Poet Larysa Hienijush
(August 9, 1910 - April 7, 1983)
Artist: Alies' Mara
Pocket Calendar Copyright ©2000 by TBM
(Click on the photo to see a larger image; use your Web brower's "Back" button to return to this page. Photograph taken 1940)
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Poet Larysa Hienijush
(August 9, 1910 - April 7, 1983)
Artist: Alies' Mara Pocket Calendar Copyright ©2000 by TBM (Click on the photo to see a larger image; use your Web brower's "Back" button to return to this page. Photograph taken 1940) |
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![[ Photograph: Larysa Hienijush ]](geniush-y-s.jpg)
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(also "Larysa Heniyush", and "Larisa Geniush"; Ларыса Геніюш) |
From the "Notes on Authors" section in Like Water, Like Fire (Vera Rich, translator and editor; 1971; pp. 336):
Meeting Held in Minsk in Commemoration of Poet Larysa Heniyush
The centenary of the poet's birth is to be observed in August [August 9, 2010].
BLS Chairman Aleh Trusaw [Trusaŭ] said in his opening address that 12 unpublished poems by Heniyush would be recited at the meeting.
“In her verses, Larysa Heniyush constantly fights for humanism and suggests that one should live a life proper of a human being and as required by God,” said poet Syarhey Zakonnikaw (Zakonnikaŭ).
“Bureaucrats in Europe and all over the world currently try to deprive people of voice and rights,” he said. “When we read poets like Larysa Heniyush, we always think how to preserve truth, justice and humanism in this world.”
Larysa Heniyush was born in a village near Vawkavysk, Hrodna region, on August 9, 1910, and lived in Prague after graduation from a school in Vawkavysk. She worked as secretary for Vasil Zakharka (Zacharka), president-in-exile of the Belarusian National Republic from 1928 to 1943. She kept the presidential archives, supported Belarusian emigrants, political refugees and prisoners of war. Heniyush was arrested on March 5, 1948 and held in prisons in Czechoslovakia and then in Soviet prisons in Vienna, Lviv and Minsk. In 1949, she was sentenced in Minsk to 25 years for an alleged conspiracy against the Soviet Union. She served her term in Stalinist labor camps. Heniyush was released in 1956 before the end of her term, but she was never cleared of the charges against her. The poet lived in Zelva until her death on April 7, 1983. She never accepted Soviet citizenship.
In December 2007, the then prosecutor general, Pyotr Miklashevich, rejected a petition to exonerate the poet, which was signed by more than 70 prominent Belarusians. Mr. Miklashevich explained in his reply that he was not authorized to overrule the decisions of the Supreme Court of Belarus. The Supreme Court ruled on November 24, 1999, that Larysa Heniyush was not eligible for exoneration.
Heniyush published two collections of poetry and verses for children with the help of her friends in 1967. A book of her poetic heritage and memoirs, in which she recalls the years that she had spent in labor camps, the tragic destiny of her family and co-prisoners, was published after her death.
Heniyush`s works were removed from the general school curriculum soon after Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s election as president in 1994."
Source: Naviny / BelaPAN, April 9, 2010
“We visited the local church, tidied the grave of the poet, laid flowers, and lit candles,” Mr. Siwchyk said.
The trip to Zelva had been organized by the Hrodna regional branch of the founding committee for the Belarusian Christian Democracy party and the Memorial group of the Belarusian Voluntary Society for Historical and Cultural Heritage Protection. According to Mr. Siwchyk, commemorative events will also take place on August 9, the poet’s birthday.
“I view these events as preparations for the centenary of the poet’s birth next year,” Mr. Siwchyk said. “I believe there will be many events on this occasion in 2010 and this anniversary will be commemorated on a large scale and nationwide.”
Mr. Siwchyk noted that civil society activists would continue petitioning the Presidential Administration and other governmental agencies to exonerate Larysa Heniyush despite the fact that the previous petitions had been ignored.
