Vintsent Dunin-Marcinkievič was born in a Belarusian part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in a noble family (
szlachta of
Łabędź coat of arms) in the region of
Babruysk. He graduated from the medical faculty of the
University of St. Petersburg. He wrote both in contemporary
Belarusian and
Polish languages. Writing in the modern Belarusian language he faced the problem of it not being standardized, as the written tradition of the
Old Belarusian (Ruthenian) language had been largely extinct by that time. From 1827 Dunin-Marcinkievič lived and worked in
Minsk as a bureaucrat. In 1840 he acquired a mansion near
Ivyanets and went there to write most of his works. In 1859 he translated
Adam Mickiewicz's epic poem
Pan Tadeusz into the
Belarusian language and published it in
Vilnius. Under the pressure of
Russian Empire authorities he succeeded in publishing only the first two chapters of the poem. This was the first translation of the poem into another
Slavic language. Dunin-Marcinkievič was accused by the police in separatist propaganda during the
January Uprising. He was arrested but later set free. However, he was kept under supervision by the police. His daughter, Kamila Marcinkievič, participated in the uprising and was sentenced to the psychiatric hospital for her political activity. The writer was buried in Tupalshchyna, now
Valozhyn raion. ==Most notable works==