Writer Yawhen Budzinas dies after illness

Prominent Belarusian writer Yawhen Budzinas died at the age of 63 at 9:30 a.m. on October 4 after a long illness.

The writer died in the hospital where he was put a week earlier with stage IV prostate cancer.

He will be buried in Dudutki, Pukhavichy district, Minsk region, where he founded a titled crafts museum, currently a popular tourist destination, in 1994. The date of the funeral has not yet been set.

Born in Moscow on February 18, 1944, Yawhen Budzinas moved with his family to Vilnius at the age of two. He graduated from Minsk Radio Technical Vocational School in 1972 and worked as an engineer, teacher in mathematics, the Russian language and literature, a departmental head at the newspaper Znamaya Yunosti, a correspondent of the APN news agency and the magazine Druzhba Narodov. In 1990, he became chairman of the Palifakt publishing house.

Yawhen Budzinas was a member of the USSR Union of Writers and the holder of the USSR Union of Journalists prize.