Larysa Heniyush was born in a village near Vawkavysk, Hrodna region, on August 9, 1910, and lived in Prague after graduation from a school in Vawkavysk. She worked as secretary for Vasil Zakharka (Zacharka), president-in-exile of the Belarusian National Republic from 1928 to 1943. She kept the presidential archives, supported Belarusian emigrants, political refugees and prisoners of war. Heniyush was arrested on March 5, 1948 and held in prisons in Czechoslovakia and then in Soviet prisons in Vienna, Lviv and Minsk. In 1949, she was sentenced in Minsk to 25 years for an alleged conspiracy against the Soviet Union. She served her term in Stalinist labor camps. Heniyush was released in 1956 before the end of her term, but she was never cleared of the charges against her. The poet lived in Zelva until her death on April 7, 1983. She never accepted Soviet citizenship.
In December 2007, the then prosecutor general, Pyotr Miklashevich, rejected a petition to exonerate the poet, which was signed by more than 70 prominent Belarusians. Mr. Miklashevich explained in his reply that he was not authorized to overrule the decisions of the Supreme Court of Belarus. The Supreme Court ruled on November 24, 1999, that Larysa Heniyush was not eligible for exoneration.
Heniyush published two collections of poetry and verses for children with the help of her friends in 1967. A book of her poetic heritage and memoirs, in which she recalls the years that she had spent in labor camps, the tragic destiny of her family and co-prisoners, was published after her death. [ See the following link for information about one book: Ларыса Геніюш: Выбраныя Вершы, Менск, 1997 (Larysa Hienijush: Selected Poems)]
Heniyush`s works were removed from the general school curriculum soon after Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s election as president in 1994."
Source: Naviny (BelaPAN), 08/09/2009
News Article: Will Authorities Rehabilitate Larysa Heniyush?
The proposal has been written by Academician of the Belarusian Academy of Science Radzim Haretski, writers Vasil Yakavenka, Ales Pashkevich, and Nil Hilevich; human rights activists T. Protska and H. Pahanyajla; and more than 70 other well-known public figures of Belarus.
From 1937 Larysa Heniyush had been living in the Czechoslovakia and was a citizen of that country. However in 1948 on order of Moscow she was repatriated to the Soviet Union. There she was arrested and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment “for assisting world bourgeoisie in hostile activities against the Soviet Union” and “counter-revolutionary activities.”
Larysa Heniyush was released on July 1, 1956, but the unfair sentence hasn’t been reversed.
The name of Larysa Heniyush could be compared to names of Belarusian classics Kupala, Kolas, and Tsyotka and other prominent Belarusian workers of culture. Her books Trammel Net from Nyoman, Thyme infusion, and others show their nobleness of thoughts and feelings. A film Birds without nests based on “Confession” by Larysa Heniyush was created by the Belarusfilm film studio. A play White Dream was also created. A documentary about Larysa Heniyush, Thorn Wreath of Cornflowers, was created by Letapis studio. Her monuments have been put up in Zelva and Staryja Darohi.
Maxim Tank wrote: “Poems by Larysa Heniyush are not just remarkable. They combine the eternal anguish of the nation and of a human who had gone through awful trials of life, which was impossible even for saints in our time”."
Source: Charter 97, 11/02/2007
News Article: Lukashenko to Refuse Larissa Geniush’s Rehabilitation
"Proving the necessity of the rehabilitation BHC in particular emphasized that Geniush is well-known poet in Belarus and abroad. Her works are full of love towards Belarusian people and country. However they are not accessible for our citizens as the poet was repressed in 1949 and still isn’t rehabilitated. Owing to this fact, Geniush’s poems are no more included in school program; it’s prohibited to carry out official events, in commemoration of her creative works.
