Сергиуш Пиасецкий: Өмірі мен шығармаларының құпиясы

Russian born Polish British writer
Sergiusz Piasecki (; 1901 in Lachowicze near Baranowicze – 1964 in Penley, London) was one of the best known Belarusian Polish writers of the mid 20th century. He was mainly portraying life of criminals and lowlifes of Minsk, which he knew very well, as well as work of Polish spies in Soviet Union and later the anti Nazi conspiracy in Wilno; he had personal experience in both matters. His novel written in prison, Lover of the Great Bear, published in 1937, was the third most popular novel in the Second Polish Republic. Following World War II, Piasecki's books were banned by communist censorship in the People's Republic of Poland. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in early 1990s, Lover of the Great Bear became again one of the best selling books in the country according to Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper. His other novel, an Anti Soviet satire The Memoirs of a Red Army Officer, had already been reprinted several times.

Sergiusz Piasecki was born on 1 April 1901 (or 1 June 1899) in Lachowicze, 130 km from Minsk, then in Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire (now Brest Province, Belarus). The latter date was presented by Piasecki on several occasions, in order to mislead the authorities. He was an illegitimate son of an postmaster Michał Piasecki and servant Klaudia Kukałowicz. He was looked after by his stepmother Filomena Gruszewska, who bullied him physically and mentally. His family spoke exclusively in Russian at home and he didn't learn Polish language until his later imprisonment. His childhood was very difficult because children at school mocked his Polish roots, calling him "Lach". Piasecki hated the Russian school – as he later explained – and in the seventh grade, armed with a pistol attacked the teacher. Sentenced to jail, he escaped from prison, and thus his formal education ended. After he run away from jain, he headed to Moscow, where he experienced October Revolution and watched his close friends' deaths. It was then that his disgust with communist ideology started. In 1919 he traveled to Minsk, as a member of the Belarusian "White" organisation.

In the monograph about his life, work and legend, researcher Krzysztof Polechoński noted that most available data about Piasecki's whereabouts often do not correspond to reality, not to mention the claims made by the writer himself. Perhaps the discrepancies came from his work as intelligence agent, but there is no way to confirm many of his personal stories. Piasecki's addresses in Vilnius are not available and neither are the registers of houses in which he lived. His personal documents in possession of Piasecki's son: such as the copy of a marriage certificate with Jadwiga Waszkiewicz or the birth certificate of his son Władysław Tomaszewicz are falsifications, as revealed by Polechoński himself after a search performed in Vilnius archives. It is not possible to say whether his evacuation card is authentic. There is no photo of him in the prisoners' photo archives of Łukiszki penitentiary. There is no proof of his residency amongst the Vilnius city dwellers. He might have stayed in a hotel. he had cooperated with the Polish resistance, and in 1943 became an executioner, carrying out capital punishment sentences handed down by underground Polish courts. His wartime noms de guerre were "Sucz", "Kira" and "Konrad". Later, he wrote two books about his war activities. These are Wieża Babel (The Tower of Babel) and Adam i Ewa (Adam and Eve). Among those who he was ordered to execute, was Józef Mackiewicz, falsely accused of cooperating with the Germans. However, Piasecki refused to kill him, and later it was revealed that Mackiewicz's accusations had been made up by the Soviets.

After the war, Piasecki hid from the secret police for a year inside Poland. In April 1946, he escaped to Italy, where he spotted the Italian translation of his own Kochanek Wielkiej Niedzwiedzicy. Soon, he got in touch with Polish writers living in exile, including Jerzy Giedroyc. In 1947, Piasecki moved to England, his name can be found on a resolution of Union of Polish Writers in Exile, which urged all concerned to stop publishing in the Communist occupied country. He once publicly declared that he would gladly take any job that would result in erasing Communism. Living abroad, Piasecki did not stop writing. In late 1940s he came to the conclusion that humor was the best weapon to fight the Communists. So, he wrote a satire The memoirs of a Red Army officer, which presents a made up diary of Mishka Zubov an officer of the Red Army, who, together with his unit enters Poland on 17 September 1939. Zubov claims in his "diary" that his only purpose is to kill all the bourgeoisie who possess watches and bicycles. Piasecki became fluent in English as an adult. Sergiusz Piasecki died in 1964 in London at the age of 65. On his tomb, located in Hastings Cemetery, England, it is said that he was born on 1 June 1899.