Jerzy Andrzejewski

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(1909-1983)

Polish novelist, short-story writer, and political dissident, whose most famous work is Popiol i diament (1948, Ashes and Diamonds). It dealt with the conflict between two visions of the world in Poland, some years before "a people's republic" was established in 1947. Andrzejewski's novel was translated into more than 20 languages and adapted for screen in 1958 by the director Andrzej Wajda.

"I consider myself a very Polish product in many ways, i.e. a- and simplifying it a little - a person generally more immune to great hardships than to the petty troubles of everyday life. Two periods in my life I consider the most intense: the second World War and the period preceding the so-called 'Polish October.' I lived through two great spiritual adventures: in my youth, the Roman Catholic Church; and in my middle age the experience of Marxism." (Jerzy Andrzejewski in World Authors 1950-1970, ed. by John Wakeman. 1975)

Jerzy Andrzejewski was born in Warsaw into a middle-class family. His father was a grocer and mother the daughter of a provincial doctor. Andrzejevski studied Polish literature at the University of Warsaw, without taking a degree, and contributed to the literary weekly Prosto z mostu. He had started to write in his early boyhood. Andrzjewski's first works Drogi nieuniknione (1936), a volume of short stories, and Lad secra (1938), published in Prosto z mostu, showed the influence of such French Catholic writers as François Mauriac and Georges Bernanos. Lad secra received the award of the Polish Academy of Literature. Andzejewski was called the most gifted Catholic writer of his country, a "Polish Mauriac."

During WW II Andrzejewski was a member of the Resistance movement in Warsaw. Noc (1945), Andrzejewski's collection of short stories, dealt with the war and occupation. It was followed by Popiól i diament (Ashes and Diamonds), which captured the agony of the middle-class people. The novel covers three days in May 1945 in the district city of Ostrowiec, where old ideals collide with the rise of a new government. The title and motto of the novel, how can a new society be created, was taken from Cyprian Norwid's (1821-1883) drama Za kulisami

The celebrated film version of the book by Andrzej Wajda completed the director's informal trio begun with A Generation (Pokolonie, 1955) and Sewer / They Loved Life (Kanal, 1957). One of the characters says: "But nowadays I've met so many people who broke down and failed this or that test that I don't attach much importance to what a man thinks of himself. Until a man faces the test he can deceive himself endlessly." The protagonist is a young Polish nationalist and partisan, Maciek Chelmicki, a member of the underground Home Army. His acts of terrorism bring him in conflict with the new social order. Maciek is ordered to assassinate a new Communist district secretary, Szczuka, who has returned from Russia. Maciek and Szczuka, both sympathetically portrayed, form a contrasting pair - the young man representing the past and cynicism, the old man the future and purposefulness. As Maciek waits in a hotel, he meets a young woman, Krystyna. She works at the bar, where people celebrate the end of the war and get blind drunk. Maciek and Krystyna both like violets, and they spend some time together. Maciek shoots Szczuka in the street, but in the morning he is in turn fatally wounded by soldiers. Maciek dies on a giant scrap-heap - an obvious symbol. Highly dramatic, realistic in detail, and full of memorable scenes, such as Maciek setting fire to liquor in glasses, and Maciek and Krystyna conversing in a ruined church building, where a figure of Christ hangs upside down.

After the war Andrzejewski joined the Writers' Union. The fairly liberal cultural atmosphere did not last long. Early in 1949 the Union of Polish Writers adopted the Soviet model for socialist realism. In 1949 Andrzejewski was elected president of the Polish Writers' Union. He wrote some books in the Socialist Realist vein, and defended in his journalism the Communist rule in Poland. Andrzejewski (as Alfa) was portrayed by Czeslaw Milosz in Captive Mind (1953), which revealed the problems of intellectuals living under Stalinism. Milosz described his colleague as a man with a "barometer-like sensitivity to the moral opinion of his environment". From 1952 to 1954 Andrzejewski was editor of a leading cultural weekly, Przeglad kulturalny, and from 1952 to 1957 he was a member of the Polish parliament. In protest against censorship he resigned from the party in 1957.

In the 1950s and '60s Andrzejewski moved towards more or less open criticism of the government, starting from the novel The Inquisitors (tr. 1960), a philosophical parable on the autocratic rule of a totalitarian ideology. The Appeal (1968) attacked directly the Communist regime and was not published in Poland. The protagonist is Marian Konieczy, a middle-aged paranoiac and faithful supporter of the United Workers Party. He is too conscientious and uncorrupted in his work and is shut up in an institution, where he appeals to the First Secretary, whom he trusts. Andrzejewski seems to say that sometimes paranoiacs are actually persecuted, but only an insane person can truly believe in the totalitarian system. Andrzejewski's most important novel from late 1960s, Miazga (1969), a portrait of modern Polish intelligentsia, did not appear officially until 1981.

