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Čačot (×à÷îò) Jan
(1796—1847)
Jan Čačot (Czeczot) was born on 24 July 1796 to the noble family of Tadevuš Čačot (Tadeusz Czeczot) and Klava née Gociska, in the village of Malušyčy (the district of Navahradak (Nowogródek) in central-western Belarus), baptised Uniate and subsequently Roman Catholic. He attended the Dominican school in Navahradak, where established a life-long friendship with Adam Mickiewicz. According to the recollections of their common friend Ihnaci Damejka (Ignaci Domejko), the two became soon very much fascinated with the local "Lithuanian" (i.e. Belarusian in today’s terms) folklore poetry.
In 1816 Jan Čačot entered the Moral and Political Faculty of the University of Vilnia (Wilno, Vilnius), aiming to qualify as a lawyer. In 1817 he joined the "Filamaty" Society ("friends of sciences") of the university’s students, where he became a recognised authority in (what is now called-) Belarusian verses. However, membership in any student associations was naturally a political crime in a country like Russia. After the Filamaty Society was uncovered by the police in 1823, Čačot was among those arrested and exiled, initially to western Siberia (Kizil) and then to central Russia (Tver, Moscow, Torzhok). In 1833 he was allowed to settle in the town of Lepel (now eastern Belarus), and could return home only in 1839. Until 1844 he held the position of a librarian in the estate of count Chrabtovič (Chrebtowicz) in Ščorsy. His health undermined by his imprisonment and Sibirian exile, Čačot died in Druskieniki (today Druskeninkai, Lithuanian Republic) on 23 August 1847, and was buried at the parish graveyard in Rotnica.
It is believed that Čačot began writing verses in Polish and (what is now called) Belarusian in 1818-1819. His poems in Belarusian benefited very much from his fine knowledge of folklore songs. Some folklore-style Belarusian verses by Čačot were occasionally even taken for authentic folklore by ethnographers in the 19th century. It is also known that the popularity of Čačot’s poetry spread far beyond the Vilnia student community of 1820s. He continued to study Belarusian folklore and write in Belarusian after returning from his exile.
Čačot’s poems in Polish were largely historic in subject and fell within the general romanticism literature stream of the first half of the 19 century. His "Songs on Old-Time Lithuanians until 1434" written in 1842-1844 and informed by Stryjkowski’s and T. Narbutt’s history works were among the most extensive and significant examples of his works of the romantic-historical kind . He also wrote a number of romantic-patriotic poems, as he was so much attached to his native land and its people. Some of his verses of that kind have not - very sadly - lost relevance to the situation of his native land still today, see an example, dated 1823, to the right.
While recognised for his poetry, Čačot also made a significant scientific contribution to Belarusian ethnography and linguistics, as a collector, researcher and publisher of Belarusian (or as he called it then "Slavic-Kryvian" - Słowiano-Krewicki) folklore in 1840s, published in Vilnia (Wilno, Vilnuis). In his journalist pieces, Jan Čačot called for social responsibility on the part of the privileged classes.
Belarus, 1996, 
Jan Čačot
