{"id":21970,"date":"2026-03-18T16:38:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=21970"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:44:30","slug":"zmiczer-kolas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2026\/03\/18\/zmiczer-kolas-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Zmicier Ko\u0142as"},"content":{"rendered":"
Political persecution:<\/strong><\/h5>\n

On 4 March 2023, Zmicier Ko\u0142as 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 5 March 2023, a post appeared on the publishing house\u2019s social media pages:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDear friends, the publishing house is suspending its activities until further notice.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In May 2023, following a lawsuit by the Ministry of Information, the Economic Court of Minsk liquidated the Zmicier Ko\u0142as publishing house. This decision arose from the publication of a collection of historical documents \u2013 <\/span>“Liberated” and Enslaved: The Polish-Belarusian Borderlands 1939\u20131941 in Documents from Belarusian Archives \u2013 <\/span><\/i>which the authorities designated as \u201cextremist material\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 17 February 2026, Zmicier Ko\u0142as 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 3 March 2026, the KGB declared a non-existent \u201ccoalition of publishing houses\u201d an \u201cextremist formation\u201d. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

In connection with this \u201cformation\u201d, the list mentions publishers detained in Belarus on 17 February \u2014 Zmicier Ko\u0142as, Vac\u0142a\u016d Bahdanovi\u010d, and Ale\u015b Ja\u016ddacha \u2014 as well as Jaros\u0142aw Iwaniuk, Ihar \u0141ohvina\u016d, and Andrej Janu\u0161kievi\u010d, who are currently abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creative activity:<\/strong><\/h5>\n

After graduating from the Faculty of Translation of the Minsk State Linguistic University, where he defended his diploma in literary translation on the topic <\/span>\u201cTranslation of Jean Anouilh\u2019s play \u2018Traveller Without Luggage\u2019 and its theoretical justification,\u201d <\/span><\/i>he went on to work as a translator, lecturer, editor, and journalist.<\/span><\/p>\n

He translated works by Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre into Belarusian.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1998, he founded the Zmicier Ko\u0142as publishing house, specialising in Belarusian translations of world literature \u2014 poetry, prose, and drama. Notably, the <\/span>Poets of the Planet<\/span><\/i> series, which featured translations of poetry from various countries, gained recognition, with more than 100 books published.<\/span><\/p>\n

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, Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais, Charles Baudelaire, Ren\u00e9 Descartes, Rainer Maria Rilke, Pierre de Ronsard, and Franz Kafka.<\/span><\/p>\n

Publications:<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Translations of works by Albert Camus: the novel <\/span>The Stranger<\/span><\/i>, the novella <\/span>The Fall<\/span><\/i>, short stories, the plays <\/span>Caligula<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>The Just Assassins<\/span><\/i>, and essays.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translations of works by Jean-Paul Sartre: the plays <\/span>No Exit<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>The Flies<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translation of Nathalie Sarraute\u2019s work <\/span>Tropisms<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translation of Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais\u2019 novel <\/span>Gargantua and Pantagruel<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translation of Ren\u00e9 Descartes\u2019 treatise <\/span>Discourse on the Method<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translation of Francis Veber\u2019s play <\/span>The Dinner Game<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Translations of works by Eug\u00e8ne Ionesco: the plays <\/span>The Killer<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>The Bald Soprano<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Translator from French, publisher.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":21974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4282],"class_list":["post-21970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-people-of-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21970"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21975,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21970\/revisions\/21975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}