Sergiusz Piasecki

Sergiusz Piasecki

Sergiusz Piasecki (born April 1, 1901 in Lachowicze (today Ljachawitschy , Belarus ), † September 12, 1964 in London ) was a Polish writer.

Life

Piasecki was the illegitimate son of the Polish nobleman Michał Piasecki and his lover Klaudia Kukałowicz. Because of his illegitimate parentage, Piasecki's childhood and youth were very difficult. In 1917 he witnessed the atrocities of the October Revolution in Moscow , and under this impression he turned into an avowed anti-communist.

Piasecki returned to his homeland, but soon joined Polish troops, who were commanded to Minsk to take the city. In this Polish-Soviet war he fought a. a. in August 1920 at the Battle of Radzymin .

Due to his language skills (Polish, Russian, Belarusian), the Polish secret service became aware of Piasecki and took him under contract until February 1926 as a translator and interpreter. But on the occasion of a political cleansing, he lost this office. Due to this sudden lack of funds, he decided to attack two traveling traders. A few days after this robbery took place - together with a friend - another robbery in which they were caught.

Piasecki was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The first time he served in Lida prison . Since he staged a riot there with others, he was transferred to Rawicz prison. When he acted as a rebel there, too, he was sent to Koronowo and later to the Wronki prison . He then served most of his prison sentence in Łysiec Góra , where he recently contracted tuberculosis .

In one of these prisons, Piasecki made the acquaintance of the journalist Melchior Wańkowicz , who did research for a report on the poor prison conditions and encouraged him to write. His debut novel “Kochanek Wielkiej Niedźwiedzicy” was written in a short time and became a great success. Politically, this publication sparked a discussion of his pardon, and in 1937 President Ignacy Mościcki signed Piasecki's dismissal.

During the Second World War , Piasecki joined the Home Army and fought against the German occupiers . In April 1946 he went into exile in Italy, where he met Jerzy Giedroyc a . a. Polish writers joined. The following year he went to the UK and settled near London.

On September 12, 1964, Sergiusz Piasecki died in London and found his final resting place in Hastings .

The grave of Sergei Piasecki in the Hastings Cemetery, UK

Works (selection)

• The lover of the great she-bear. Roman ("Kochanek Wielkiej Niedźwiedzicy"). Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-462-02553-8 (reprint of the Cologne 1957 edition).
• Street ballad. Roman ("Żywot człowieka rozbrojonego"). Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1960.

literature

Essays

• Dorota Cygan: Doomed to adventure. Outsider story with Werner Helwig and Sergiusz Piasecki . In: Uta Beiküfner (Ed.): Between the times. Young literature in Germany from 1933 to 1945 . Edition Lotos, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-8311-0309-7 , pp. 59-79.
• Floriân L. Smieja: Camilo José Cela and the case of Sergiusz Piasecki . In: Richard A. Cardwell (Ed.): Essays in honor of Robert Brian Tate. From his colleagues and pupils . University Press, Nottingham 1984, ISBN 0-900572-62-0 , pp. 120-124.

Books

• Ryszard Demel: Sergiusz Piasecki (1901-1964) ("Życie i twórczość"). LTW, Warsaw 2001, ISBN 83-88736-06-X (also dissertation, University of Warsaw).
• Krzysztof Polechoński: Sergiusz Piasecki and the acceptance of his novels in the German-speaking area . Self-published, Warsaw 1992.
• Agata Wożniok: Sergius Piasecki w lll Rzeczypospolitej . Nortom, Warsaw 2007, ISBN 978-83-89684-12-7 .

Footnotes

1. ↑ June 1, 1899 is the date of his birth on his tombstone