Eliza Orzeszkowa i Ludwik Zamenhof: fenomen ludzi i miejsc (Grodno – Białystok)

Abstract

This paper constitutes my original introduction to a volume on Eliza Orzeszkowa and Ludwik Zamenhof. I have stressed that the project, which resulted in the submitted monograph, was the result of many years of cooperation between the philological circles from Bialystok and Grodno. In 2018, the Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno in cooperation with the University of Bialystok submitted an application entitled “Preservation of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s and Ludwik Zamenhof ’s historical and cultural heritage in Grodno and Bialystok” in the competition organised within the framework of the European Union programme Cross-border Cooperation Programme Poland – Belarus – Ukraine 2014–2020”. The grant awarded in that year 2018 by the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, was finally launched in 2020 after a two-year analysis by the Belarusian side, thus at a time of the pandemic, escalating international tensions, and travel difficulties. However, several important objectives were nevertheless during its implementation (under extremely unfavourable external conditions). Ten trilingual information boards (in Belarusian, Polish and English) were placed in Grodno, near places related to Orzeszkowa’s life. A three-languages booklet entitled Eliza Orzeszkowa, Ludwik Zamenhof: people who unite cultures has also been published. An online panel was held with high-school and university students entitled “Eliza Orzeszkowa and Ludwik Zamenhof. Borderlands and the world: perspectives and views (Bialystok – Grodno, 10 September 2021). Finally, an International Scientific Conference “Eliza Orzeszkowa and Ludwik Zamenhof in the aesthetic space of the borderland” was held online (Grodno – Bialystok, 22–23 October 2021). This book is the fruit of the said panel and sessions. For the very first time, it presents analyses of artists who so far have not been linked together, and who today symbolise the multiculturalism of Grodno and Bialystok.