Kupala, Janka

Kupala, Janka yängˈkä ko͞opäˈlä [key], 1888–1942, Belorussian poet and writer, whose original name was Ivan Lutsevich. Kupala was a major figure of the Belorussian national and cultural revival. His prerevolutionary works, which stress national liberation, include the novel Along the Path of Life (1913), a collection of verse entitled Heritage (1922), and the drama Ravaged Nest (1919). Hostility toward Communism is evident in his poetry written between 1918 and 1928 and in the allegorical comedy The Natives (1922). Kupala's works after 1930 are of slight literary value.

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