Między komunizmem a syjonizmem. O wspomnieniach Juliana Stryjkowskiego

Abstract

The article advocates a deep and impartial analysis of the biography of Julian Stryjkowski (born Pesach Stark, 1905–1996). It claims that his writing personality and ideological-philosophical choices should not be judged through the prism of current knowledge of communism or Zionism in order to avoid naive simplifications. Stryjkowski is above all a prose writer who during his long life was an eyewitness to the events of World War I and II, the Polish-Bolshevik armed conflict, or the Stalinist and Nazi repressive apparatuses. He was a fervent advocate of communist ideology, which, nevertheless, was preceded by a short, though significant, period of his fascination with Zionism. The article is an analysis of two autobiographical novels by Stryjkowski: Great Fear (1980) and The Same but Differently (1990) which aptly depict the formation of the writer’s worldview and the rationale for his life choices. The literary material is complemented by a book-long interview with the writer entitled Saved in the East (1991) and conducted by Piotr Szewec. The author of the article argues that the complicated course of Stryjkowski’s life, along with the controversial choices he made, leading him from Zionism, through communism, to the reconciliation with Jewish culture, is after all literary redeemed by the intricate novels and stories he created.