The beginnings of Polish literature of Soviet concentration camps: Introduction to reading Mieczysław Lenardowicz’s “memoirs from Solovki”
The beginnings of Polish literature of Soviet concentration camps: Introduction to reading Mieczysław Lenardowicz’s “memoirs from Solovki”

Summary/Abstract: This article is an introduction to the reading of Mieczysław Lenardowicz’s “memoirs from Solovki”, published twice in 1930 as Na wyspach tortur i śmierci. Pamiętnik z Sołówek [On the islands of torture and death: memoirs from Solovki] and Pamiętnik z Sołówek [Memoirs from Solovki]. This is probably the first work of Polish literature of Soviet concentration camps, or more broadly, Polish concentration camp literature. The article outlines the historical and literary context of Lenardo­wicz’s “memoirs”: the genesis of the Bolshevik and Soviet concentration camps, and the Solovki Special Purpose Camp in particular, and points to the most important early testimonies about Soviet camps (mainly Solovki), including texts published in Poland and the General Government until 1945. These include, apart from Lenardowicz’s work, foreign-language testimonies (Russian, Ukrainian, German) and their Polish translations, the memoirs of Franciszak Alachnowicz, a Byelorussian, written in Polish, and texts written in Polish by Poles: press articles, reports, and essays that deal with Solovki in a more or less direct manner.

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