Jerzy Putrament was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 writer, poet, editor, publicist and politician.

Biography

Jerzy Putrament was born into a family with patriotic traditions. His mother was Russian and adhered to Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

, as did Jerzy.
In the Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

, where he studied at the Stefan Batory University in Wilno, he at first leaned towards the right-wing endecja

Endecja

National Democracy was a Polish right-wing nationalist political movement active from the latter 19th century to the end of the Second Polish Republic in 1939. A founder and principal ideologue was Roman Dmowski...

faction, and became a member of the Camp of Great Poland;, later he supported the communists, for which he was arrested and put on a trial. After the Soviet invasion of Poland

Soviet invasion of Poland

Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...

, he remained in the territories annexed by the Soviet Union and worked as a communist functionary (lived in Lviv

Lviv

Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

). At the same time, his mother and sister were deported to Siberia. Having fled to Moscow after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he became one of the founders of the Union of Polish Patriots

Union of Polish Patriots

Union of Polish Patriots was a political body created by Polish communists and Joseph Stalin in Soviet Union in 1943...

 and a war correspondent and a political commissar

Political commissar

The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...

 in the Polish Army in the East. At that time he wrote much pro-Soviet propaganda.

In the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

, he became a writer, publishing many works supporting the ideals of communism, and a politician. He became an editor of two literary journals (Miesięcznik Literacki from 1966 to 1971 and Literatura from 1955 to 1968), and as such he had significant influence on Polish cultural policy. He was a Polish ambassador to Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 from 1945 to 1947, an ambassador to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 from 1947 to 1950, a deputy to the Polish Parliament

Sejm

The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....

 from 1952 to 1961, and eventually member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party

Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party

Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party was the central ruling body of the Polish United Workers' Party, the dominant political party in the People's Republic of Poland .-Functions:...

 from 1964 to 1981).

He was a president of the Polish Chess Federation

Polish Chess Federation

The Polish Chess Federation was created on 11 April 1926 in Warsaw. Józef Żabiński was the first chairman. The initial statute outlined the fundamental objectives of the association including amongst others the popularisation of the game of chess and general organization of the chess movement in...

 from 1954 to 1957 and 1963 to 1973.

He is "Gamma" in Czesław Miłosz's book The Captive Mind

The Captive Mind

The Captive Mind is a 1953 work of nonfiction by Polish writer, academic and Nobel laureate, Czesław Miłosz, translated into English by Jane Zielonko and originally published by Secker and Warburg. The book was written soon after the author received political asylum in Paris following his break...

.

Works

Altogether Putrament wrote some 50 fictional works.

He published his first works (poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

) before the war; his poetry anthologies (Wczoraj powrót, 1935 ("Yesterday the Return") and Droga leśna, 1938 ("Forest Road") were well received. Their main themes were revolutionary politics and beauty of the countryside.

His first novel was Rzeczywistość (1947; "Reality") which draws on his experiences of the trial for communism activism in Poland before the war. His most renown writings include the political novels Rozstaje (1954; “At the Crossroads”) and Małowierni (1967; “Those of Little Faith”) and the wartime novel Bołdyn (1969). Bołdyń was filmed in 1982 by Czesław and Ewa Petelska.

Poetry

• 1934 – Wczoraj powrót
• 1937 – Droga leśna
• 1944 – Wojna i wiosna
• 1951 – Wiersze wybrane

Prose

• 1936 – Struktura nowel Prusa
• 1946 – Święta kulo
• 1947 – Rzeczywistość
• 1952 – Wrzesień
• 1952 – Notatnik chiński
• 1953 – Od Wołgi do Wisły
• 1954 – Rozstaje
• 1955 – Trzy powroty
• 1956 – Notatki polemiczne
• 1956 – Dwa łyki Ameryki
• 1956 – Wakacje
• 1957 – Wypadek w Krasnymstawie
• 1957 – Trzynasty z Wesołka
• 1958 – Strachy w Biesalu
• 1959 – Kronika obyczajów
• 1959 – Fiołki w Neapolu
• 1961 – Arka Noego
• 1961 – Arkadia
• 1961 – Chińszczyzna
• 1961 – Pół wieku, t. I
• 1961 – Pół wieku, t. II
• 1963 – Cztery strony świata
• 1963 – Pasierbowie
• 1964 – Odyniec
• 1966 – Puszcza
• 1967 – Małowierni
• 1969 – Bołdyn

External links

Putrament Jerzy in WIEM Encyklopedia

WIEM Encyklopedia

WIEM Encyklopedia is a Polish Internet encyclopedia....