Political persecution:
On 4 March 2023, Zmicier Kołas was detained and placed in the KGB pre-trial detention centre, where he was held for ten days before being released without publicly announced charges.
On 5 March 2023, a post appeared on the publishing house’s social media pages:
“Dear friends, the publishing house is suspending its activities until further notice.”
In May 2023, following a lawsuit by the Ministry of Information, the Economic Court of Minsk liquidated the Zmicier Kołas publishing house. This decision arose from the publication of a collection of historical documents – “Liberated” and Enslaved: The Polish-Belarusian Borderlands 1939–1941 in Documents from Belarusian Archives – which the authorities designated as “extremist material”.
On 17 February 2026, Zmicier Kołas was detained in Minsk. According to human rights defenders, at least ten people were detained that day, including publishers, publishing house staff, and book distributors.
On 3 March 2026, the KGB declared a non-existent “coalition of publishing houses” an “extremist formation”. KGB agents included Kamunikat.org, Lohvinau Publishing House, and Andrei Yanushkevich Publishing, all unrelated publishing houses and book distributors that publish in Belarusian, in this alleged coalition.
In connection with this “formation”, the list mentions publishers detained in Belarus on 17 February — Zmicier Kołas, Vacłaŭ Bahdanovič, and Aleś Jaŭdacha — as well as Jarosław Iwaniuk, Ihar Łohvinaŭ, and Andrej Januškievič, who are currently abroad.
Creative activity:
After graduating from the Faculty of Translation of the Minsk State Linguistic University, where he defended his diploma in literary translation on the topic “Translation of Jean Anouilh’s play ‘Traveller Without Luggage’ and its theoretical justification,” he went on to work as a translator, lecturer, editor, and journalist.
He translated works by Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre into Belarusian.
In 1998, he founded the Zmicier Kołas publishing house, specialising in Belarusian translations of world literature — poetry, prose, and drama. Notably, the Poets of the Planet series, which featured translations of poetry from various countries, gained recognition, with more than 100 books published.
The publishing house also illuminated the world of ideas, producing intellectual texts in philosophy, the humanities, and literary studies. Among its distinguished authors were Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, François Rabelais, Charles Baudelaire, René Descartes, Rainer Maria Rilke, Pierre de Ronsard, and Franz Kafka.
Publications:
Translations of works by Albert Camus: the novel The Stranger, the novella The Fall, short stories, the plays Caligula and The Just Assassins, and essays.
Translations of works by Jean-Paul Sartre: the plays No Exit and The Flies.
Translation of Nathalie Sarraute’s work Tropisms.
Translation of François Rabelais’ novel Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Translation of René Descartes’ treatise Discourse on the Method.
Translation of Francis Veber’s play The Dinner Game
Translations of works by Eugène Ionesco: the plays The Killer and The Bald Soprano.