Aleksander Wat
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Aleksander Wat was the pen name of Aleksander Chwat (1 May 1900 – 29 July 1967), a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
poet, writer, art theoretician, memorist, and one of the precursors of the Polish futurism movement in the early 1920s, considered to be one of the more important Polish writers of the mid 20th century. In 1959, he emigrated to
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
and in 1963 relocated to the United States, where he worked at the Center for Slavic and East European Studies of the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.


Life

Aleksander Chwat was born on 1 May 1900 in
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, at that time under Russian rule, into a well-established and prosperous
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family. His father, Bronisław, was an observant Jew whose first language was
Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
. He allowed his children a liberal education. His family had interests in Polish literature and drama and one of his sisters, Seweryna Broniszówna (13 July 1891 – 28 June 1982), was an actress. After a brief service with the
Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...
he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the
Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
, where he studied philosophy,
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
and
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
.  Error 404 (Not Found) !! In 1919 he was among the young poets to proclaim the advent of new,
futuristic The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
poetry. The following year he published his first collection of poems titled ''JA z jednej strony i Ja z drugiej strony mopsożelaznego piecyka'' (''Pug Iron Stove''; literally: ''I at Either Side of the Pug Iron Stove''), which gained much popularity among the supporters of the new trends in literature of the epoch. In 1927 he followed up with a volume of short stories, ''Lucifer unemployed'' (''Bezrobotny Lucyfer'' in Polish). Until 1922 he was one of the creators of the influential monthly magazine ''Nowa Sztuka'' (''New Art''; appeared 1921-22), followed by ''Almanachy Nowej Sztuki'' (''New Art Almanach'') and "the increasingly rabid Communist periodical" ''Miesięcznik literacki'' (''The Literary Monthly''). He contributed in the dissemination of the work of
Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
and of Futurism in general across Poland, before becoming a supporter of
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
. Until 1931 he was a main contributor to the Marxist ''Tygodnik literacki'' (''Literary Weekly''). Between 1933 and the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in 1939 he was also the literary director of ''Gebethner & Wolff'', the biggest and the most renowned Polish printing house of the time.


War years

After the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 he moved to Lwów, then under
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
occupation. Despite his sympathy for Communism, he was arrested by the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
in 1940. He was held in detention successively at the former Zamarstinov military prison in Lwów, then in Kiev, at the NKVD's
Lubyanka prison The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Ne ...
in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, and finally at Saratov. Freed from prison in November 1941 under the terms of the general amnesty for Poles prompted by the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...
of the Soviet Union, he was exiled to
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, with his wife Paulina, also known as Ola Watowa (26 April 1903 – 9 February 1991), and their 9-year-old son, Andrzej. During the war his oldest brother, Aron, perished with his wife and two children, probably at
Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...
.


In communist Poland

In 1946, Wat was allowed to return to Poland during
Polish population transfers (1944–46) Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, along with most Polish nationals expelled from the
Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union Seventeen days after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet Union entered the eastern regions of Poland (known as the '' Kresy'') and annexed territories totalling with a population ...
. He was appointed chief-editor of the State Publishing Institute (PIW). However, he "turned away from Communism after his imprisonment by the Soviet secret police and became a vociferous spokesman for democracy."Wat profile
, yalepress.yale.edu; accessed 2 August 2015.
Considered unreliable by the Soviet-sponsored Communist authorities in Poland, he was removed from his position and not allowed to publish his own works. He devoted much of his time to translating of several classical pieces of English, French, German and Russian literature to Polish. In 1953 Wat suffered a stroke, marking the beginning of an incurable psychosomatic condition, which from then on caused him acute physical pain and a state of oppressive anxiety. In the wake of the political thaw induced by
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
's process of
de-Stalinisation De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...
, Wat returned to public life in 1957.


Emigration

In 1959, he emigrated to
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
and settled in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. In 1963 he received an invitation to teach Slavic Literatures at the Center for Slavic and East European Studies of the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. From the beginning of 1964 until June 1965, Wat worked at Berkeley. There he recorded a series of discussions with
Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...
about his life, which he considered a kind of "spoken diary", published posthumously under the title "My Century". Wat committed suicide on 29 July 1967 at his home in Antony, France. The disease of which he had suffered for fourteen years is usually quoted as the cause of his final act, but biographer
Tomas Venclova Tomas Venclova (born 11 September 1937) is a Lithuanian poet, prose writer, scholar, philologist and translator of literature. He is one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. In 1977, following his dissident activities, ...
sees the wave of
East European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...
anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
that followed the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
as the triggering cause. During his youth Wat had long considered ending his life before reaching the age of twenty-five, which he saw as the last moment before the onset of inevitable mental ossification.


World views

Wat had a deeply conflicted religious identity: the son of a Jewish scholar, he developed an
atheistic Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
worldview as a young boy due to his extensive reading, but converted to
Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
during his time in Soviet prisons. His last wish was to be buried in a Christian cemetery in
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Portions o
Wat's literary archive
including the audio recordings of interviews with
Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...
that were edited into ''Moj Wiek'' (translated into English by Richard Lourie as ''My Century''), are held at th
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University.


Work

*1927. ''Bezrobotny Lucyfer''. Hoesick, Warsaw, Poland. *1957. ''Wiersze''. Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, Poland. *1977. ''Moj Wiek: Pamiętnik Mówiony'', Polonia Publishing. London, UK. *1977. ''Mediterranean Poems'' (edited and translated by
Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...
. Ardis Publishing. Ann Arbor, Michigan. *1988. ''My Century: The odyssey of a Polish intellectual'' (edited and translated by Richard Lourie). University of California Press, Berkeley, California. *1989. ''With the skin: Poems of Aleksander Wat''. Translated and edited by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan. Ecco Press, New York, NY. *1990. ''Lucifer unemployed'' (translated by Lillian Vallee), Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois. *2000 Wandering Jew Wspolczesne Opowiadania Polskie


See also

*
Bruno Jasieński Bruno Jasieński , born Wiktor Bruno Zysman (17 July 1901 – 17 September 1938), was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the Polish Futurist movement in the interwar period.Dr Feliks TomaszewskiBruno Jasieński. Biog ...


References


Further reading

*Venclova, Tomas. 1996. ''Aleksander Wat: Life of an Iconoclast'' * A guide to th
Aleksander Wat Papers
at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Profile of Ola Watowa
at Culture.pl
A short analysis of Wat's autobiographical work
at eNotes.com


External links

Aleksander Wat Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wat, Aleksander 1900 births 1967 suicides Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Polish male poets Polish art critics Polish translators 20th-century Polish Jews Jewish poets Polish deportees to Soviet Union Polish people detained by the NKVD Drug-related suicides in France 20th-century translators 20th-century Polish poets People associated with the magazine "Kultura"