Yanka Kupala

Ivan Lutsevich, writing as Yanka Kupala (named after the Slavic solstice festival of Kupala), was born on July 7, 1882, in Viazynka into a landless peasant gentry family. Writing for the pioneering Vilnius-based newspaper Nasha Niva, Kupala published collections like Zhaleyka (1908) and Guslyar (1910) that gave voice to millions of downtrodden Belarusian peasants.

His 1908 poem 'Who Goes There?' was translated into dozens of world languages, summarizing the historic aspiration of Belarusians: 'To be called human beings!' Kupala wrote landmark plays such as Paulinka and The Ruined Nest, and was decorated as the first People's Poet of Belarus in 1925.