Makaenok, Andrei Egorovich

Born Nov. 12, 1920, in the village of Borkhov, present-day Rogachev Raion, Gomel’ Oblast. Soviet Byelorussian playwright. Member of the CPSU since 1945.

Makaenok was the son of a peasant. He served in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, and after demobilization he worked as a teacher in Georgia and then until 1947 as a party worker in Byelorussia. He graduated from the Union Republic Party School of the Central Committee of the Byelorussian CP in 1949. Makaenok had his first play published in 1946; his earliest plays were Before Meeting, Life Demands, and At Daybreak (all 1951). His comedy Excuse Me, Please! (Stones in the Liver, 1953) was one of the bitingly satirical works of Soviet drama in the 1950’s aimed at the lack of conflict in art. Makaenok’s other works include the comedies So People Wouldn’t Grieve (1958), Levonikha in Orbit (1961), The Henpecked Apostle (1969), Tribunal (1970), and Pill Under the Tongue (1973) and the scenario Happiness Must Be Guarded (1958, adapted from A. Kulakovskii’s novella Sister-in-law). National in form (in the satirical-comic tradition of Byelorussian drama), Makaenok’s plays go beyond Byelorussian themes; they castigate prerevolutionary attitudes in the lives and minds of people and affirm the idea of man’s responsibility to society. Since 1965, Makaenok has been editor in chief of the magazine Neman. His plays are performed in many of the country’s theaters. He has been awarded two orders and various medals.