Ivan Ivanovich Chuklay was born in 1920 in the village of Prudniki, Vitebsk region. In 1940, he came to Pinsk, graduated from high school and worked as a senior pioneer leader. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Chuklay joined Vasily Korzh's fighter squad and participated in battles against the invaders in the summer of 1941. On July 8, 1941, he became a member of the underground Komsomol regional committee and was actively involved in organizing resistance. Ivan participated in sabotage, including the destruction of an enemy armored train and the blowing up of railway tracks. He showed exceptional courage and personal initiative in combat operations. On September 3, 1942, Chuklay died trying to rescue a wounded commissar. For his heroism, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin, and his ashes were reburied in the mass grave of the liberators of Pinsk. His memory is immortalized in the name of Ivan Chuklay Street, and in 1984, a monument was erected at the intersection of Lenin and Zaslonov Streets, created by sculptor V. V. Poleychuk and architect A. A. Voskoley. The funds for its construction were collected by the youth and Komsomol members of the city. In 2015, the monument was reconstructed: the slabs were replaced with marble ones and the bust was updated.

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