Krzysztof Boruń (23 November 1923 – 22 May 2000) was a Polish physicist, journalist and

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

writer. As an author of a number of essays, articles and novels, he was an important popularizer of science. By his contemporaries, Boruń was described as the "visionary of space travel"

Biography

Early life and World War II

Krzysztof Boruń was born on 29 November 1923 in the Polish town of

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not Si ...

. Between 1943 and 1945, he worked as a teacher of

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he was a member of the Polish resistance movement

Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

and he took part in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

. During the uprising he fought as a crew member of the improvised armored car

Kubuś Kubuś ( Polish for "Little Jacob") is a Polish improvised fighting vehicle used by the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising during World War II. The single vehicle was built in secret to function as an armoured car and armoured personnel carrier f ...

Postwar era

After the war he would work as a journalist for the daily newspaper " Ilustrowany Kurier Polski" and the weekly " Tygodnik Demokratyczny". Boruń became a member of the Polish Writers' Association. During his work as a journalist, he wrote articles mainly concerning the subjects of psychology, physics,

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 ...

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...

cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

and

futurology Futures studies, futures research or futurology is the systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study of social and technological advancement, and other environmental trends, often for the purpose of exploring how people will live and wor ...

. He started his career as a science fiction writer in 1953 with the novel '' Zagubiona przyszłość'' (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

: "Lost future"), co-authored with

Andrzej Trepka Andrzej Trepka (1923–2009) was a Polish journalist and science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may i ...

. The novel was first printed as a series in the daily newspaper ''Ilustrowany Kurier Polski''. Later in 1954 a somewhat revised version of the novel was published as a standalone hardcover edition. The success of ''Zagubiona przyszłość'', sparked two follow-up novels ' and '' Kosmiczni bracia'' (Polish: "Space brothers") that together form a trilogy. An active popularizer of science, he wrote articles for the astronautics and astronomy sections for the popular science periodical " Kto, Kiedy, Dlaczego" (Polish: "Who, When, Why"). His articles in the periodical expressed careful criticism of the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...

, in particular the decision not to bring

Laika Laika ( ; , ; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into lo ...

, the first dog in space, safely back to earth. Two of Boruń's novels written in the 1960s – '' Próg nieśmiertelności'' (Polish: "Edge of immortality") and '' Ósmy krąg piekieł'' (Polish: "8th circle of Hell") were first published in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and Ukrainian, they have not been published in Poland until the 1970s. His works have also been translated to

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

, Hungarian languages. Between 1982 and 1984 he was editor-in-chief of the periodicals ''Astronautyka'' and ''Postępy Astronautyki'', both dedicated to astronautics and space research.

Personal beliefs

He was an

atheist 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 ...

since the age of 12, but later in life he drifted towards

agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer t ...

, arguing for the possibility of the existence of a

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

. In a number of publications he discussed matters of faith, parapsychology, religion,

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...

and life after death. He remained open to multiple interpretations of reality, admitting that some events cannot be fully explained by contemporary science. Nevertheless, he remained convinced that further scientific discoveries will eventually provide all the answers to the issues that remain a mystery to his contemporaries.

Selected bibliography

Novels

* '' Zagubiona przyszłość'', (coauthor:

), (1954). * ', (coauthor:

), (1956). * '' Kosmiczni bracia'', (coauthor:

), (1959). * ''Próg nieśmiertelności'' (1975). * ''Ósmy krąg piekieł'' (1978). * '' Małe zielone ludziki I & II'' (1985). * ''Jasnowidzenia inżyniera Szarka'' (1990).

Short story collections

* ''Spadkobiercy'' (1958) - an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

that included short stories by Boruń. * ''Antyświat i inne opowiadania fantastyczno-naukowe'' (1960) * ''Toccata'' (1980). * ''Człowiek z mgły'' (1986).

Other publications

* ''Księżyc zdobyty'' (1956) * ''Tajemnice parapsychologii'', (coauthor: S. Manczarski), (1982) * ''Mały słownik cybernetyczny'' (1973) * ''Kto, kiedy, dlaczego?'' - (a popular science periodical, Boruń wrote for the astronautics section) * ''Ossowiecki - zagadki jasnowidzenia'', (coauthor: Katarzyna Boruń-Jagodzińska) (1990) * ''W świecie zjaw i mediów. Spór o duchy'' (1996) * ''Na krawędzi zaświatów. Sporu o duchy ciąg dalszy'' (1999)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borun, Krzysztof 1923 births 2000 deaths Polish science fiction writers 20th-century Polish journalists People from Częstochowa