Valery Marakou

Valery Marakou (Belarusian: Валеры Маракоў, Russian: Валерий Дмитриевич Моряков, March 27(14), 1909, Minsk - October 29, 1937, Minsk) was a Belarusian poet and translator.

First verses of poetry by Marakou were published as Petals in 1925 (as stated by Leanid Marakou, though the cover (illustrated) states 1926), and attracted attention of the famous Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala who supported the young poet. During Marakou's short lifetime, four books of his poetry had been published.

In March 1935, Marakou was arrested by agents of the Cheka for the first time. He was arrested again on November 6, 1936.

In October 1937, after a year of torture, Marakou was charged with being "a member of a counter-revolutionary national-fascist organisation", at a session of NKVD's "troika". He was executed by firing squad in the October 29–30, 1937 executions in Belarus of October 29 in the internal NKVD prison in Minsk, together with other 22 Belarusian intellectuals and social activists.

Valery Marakou was posthumously rehabilitated by a military board of the Supreme Court of the USSR on April 23, 1957.

The works of Valery Marakou were re-discovered for the Belarusian reader and his tragic fate were investigated by his nephew, the writer Leanid Marakou. Leanid Marakou has published a monograph dedicated to the life and works of the poet, and placed his uncle's books in electronic format (in Belarusian) on his web-site.

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