Memories of Starobielsk: Essays Between Art and History

by Józef Czapski, Alissa Valles (Translator), Irena Grudzińska Gross (Introduction)

Vivid accounts of life in a Soviet prison camp by the author of Inhuman Land .

Interned with thousands of Polish officers in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp at Starobielsk in September 1939, Józef Czapski was one of a very small number to survive the massacre in the forest of Katyń in April 1940. Memories of Starobielsk portrays these doomed men, some with the detail of a finished portrait, others in vivid sketches that mingle intimacy with respect, as Czapski describes their struggle to remain human under hopeless circumstances. Essays on art, history, and literature complement the memoir, showing Czapski’s lifelong engagement with Russian culture. The short pieces on painting that he wrote while on a train traveling from Moscow to the Second Polish Army’s strategic base in Central Asia stand among his most lyrical and insightful reflections on art.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Art, Polish Literature, Memoir, Russia, Biography

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Józef Marian Franciszek Czapski (ang Joseph Czapski) (April 3, 1896 – January 12, 1993) was a Polish artist, author, and critic, as well as an officer of the Polish Army. As a painter, he is notable for his membership in the Kapist movement, which was heavily influenced by Cézanne. Following the Polish Defensive War, he was made a prisoner of war by the Soviets and was among the very few officers to survive the Katyn massacre of 1940. Following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, he was an official envoy of the Polish government searching for the missing Polish officers in Russia. After World War II, he remained in exile in the Paris suburb of Maisons-Laffitte, where he was among the founders of Kultura monthly, one of the most influential Polish cultural journals of the 20th century.

Reviews

[Mads Floyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Czapski has really entered my heart immediately. I’m not really sure how to explain this book, or how the style made me feel the way it did, but this author and this book have both forever earned a place in my heart, and in my canon.

[Wojtek Konieczny · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audiobook), 7/10
Lektor - 4/6

[ROBERT · Rating 5 out of 5]

czapski seems to be a survivor. he is a zelig like character. This book exposed me to new stories

[JJS. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some fascinating short writings by a survivor of some of the darkest events of the twentieth century.