A World Apart (book)
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''A World Apart: The Journal of a Gulag Survivor'' () is a
memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...
written by
Gustaw Herling-Grudziński Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (; May 20, 1919 − July 4, 2000) was a Polish writer, journalist, essayist, World War II underground fighter, and political dissident abroad during the period of Soviet and communist rule. He is best known for writing ...
, combining various literary genres:
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
,
essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...
,
psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...
, as well as sociological and political dissertation. It was first published in 1951 in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in the English translation by
Andrzej Ciołkosz Andrzej Ciołkosz (19291952), pen name Joseph Marek, was a young Polish language writer, literary critic and translator. He is best known for his Polish-English translation of '' A World Apart: The Journal of a Gulag Survivor'', written by a renow ...
.''A world apart'' at Open Library.
Translated from the Polish by
Andrzej Ciołkosz Andrzej Ciołkosz (19291952), pen name Joseph Marek, was a young Polish language writer, literary critic and translator. He is best known for his Polish-English translation of '' A World Apart: The Journal of a Gulag Survivor'', written by a renow ...
(19291952), the son of Adam Witold Ciołkosz (19011978) whos
biography
can be found at the Library of the Polish
Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...
portal. For the bibliographical record of the book, consult any library.
In the Polish language, the book was first published in London in 1953, then in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
by the underground press in 1980, and officially in 1988. The book title, ''A World Apart'' is an allusion to the
Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...
's novel, '' Notes from the House of the Dead''. An epigraph to Grudziński's book quotes Dostoyevsky: ''"Here there is a world apart, unlike everything else, with laws of its own, its own manners and customs, and here in the house of the living dead — life as nowhere else and a people apart".'' It expresses Herling's convictions that the Gulag environment does not belong to the normal, human world, but is a type of sick and distinctive civilisation which is contrary to all previous human experience. In addition, a number of elements of the plot are associated with the ''House of the Dead''.Gustaw Herling-Grudziński – "Inny świat. Fenomenologia cierpienia". In: : ''Lektury polonistyczne. Literatura współczesna.'' Vol I. Kraków: Universitas, 1997. .


Galeria

File:Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski 2.jpg, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński –
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
photography (
Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...
,
1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...
)


Description

The book ''A World Apart'' contains the author's recollections beginning from his time spent incarcerated in the former
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
labour camp in Yertsevo in
Arkhangelsk Oblast Arkhangelsk Oblast ( rus, Архангельская область, p=ɐrˈxanɡʲɪlʲskəjə ˈobɫəsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic Ocean, Arctic archipelagos of Franz ...
, and a description of the journey he took to join the Polish divisions forming in
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
. Written 10 years before
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...
's ''
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' (, ) is a short novel by the Russian writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine ''Novy Mir'' (''New World'').The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' () is a three-volume nonfiction series written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident. It was first published in 1973 by the Parisian ...
'', it brought him international acclaim but also criticism from Soviet sympathizers. The book contains detailed, often drastic depictions from the lives of Gulag prisoners. Much of the book is given to the analysis and interpretation of the attitudes, behaviour and emotions of specific prisoners and also to the internal mechanisms and independent laws of behaviour in the camps. The book was initially greeted well in England, with a foreword written by
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...
but had to wait until 1985 for its publication in France. According to Herling, this was due to the reluctance of the left-leaning publishing houses in that country.Inny świat (Lekcja Literatury z Gustawem Herlingiem-Grudzińskim i Włodzimierzem Boleckim) With greater interest in the Gulag, it has been reprinted in Britain, with the foreword written this time by
Anne Applebaum Anne Elizabeth Applebaum (born July 25, 1964) is an American journalist and historian. She has written about the history of Communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She holds Polish citizenship as well. Ap ...
. As Herling noted in a preface to the Russian edition (1986) of his book, the cultural establishment almost always followed
Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French ph ...
’s advice: "even if it is true, don’t speak about it". The Russian edition preceded some Western language editions: the French translation of the book was not published until 1995, the Italian one until 1994, both delayed by the unwillingness of local pro-Soviet sympathizers to discuss Soviet crimes. The Polish ''
bibuła The Polish underground press, devoted to prohibited materials ( sl. , lit. semitransparent blotting paper or, alternatively, , lit. second circulation), has a long history of combatting censorship of oppressive regimes in Poland. It existed th ...
'' underground edition was published in 1980. The normal edition was published only near the
fall of communism in Poland Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemispher ...
, in 1988.


See also

*''
In the Claws of the GPU ''In the Claws of the GPU'' (; ) is an early book-length eyewitness account of the Soviet Gulag. It was written by Frantsishak Alyakhnovich, Francišak Aljachnovič, a Belarusian people, Belarusian playwright, Belarusian nationalism, nationalist, ...
'', a Gulag memoir by a citizen of interwar Poland, published in 1935. *''
A Travel to the Land Ze-Ka A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...
'', a similar early memoir by a Polish citizen, published in 1949


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Apart 1951 novels Gulag memoirs