YANKA KUPALA AND YAKUB KOLAS IN NASHA NIVA

The article explores ideological foundations of Yanka Kupala’s and Yakub Kolas’s literary work in the early 20th century and how they were influenced by Nasha Niva, a newspaper. The author comes to the conclusion that the main motive of the both writers’ literary work in that period was to show the importance of struggling for Belarusian statehood. Also, the author proposes a hypothesis to explain that the pseudonym of Yanka Kupala used by the poet Ivan Lutsevich derives from the name of the Biblical prophet, John the Baptist: the word “Baptist” is translated into Church Slavonic exactly as “Kupala”. Moreover, according to the Bible, John the Baptist sees his mission in preparing his people for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Similarly, what Yanka Kupala’s literary work sought was exactly for the Belarusians to believe in their unique mission and be prepared to establish their own independent state. The article also explored Yakub Kolas’s poem, The New Land, that points out the problem of land in Belarus in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the context of the struggle for the Belarusian lands between Poland and Russia.

1. Sankt-Petsiarburgskі fіlіial Arkhіva Rasіiskai akademіі navuk [St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive], F. 292b Vop. 2, Spr. 62.

2. Sankt-Petsiarburgskі fіlіial Arkhіva Rasіiskai akademіі navuk [St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive], F. 292, Vop. 2, Spr. 700.

3. Sіdarevіch A., Lutskevіchy і Lutsevіch [Lutskevich and Lutsevich], Gramadskae ab’iadnan'ne «Fond іmia bratoў Lutskevіchaў», Minsk, BY, 2003.

4. Kiselev G., “Besyad Roads-roads”, Neman [Neman], 1984, no. 3, pp. 142–148.

5. Kupala Ia., Vybranyia tvory [Selected works], Belaruskі knіgazbor, Minsk, BY, 2002.

6. “For "And yet we live in"”, Nasha Nіva, 1914, June 20th, facsimile edition, vol. 5, Tekhnalogіia, Minsk, BY, 2010.

7. Kupala Ia., “Prophet”, Nasha Nіva, 1912, December 21, facsimile edition, vol. 5, Tekhnalogіia, Minsk, BY, 2010.

8. Putsiavіnamі Iankі Kupaly: Dakumenty і materyialy [Yanka Kupala ways: Documents and Materials], Navuka і tekhnіka, Minsk, BY, 1981.

9. Patriarkh Moskovskii i vseia Rusi Kirill (ed.), Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopediia [Orthodox Encyclopedia], vol. XXIV, Tserkovno-nauchnyi tsentr «Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia», Moscow, RU, 2010.

10. Men' A., Istoriia religii: V poiskakh Puti, Istiny i Zhizni: v 7 t., T. 6 [History of religion: In search of the Way, Truth and Life: in 7 volumes, Volume 6], SP «Slovo», Moscow, RU, 1993.

11. Novy Zapavet і Knіga Prypoves'tsiau [The New Testament and the Book of Proverbs], Pazіtyu-tsentr, Minsk, BY, 2016.

12. Kupala Ia., Shliakham zhyts'tsia [Way of life], Petersburg, RU, 1913.

13. Kolas, Ia. Zbor tvorau: u 20 t., T. 1: Vershy (1898–1910) [Works in 20 t, Volume 1: Poems (1898–1910)], Belaruskaia navuka, Minsk, BY, 2007.

14. Z zhytstsiapіsu Iakuba Kolasa: dakumenty і materyialy [From the biography of Yakub Kolas: documents and materials], Navuka i tekhnika, Minsk, BY, 1982.

15. Kolas Ja., Novaja zjamlja: paema [New Land: Poem], BFK, Minsk, BY, 2002.