I hold Vasil Bykaŭ in high regard as an opponent to totalitarian regimes in Belaruś . During our encounter he never lost hope for positive changes in his country's future. I feel a certain correlation between our destinies and I regret that he was not lucky enough to experience changes, unlike those of us in Czechoslovakia, Poland, or Hungary. The Soviet Union banned many of Vasil Bykaŭ 's novels, which often focus on the agonizing moral dilemmas faced by young officers during the horrors of war. Considered the best modern Belarusan writer and the last Eastern European literary dissident, Bykaŭ (1924-2003) is referred to as the "conscience of a nation" for leading an intellectual crusade against Lakaš enka's totalitarian regime. In exile from Belaruś for several years, he was given refuge by Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize by Havel, Czeslaw Mił osz, and PEN. In the first English biography of his life and work, Zina Gimpelevich describes the conditions under which Bykaŭ lived in the former USSR and provides a literary and political history of Belaruś from 1918-2003. Based on interviews that she conducted with Bykaŭ, she illuminates his life of as an artist and a defender of human rights. She also provides a literary criticism of Bykaū 's work, including | Vasil Bykau by Zina J. Gimpelevich, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters