LAKERBAI YURI ASTAMUROVICH

LAKERBAI YURI ASTAMUROVICH
24.06.1934 — 30.09.2005

He is an Abkhazian and Russian poet, screenwriter, translator, and publicist.
He was born on 24 June 1934 in the city of Ivanovo, RSFSR.
Father - Lakerbai Astamur Pesovich Lakerbai was born in 1910 in the village of Duripsh, Gudauta district. 
By education, he is a pedagogue, history teacher, Honoured Teacher of the Georgian SSR and Abkhaz ASSR, Knight of the Order of Lenin.
From 1956 until his death in 1985 he worked as the director of Gagra secondary school No. 2.
Mother - Lakerbai Tamara Alexandrovna, née Bazarova, he Russian, honoured teacher of the Abkhaz ASSR, died in 2001.
Childhood and youth were spent in Abkhazia. 
He went to school in Gudauta.
Yuri Lakerbai wrote poetry from childhood and was awarded first prize at the All-Russian Young Poets Competition in 1948.
Since 1956 he lived in the city of Gagra. 
Since 1959 in Minsk. 
He graduated from the Minsk Institute of Physical Education (1962).
He became a master of sports in fencing (1959) and champion of the Spartakiade of the peoples of the BSSR.
In 1962, the poet's first collection «Echo of Native Mountains» was published in Minsk and Yuri Lakerbai was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR.
During these years the publishing house ‘Belarus’ published three books of the poet's poems:
«On the blade of a ray» - 1964 г. Minsk;
«Towards the mountain pass» - 1968 г., Minsk;
«The Labyrinth» - 1972 год, Minsk.
Poems from these books have been translated into Polish, German, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Belarusian and Abkhazian languages.
In 1964, by decision of the Board of the Union of Writers of Belarus, he was sent to Moscow to enter the higher courses for scriptwriters and directors at the USSR State Cinema, and, having passed the competition, became a student of two-year courses.
The poet's graduation work - the screenplay «Create a Fight», was the basis for the film of the same name, shot at the film studio «Belarusfilm» in 1967. 
From 1967 to 1974 Yuri Lakerbai worked as a member of the editorial board of the film studio «Belarusfilm».
A total of five films based on scripts by Y. Lakerbai have been produced:
«Create a fight» (1967, «Belarusfilm»),​
«The lion's grave» (1970, «Belarusfilm»),
«The Knight of Knyazh-town» (1976, «Lenfilm»),
«The path to a medal» (in 2 episodes, 1980, co-production of «Mosfilm» and Japanese film studio «Toei»),
«The witness» (1992, a co-production of «Abkhazfilm» and the Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kiev).
Of particular importance is the film «Witness» (directed by M. Markholia), which reflects the philosophy of the history and culture of the Abkhaz people from ancient times to the present day.
In 1966 a book of poems «Stones of the Abkhazian Field» was published in Sukhumi city.
Y. Lakerbai's poems were published in magazines:​
«Youth»,
«Alashara» («The light»),
«The rural youth»,
«The Friendship of Peoples»,
«Neman»,
«Circassian World»,
«Akua-Sukhum»,
in newspapers:​
«The Literary Newspaper», 
«Soviet Russia»,
«Soviet Abkhazia»,
«Abkhazia» etc..
He is the author of more than 8 collections of poems, poems and translations, as well as books, articles, essays and reports.
In 1986 the publishing house «Contemporary» published a book of poems «The Catching Bird».
In 1990 the publishing house «Alashara» published a book of poems by Yuri Lakerbai «Solo for one string», in which in addition to his poems, there were translations into Russian of poems by famous Abkhazian poets. In the same year he was invited by the Board of the Union of Writers of Abkhazia to work in Sukhumi as editor-in-chief of the newly opened almanac «Literary Abkhazia». The publication of the almanac was interrupted in August 1992, due to the occupation of Sukhumi by the troops of the State Council of Georgia.
​In 1990-1992 he was editor-in-chief of the journal «Literaturnaya Abkhazia» (Sukhum). He worked as a correspondent for the newspaper «Soviet Russia» (Moscow), where he printed materials devoted to the Patriotic War of the people of Abkhazia in 1992-1993; he was a frequent visitor to battlefields.
Y. Lakerbai made a significant contribution to the promotion of Abkhazian literature. He translated into Russian many poems by T. Ajba, R. Smyr, V. Ankvab, N. Tarba, B. Gurgulia, K. Gerghelia, P. Bebia, G. Alamia, prose works by A. Vozba, N. Kvitsinia and others.
He is a laureate of the D. I. Gulia State Prize of Abkhazia. D. I. Gulia (2004; for the book «Selected Poems». Moscow, 2000). He wrote in Russian.