'I Fought For Belarus And I Believe In Its Better Future'

• 27.09.2024, 8:59

Medical professor Ivan Danilau, a real veteran, celebrates his 100th anniversary.

Doctor of Medical Sciences Ivan Danilau celebrates his anniversary on September 27. He is full of optimism and ironically perceives the fact that in bookstores it was forbidden to sell his books "Zapiski Zahodniaha Belarusa" ("Western Belarusian's Notes") and "Perazhytyia Rezhymy: Zauvahi Udzelnika i Svedki" ("Regimes We Survived: Participant and Witness Notes"), writes Nasha Niva.

Ivan Danilau is a real war veteran. Originally from the village of Liazhytkovichy near Drahichyn, he was a partisans, and then at the front, seriously wounded.

From 1964 to 1973, he headed the Belarusian Research Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion and at the same time was the Chief Hematologist at the Ministry of Health of the BSSR. Later he was giving lectures at the Medical University, continued his scientific work.

He wrote more than 400 scientific papers, including 6 monographs, made 14 inventions. Prepared 2 Doctors and 18 Candidates of Sciences.

Since the 2000s, he has recorded his memories and reflections on the war and other historical events that he witnessed. The first, Western Belarusian's Notes, came out when he was 83. Then there were the resonant Regimes We Survived: Participant and Witness Notes, Trap: Variety of Bolshevik Terror.

"About twenty years ago, I lived in the United States for a year — there one of my daughters is married to an American," the professor said.

"I was looking after my grandson, walking with him. During our walks, I met an American doctor who was originally from Bialystok. We talked. When he found out that I was also a doctor, a hematologist by profession, he offered to work in their clinic (I had a green card with a work permit). And then suddenly it turned out that I was under eighty... I could only work as a consultant at that age. I confess, I agreed to this, I was happy to return home with my grandson. But my daughter gave me a scandal: don't you have anything to eat?! She's hard-nosed one.

I stayed with my grandson for a while and returned to Belarus." “Foreignness is foreignness,” he explains. "So, I wanted black bread with lard. An acquaintance from the Lithuanian diaspora brought it — so it was impossible to eat this bread! I think that in the United States I would not have written anything, but here I have published 12 books about the war."

Belarus is the meaning of life for Professor Danilau.

"I fought for Belarus and I believe in its better future," he says.

He is especially pleased with any guests from the Brest region, "they speak from the name in their own way, in their native dialect."

Professor Danilau follows events in the world: "Putin will not be able to draw us into the massacre he has arranged," he said.

"Belarusians should switch to the Latin alphabet," the professor is sure. "We need to spread this idea by all means, the Cyrillic alphabet additionally binds us to Russia."

As for medicine, he is convinced that together with state institutions there should be private clinics. "Last year I went to a regular clinic — dentistry. There they told me that it was necessary to remove all the teeth, leave only the molars, so that there was something to hook the dentures. In my thoughts, I sent them to hell and went to Lode [a private clinic in Minsk - Ed.], and there, they put new teeth for me as a veteran of war. For free! That's the difference between public and private medicine.”

What are the secrets of longevity?

"Twice a day I go around my quarter — the route is about 1,700 meters," Professor Danilau said. "I go to bed around eleven, I still read in bed for an hour. I drink a couple of sips (not a glass!) of homemade wine fortified with vodka or cognac in the morning. I have breakfast with boiled egg and salad, I like carrots — usually stewed. I do not give up the butter bun, marshmallow, natural coffee with milk. Then I go for a walk. I cook borshch with pork for lunch, sometimes I eat a piece of salted lard. After lunch, I go to sleep for an hour, then I go for a walk again. I eat potatoes, cottage cheese with sour cream, drink kefir."

“I sometimes play chess with my computer to keep my mind in good shape. Recently, my grandson installed a more complex version for me. I was loosing initially, but later I began to win quite often. It'a a pleasure for me.

The doctor recalls that "Old age begins with the legs. As soon as a person stops moving, all muscles, including heart muscles, quickly atrophy. Remember: Via est vita — The road is life!"

And most importantly, “Never hold on your anger. Anger reduces immunity.”