Echa wojny w prozie Jana Czykwina (na przykładzie opowiadania Жыццё пачынаецца нанава)

Abstract

The analysed story, although small in volume, contains rich problematic material. Czykwin draws a realistic picture of the life of the Belarusian rural community during World War II and in the first years after the war. He shows the difficult experiences of the youth who experienced deportation and hard labour in Germany, the suffering and longing of their parents, the fear of the Nazi occupiers. He describes how all these wartime circumstances translate into people’s behavior and the choices they make, often leading to dramatic conflicts. By building evocative images of the characters, torn by difficult emotions, the desire for revenge, hatred, but also overwhelming longing and love, Czykwin shows the war as an experience extremely traumatic for humans, bringing pain and suffering, but at the same time related to the process of internal transformation of the human individual and the saving plan of the Divine Providence. The author of the Etude perceives the element of the war as a recurring, permanent element of the process of history, which often leads to suffering and dehumanisation of humans. It shows the actions, feelings and thoughts of ordinary people placed in extreme situations, whose stories conceal universal problems of the relationship between good and evil, sin, revenge and forgiveness, transformation and salvation. The specificity of Czykwin’s approach to the war theme is is expressed in the presence of faith in the good existing in man and the belief in the possibility of rebirth, which stems from the author’s Christian worldview, as indicated by the title Жыццё пачынаецца нанава.