Vasily Vladimirovich Bykov, Belarusian novelist, playwright, publicist. He was born in 1924 in the village of Bychki, Vitebsk region.
The basis of Bykov's creative manner is the harsh truth in the depiction of war, its dramatic and tragic situations, close attention to the richness of human thoughts and feelings, democracy and heightened humanity, philosophical saturation and expressiveness of the narrative.
The story "The Third Rocket", written in 1962, brought fame to Vasil Bykov. In the 1960s he published the stories "Alpine Ballad", "It doesn't hurt the dead", in the 1970s - "Sotnikov", "Obelisk", "To live until dawn", "To go and not return".
These works put Vasil Bykov on a par with the outstanding masters of military prose of the twentieth century.
In 1974, Vasil Bykov was awarded the USSR State Prize (for the novel "To Live till Dawn", 1973), in 1980 he received the title of People's Writer of Belarus, Hero of Socialist Labor (1984), in 1986 he was awarded the Lenin Prize for the novel "The Sign of Trouble".
People's Writer of Belarus Vasil Bykov died on June 22, 2003.