"During the mass punitive measures at the end of 1937 the patriot Larissa Geniush has been forced to leave Belarus for Prague to her husband where she became the citizen of the Czechoslovakia. On August 20 1948 the USSR government ruled to deprive her of the Czech citizenship and she was by force deported to BSSR. On February 7 1949 she was sentenced to 25 years of corrective labor in the Northern camps of the USSR by the Supreme BSSR court’s verdict. On July, 1 1956 Larissa Geniush was liberated and lived until she died in the settlement of urban type Zelva of Grodno region observed by KGB.
"Geniush told the court about her creative work: "Everything I wrote, wasn’t anti-Soviet. I love my people and I wrote about it and only for Belarusian people.”
"Taking into account the recent president’s utterances on the national sovereignty BHC hoped to get positive answer that would have been the step to restoration of historical equity and fairness. Lukashenko didn’t answer to this letter and gave it to the Supreme Court. The decision of the Supreme Court has been “ Geniush was recognized not to be subject to rehabilitation.”"
Source: Charter 97, No. 19; Tuesday, 11:54, 29/07/2003, from Belarusian Helsinki Committee’s press-service
News Article: Evening on Poet Larysa Heniyush's Birthday to be Held in Mensk
"Larysa Heniyush was born in the Volkovysk district, Hrodna (Grodno) region, on July 27, 1910, and lived in Prague after the graduation from a secondary school in Volkovysk. She worked as secretary for Vasil Zakharka (Zacharka), the president-in-exile of the Belarusian National Republic from 1928 to 1943. She kept the presidential archives, supported Belarusian emigrants, political refugees and prisoners of war. Heniyush was arrested on March 5, 1948, and kept in prisons in Czechoslovakia, then in Soviet prisons in Vienna, Lviv, and Mensk."
"She was sentenced to 25 years for a conspiracy against the Soviet Union in 1949. She served her term in Stalinist labor camps. Heniyush was released in 1956 before the end of her term, but she has not been exonerated. The poet lived with her husband in the village of Zelva, Grodno region. She did not accept Soviet citizenship until her death on April 7, 1983."
"Heniyush published two collections of poetry and verses for children with the help of her friends in 1967. A book of her poetic heritage and memoirs, in which she recalls the years that she spent in labor camps, the tragic destiny of her family and co-prisoners, was published after her death."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 27; Monday, August 7, 2000; 7:10 p.m.
"There is no evidence in the case to prove charges against the Geniushes nowadays, Garry Pogonyailo, BHC deputy chairman said."
"The Geniushes were convicted of 'counterrevolutionary activities' and 'assistance to international bourgeoisie in conducting hostile activities against the USSR' because of their membership in the Mutual Assistance Committee, a Belarusian organization that collected funds for the Red Cross Society. 'There is no crime in their activities according to today's standards,' Mr. Pogonyailo said. The Geniushes were sentenced to 25 years in prison but released on parole in 1956. Their case was reviewed in 1956 but they were not cleared of the charges."
"The BHC wants the Geniushes honor to be vindicated before the poet's 90th birthday, which will be celebrated in Belarus and by UNESCO in 2000. Mr. Pogonyailo hopes that the Procurator General's Office will support the BHC's initiative and that the Supreme Court will fully exonerate the Geniushes."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 19; Tuesday, October 5, 1999; 5:40 p.m.
"After a religious service, those attending shared recollections about the poet's life and lowered a white-red-white national flag to half-mast. Geniush had not accepted Soviet citizenship."
"Her poetry and biography were not included in secondary schools' curriculum this year, as well as poetry by Masei Sednev, another prisoner of Stalinist labor camps. In the early 1990s, there was much talk about establishing the poet's museum in Zelva, but the house, where Geniush used to live, have been renovated beyond recognition of new inhabitants."
"Meanwhile, rumors have been circulating that the government intends to exonerate Larisa Geniush."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 46; Thursday, August 12, 1999; 1:40 p.m.
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Examples of Her Poetry
Photograph from: Ларыса Геніюш: Выбраныя Вершы, Менск, 1997
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![[ Photograph: Larysa Hienijush ]](l-geniush-s.jpg)
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