The House of Yadvigin Sh. in the Village of Pershai

Pershai is a village, located in the Volozhin district of the Minsk region, 12 km from the district center.

Despite its the small size, the settlement has two significant buildings: the Catholic church of St. George, built of stone in 1930 and the house Yadvigin Sh., whose real name is Anton Ivanovich Levitsky. The Belarusian writer spent his childhood years in this house.

It is important to note that both historical objects are linked with the Tishkevichfamily, who owned Pershai since 1858. The Tiskevich family built the church of St. George. Moreover, the house of Yadvigin Sh. belonged to members of this family.

The Yadvigin family became the owners of the house because of the father of the Belarusian writer - Ivan Levitsky. In the 70s of the XIX century, he worked as a forester on the Tishkevich family, so he lived with his family in one of the houses in the village Pershai.

The Levitsky family lived there until 1877and then moved to Korpilovka, located near Radoshkovichi. At this time, Anton Levitsky began to study at school, located in Lyutinka, opened by Camilla Dunin-Marcinkiewicz - daughter of Belarusian writer Vincent Dunin-Marcinkiewicz, in 1986 a stele was erected in his memory.

Later, the famous writer studied at Gymnasium in Minsk and then entered the medical faculty of the Moscow University, where he was expelled for participating in riots, organized by students.

In prison, Yadvigin Sh. translated literature to his native language. After his imprisonment, he returned home and found the job of assistant in a pharmacy. At the same time, he wrote a comedy called "Villain" but it was banned.

For a long time Yadvigin Sh. lived in Karpilovka where he got acquainted with famous Belarusian writer Yanka Kupala (Ivan Dominikovich Lutsevich).

In 1906, his work “Trial” was published in the first legal Belarusian-language newspaper.

In 1909-1910, Yadvigin Sh. was a secretary, and later a head of the literary department of "Nasha Niva". He took part in the life of the Belarusian publisher’s association, functioning in Vilna. He also worked in the newspaper "Belarus" and magazines "Sakha" and "Luchynka".

Today, you can find memorial plaques in places, with which the writer was connected. One of them says: "In this house Belarusian writer Yadvigin Sh. (Anton Levitsky) spent his school years." This phrase is written on a plaque mounted on the house of Yadvigin Sh. in the village of Pershai.