Yakub Kolas
Yakub Kolas (also Jakub Kołas, , – August 13, 1956), real name Kanstantsin Mikhailovich Mitskievich (Канстанці́н Міха́йлавіч Міцке́віч) was a Belarusian writer, People's Poet of the Byelorussian SSR (1926), member (1928) and vice-president (from 1929) of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. In his works, Yakub Kolas was known for his sympathy towards the ordinary Belarusian peasantry. This was evident in his pen name 'Kolas', meaning 'ear of grain' in Belarusian. He wrote collections of poems "Songs of Captivity" (, 1908) and "Songs of Grief" (, 1910), poems "A New Land" (, 1923) and "Simon the Musician" (, 1925), stories, and plays. His  poem "The Fisherman's Hut" (, 1947) is about the fight after unification of Belarus with the Soviet state. His trilogy "At a Crossroads" (, 1925) is about the pre-Revolutionary life of the Belarusian peasantry and the democratic intelligentsia. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946 and 1949. In his honor, the Yakub Kolas Square and the Yakub Kolas Street in the center of Minsk bear his name.