Portrait of Yanka Maur

Breast image (bust) of an elderly man. High forehead, deep bald patches on the head. His gaze is straight, his eyes are narrowed. Deep wrinkles around the mouth and on his nose. The molding is formal below the head. A fragment of outerwear is visible on the shoulders. Yanka Maur, (May 11, 1883 – August 3, 1971) was a famous Belarusian writer. Yanka Maur was actually his pseudonym, while his real name was Ivan Mikhailavich Fiodarau. His son, Fiodar Fiodaraŭ, was a famous Belarusian physicist. He was born in Liepāja, Courland and grew up in Lebianishki, the Belarusian village, now is Lithuania. He graduated from vocational school in Kaunas, then entered a pedagogical school in 1899, but was thrown out for being a member of an underground revolutionary club. Nevertheless in 1903 he passed all the exams as a non-resident student and became a high school teacher. In 1906 took part in the underground meeting of the Belarusian teachers, organized by the famous Belarusian writer Yakub Kolas. After that he was arrested and could not work as a teacher anymore. He could teach again only in 1911, becoming a teacger of geography and history in a private school in Minsk. He was working in many different literary genres: satirical, historical, literature for kids. He is credited with starting the science fiction tradition in the modern Belarusian literature. His biggest novel is Amok, but his best-selling and perhaps most known book was Palesse Robinsons. Besides writing, he also a translater into Belarusian from many foreign authors, including Jules Verne, Victor Hugo, Anton Chekhov, Mark Twain, and others.