The Death of Stawar

Abstract

The article recounts the final months of Andrzej Stawar’s life and the commotion that followed his death, when his last decision to publish a book in the Paris-based “Kultura” library, led by Jerzy Giedroyc, came to light. Stawar was one of Poland’s most prominent Marxist literary critics, a member of the editorial teams of the most important literary leftist journals of the interwar period, and a member of the Communist Party of Poland, which he left after Stalin came to power. He voiced his critique of Stalinism in articles published in the pre-war magazine “Pod Prąd”. After the war, he was banned from publishing due to his refusal to renounce his earlier views. Following the political thaw of 1956, he regained the ability to publish, but only works that neither challenged nor contested the official doctrines of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). In 1961, during the final months of his life, he traveled to France, where, in secret from the Polish authorities, he published his pre-war essays. This decision was perceived by the party and state authorities as an act of betrayal. However, before this information reached Poland, Stawar had already been celebrated as a hero of the Polish revolutionary movement and honored with a state funeral.