Andrzejewski's writing reflected the crucial role of passions, desire, enthusiasms, and disillusionment in history. Often his characters are defeated by their circumstances. Increasing disappointment in the widening gulf between reality and official truths led Andrzjeweski to such explorations of mass movements and culture as Bramy raju (1960, The Gates of Paradise), focusing on the Children's Crusade of 1212, and the satirical Idzie skaczac po górach (1963, A Sitter for a Satyr), in which Andrzejewski used a stream-of-consciousness style. The Picasso-like protagonist is Antonio Ortiz, a celebrated artist and genius, who is surrounded by women, art dealers, and sycophants. He thinks he has lost his creativity, but returns to painting after the stimulation of young love and energy. Andrzejewski's ambiguous thoughts and experimental use of language was a problem for the authorities, and several of his works were left unpublished.

Andrzejewski, Kazimierz Brandys, Tadeuz Konwicki, Wlodzimierz Odojewski, and several other authors printed their works in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the literary quarterly Zapis (1979-82), or in the emigré publishers. In 1979 Andrzejewski helped found the workers' defence committee (KOR) to aid families of striking workers, who were jailed or dismissed from their jobs. Andrzejewski died on April 19/20, 1983, in Warsaw. His career reflected the development of eastern European intellectuals after World War II, from their initial support of the Communist policies to their later more or less openly expressed disappointment in the 1960s and '70s.

For further reading: The Captive Mind by C. Milosz (1953); Portraits of Contemporary Polish Writers by Mutuszewski (1959); 'On the Evils of Fanatic Belief' by S.L. Shneiderman in Eastern Europe, Oct (1960); The History of Polish Literature by Czeslaw Milosz (1969, 2nd edition 1983); 'On the History of Ashes and Diamonds' by J.Krzyzanowski , in Slavic and East European Journal, 15 (1971); Andrzejewski by Waclaw Sadkowski (1973); World Authors 1950-1970, ed. by John Wakeman (1975); A History of Polish Literature by Julian Krzyzanowski (1978); Modernist Trends in Twentieth-Century Polish Fiction by Stanislaw Eile (1996) - For further information: Popiol i diament by Andrzej Wajda - Jerzy Andrzejewski (1909-1983) -

Selected works:

  • DROGI NIEUNIKNIONE, 1936 - Unavoidable Ways
  • LAD SERCA, 1938 - Heart's Harmony
  • NOC, 1945
  • APEL, 1945
  • SWIETO WINKELRIDA, 1946 (with Jerzy Zagórski)
  • POPIÓL Y DIAMENT, 1948 - Ashes and Diamonds (trans. by D.J. Welsh) - Tuhkaa ja timanttia (suom. ke Lahtinen) - film 1958, dir. by Andrzej Wajda, screenplay by Wajda and Andrzejewski, prod. by Stanislaw Adler, photograph by Jerzy Wójcik, art director Roman Mann, ed. by Halina Nawrocka, starring Zbigniew Cybulski (as Maciek Chelmicki), Ewa Kryzjewska (Krystyna), Waclaw Zastrzezynski (Szczuka), Bogumil Kobiela
  • ABY POKÓJ ZWYCIEZYL PUBLICYSTYKA, 1950
  • O CZLOWIEKU RADZIECKIM, 1951
  • PARTIA I TWÓCZOSC PISARZA, 1952
  • LUDZIE I ZDARZENIA, 1952-53 (2 vols.)
  • WOJNA SKUTECZNA CZYLI OPIS BITEW I POTYCZEK Z ZADUFKAMI, 1953
  • KSIAZKA DLA MARCINA, 1954
  • ZLOTY LIS, 1955
  • CIEMNOSCI KRYJA ZIEMIE, 1957 - The Inquisitors (trans. by Konrad Syrop)
  • NIBY GAJ, 1959
  • BRAMY RAJU, 1960 - The Gates of Paradise (trans. by James Kirkup)
  • IDZIE SKACZAC PO GÓRACH, 1963 - He Cometh Leaping upon the Mountain / A Sitter for a Satyr - Katso hän tulee vuorten yli (suom. Taisto Veikko)
  • APELACJA, 1968 - The Appeal - Vetoomus (suom. Toivo Toivas)
  • MIAZGA, 1969
  • PROMETEUSZ,1971
  • TERAZ NA CIEBIE ZAGLADA, 1976
  • JUZ PRA
  • WIE NIC, 1976
  • NOWE OPOWIADANIA, 1980
  • NIKT, 1983
  • Z DNIA NA DZEI´N: DZIENNIK LITERACKI, 1972-1979, 1988
  • LISTY, 1991 (with Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz)
  • WIELKI TYDZIE´N, 1993
  • LEGENDY NOWOCZESNO´SCI: ESEJE OKUPACYJNE: LISTY-ESEJE JERZEGO ANDRZEJEWSKIEGO I CZESLAWA MILOSZA, 1996

Bibliography: Petri Liukkonen (author) & Ari Pesonen. "Author's Calendar Kirjailijakalenteri". Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto 2008. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/indeksi.htm

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