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At only eighteen years of age, while still a student, Kazimierz Zieleniewski was exiled to Siberia during the January Uprising. Though he was supposed to spend the rest of his life there, he refused to be broken. On the contrary: he achieved great financial success, and his house in Tomsk became a focal point of Polish patriotic and cultural life.
Who was he really? A Pole? A Belarusian? An admirer of the simple Belarusian people and rural life or a khlopoman? Vincent “Vincuk” Dunin-Marcinkiewicz was probably a bit of each, which characterised many representatives of the borderland intelligentsia in the mid-19th century.
Soviet aggression against Poland, which began on the morning of September the 17th, 1939, came as a surprise for the authorities, the civilian population, the police, the army, and the Border Protection Corps. However, this was only a small taste of what the aggressor had in store for Poles in the coming months. A group of almost 22 thousand Polish citizens selected by the Soviets were to meet a special fate, being held in three special NKVD prisoner-of-war camps prisons in the occupied territories of Poland.
In 1725, Tsar Peter I sent the Danish sailor Vitus Bering to the far east in order to observe if there was a land connection between Asia and North America. His activity, acting under Russian orders, was associated with St. Petersburg’s growing interest in Alaska. Firstly, the focus was on research expeditions, and in the 80s the first Russian colonies were established there. However, it soon turned out that Alaska is an area that brings Russia more problems than profits. Insufficient financial resources and too little military involvement in the North Pacific area did not allow for much.
The year 1794 marked the decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The state was already heavily reduced territorially after two partitions and equally greatly dependent on neighbouring states, above all Russia. Tsarist troops were stationed in the country, banks collapsed and prices rose. It seemed that the final decay of the state was only a matter of time. It was obvious that patriotic circles were not going to watch this calmly.
Igor Strojecki: The collection of photographs that Leon Barszczewski took between 1885 and 1909 is unique, and perhaps the only one of its kind in this part of Europe.
Igor Strojecki: Leon Barszczewski was a pioneer of Polish reportage photography in 19th century.
While in exile, he returned to literary pursuits, writing among other things, the play No Rescue (Bez ratunku) and the essay An Enquiry into Shakespeare’s Dramatic Art (Studia nad dramatycznością w utworach Szekspira). He also translated foreign literature into Polish, including the works of Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, and Charles Dickens.
In the summer of 1863, due to Evelina’s deteriorating health, the Korzeniowskis obtained permission from the authorities to relocate to Chernihiv. Within only two years, Evelina was to pass away from tuberculosis. In the wake of her death, Apollo’s health also took a rapid turn for the worse — he, too, was suffering from tuberculosis with additional weakening brought on by heart disease. Although increasingly frail, he continued to write. In the spring of 1866, he made the difficult decision to send his son to live with his brother-in-law, Tadeusz Bobrowski.
In December 1867, Apollo finally received permission to leave Russia. He went first to Lviv, eventually settling in Kraków with his son in the spring of 1869. There, already incredibly weakened and afflicted, he yet again recommenced his activities, establishing contact with the newly founded periodical Kraj, also hoping to continue his writing. He was still hopeful that he could overcome his illness — alas, it was not to be. He died on May 23, 1869, and was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery.
His son, Konrad, was subsequently taken into the care of his grandmother, Teofila Bobrowska, with his uncle Tadeusz later taking up the responsibility. In 1873, the teenage boy returned to Kraków. He had already, for several years been an honorary citizen of the city — a title that had been granted to him in recognition of his father’s merits.
Włodzimierz Bolecki: ‘As a writer, I was born in a labour camp,’ Gustaw Herling-Grudziński said many times. This approach remains valid today and is reflected in the writer’s path to becoming an editor at Kultura.
This day marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of the Soviet Union. The assassination of Sergei Kirov gave rise to the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens. The ‘Great Purge’ and the ‘Great Terror’ were becoming a reality.
