''Apostezjon'' is

social science fiction Social science fiction or sociological science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually (but not necessarily) soft science fiction, concerned less with technology or space opera and more with speculation about society. In other wor ...

dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

trilogy by Polish sociologist and science fiction writer Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński. It consists of three novels, ' (1979, "Memory Vortex"), ' (1988, "Half-Life", literally: "Half-Decay"), and ' (1989, "The Founding Murder").

Wojciech Orliński Wojciech Orliński (born 24 January 1969 in Warsaw) is a Polish journalist, writer, and blogger. In the 1990s, he was a member of the Polish Socialist Party. Between 1997 and 2021, he was a regular columnist for Gazeta Wyborcza. From 2011 to ...

Realizm fantastyczny [Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński „Apostezjon” - recenzja
("Fantastic Realism [A Review of „Apostezjon” by Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński]") The overall story covers the dynamics of Apostezjon (from Greek word ἀποστάσιον, "apostasion"), a totalitarian island-state governed by the technocracy, technocratic clandestine supreme governing body "Team of Experts" with its executive organ, the powerful Special Service, up to its collapse into a

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

after a coup staged by the deputy chief of the Special Service.Maurycy Zajęcki
"Obraz rozkładu totalitarnego systemu zniewolenia w polskiej literaturze nurtu fantastyki socjologicznej lat siedemdziesiątych i osiemdziesiątych"
in: Brzechczyn Krzysztof (ed.): ''Oblicza komunistycznego zniewolenia. Między nauką a literaturą,'' 2009,

Instytut Pamięci Narodowej The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecutio ...

, pp. 155-157 ''Rozpad połowiczny'' received the 1988 Janusz A. Zajdel Award for the best Polish science-fiction novel.Laureaci Nagrody Fandomu Polskiego im. Janusza A. Zajdla, (Laureates of the Janusz A. Zajdla Award

/ref> In 2000,

SuperNowa The Independent Publishing House NOWA (, meaning 'new' or 'nova') was the first underground publishing house in the Polish People's Republic (see samizdat). After opening in 1977, it soon became the largest independent publisher in Communist Pol ...

published the single-volume edition of the trilogy, with restored parts of text which were removed by

censorship in Communist Poland Censorship in Communist Poland was primarily performed by the Polish ' (''Główny Urząd Kontroli Prasy, Publikacji i Widowisk''), a governmental institution created in 1946 by the pro-Soviet Provisional Government of National Unity with Stali ...

Background

Wnuk-Lipiński's intention was to use science fiction as a media to describe certain social mechanisms. In an interview (''Czas Fantastyki'', no.3, 2011) the writer, being a sociologist, said "I thought that the most important things about the world in which I lived could not be described within the conventions of

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

". The ''Apostezjon'' trilogy is a

thought experiment A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is ...

addressing the question: what would have happened if the

Communist society In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of ...

had achieved economic success. In the autobiography ''Światy równoległe'', Wnuk-Lipiński writes that

Lech Jęczmyk Lech Jęczmyk (10 January 1936 – 17 July 2023) was a Polish publicist, essayist, writer and translator. He was a critic of science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction tha ...

of ''

Czytelnik The ''Czytelnik'' Publishing House () is a publishing company in Poland. It was established in 1944 behind the Soviet front line as the ''Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza "Czytelnik"'' ("Czytelnik" Publishing Cooperative). As of now, it is the oldest po ...

'' upon reading the manuscript of ''Wir pamięci'' judged it to be "better than

Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

". Apostezjon was modeled basing on societal elements of the later days of

Communist Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

, as well as of other states of the "developed Socialism". Despite being planned as a sociological model, the trilogy is not devoid of a good deal of action. Wnuk-Lipiński had plans to write the fourth part of ''Apostezjon'' describing the times after the collapse of the regime there, but he abandoned the plans because after the collapse of the Communist regime in Poland he went back full time to his favorite occupation, sociology, from which he was ''de facto'' barred by the Communists. Marek Oramus
"Konwicki i Wnuk-Lipiński"
/ref>

References

{{reflist Polish science fiction works Science fiction novel trilogies 20th-century Polish novels Novels about totalitarianism Political abuses of psychiatry Polish novels