Teresa Sławomira Torańska (January 1, 1944 – January 2, 2013) was a Polish journalist and writer. She was perhaps best known for her award winning

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

, ''Oni'' ().

Biography

Teresa Torańska was born on January 1, 1944, in

Wołkowysk Vawkavysk or Volkovysk is a town in Grodno Region, in western Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vawkavysk District. It is located on the and rivers, roughly from the city of Grodno and from Minsk, the national capital. As of ...

(since 1945 in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

), which was then part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

occupied by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Following World War II she graduated from the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

's Department of Law. She worked as a journalist for the popular Polish weekly "Kultura” in the 1970s, and then throughout the following decade, for the leading Polish émigré literary journal Kultura paryska, banned in

communist Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

and published in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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. Her book ''Them'' ( Pl:''Oni'') was a breakthrough best seller that led to frequent parallels with

Oriana Fallaci Oriana Fallaci (; 29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist and author. A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for h ...

as a superb interviewer. Her probing interviewing style is perhaps best demonstrated by her disrobing on camera expose of the communist strongman General

Wojciech Jaruzelski Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski ( ; ; 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military general, politician and ''de facto'' leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party ...

. In the 1990s, Torańska hosted two television programs for

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; TVP), also known in English as Polish Television, is a Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster in Poland, founded in 1952. It is the oldest and largest Polish television network. After 2015, when the right-wing po ...

(TVP): socio-political "Teraz Wy” (''Now You'') and historical "Powtórka z PRL-u” (''Rehash from the PRL''). Torańska wrote the screenplay for a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

''Dworzec gdański'' ('' Gdańsk Main Station'')

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

by Maria Zmarz-Kozanowicz. The movie, which premiered in 2007, told a story of the Polish Jews forced to leave Poland after the political crisis of March 1968. Before her death in 2013, she was a contributor to Poland's second-largest daily newspaper ''

Gazeta Wyborcza (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish nationwide daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It was launched on 8 May 1989 on the basis of the Polish Round Table Agreement and as a press organ of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), t ...

'', conducting interviews with the leading Polish political figures. Torańska was perhaps best known for her award winning book ''Them: Stalin's Polish Puppets'' (''Oni''), published in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

. __NOTOC__ Teresa Torańska died on January 2, 2013, a day after her 69th birthday, after a long struggle with lung cancer.Teresa Torańska nie żyje.
''Gazeta.pl.'' Wiadomości. Retrieved January 2, 2013 Torańska was buried on January 9, 2013, at

Powązki Military Cemetery Powązki Military Cemetery (; ) is an old military cemetery located in the Żoliborz district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. The cemetery is often confused with the older Powązki Cemetery, known colloquially as "Old Powązki". The Old Pową ...

Works

* Widok z dolu (''The View from Below'') (

reportage Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

), publisher: Iskry; 1 edition (1980), 162 pages, language: Polish, * ''Oni'' (''Them: Stalin's Polish Puppets''),

HarperCollins Publishers HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the " Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is ...

(May 1988), 384 pages, translated by

Agnieszka Kołakowska Agnieszka Kołakowska (born 17 May 1960) is a Polish philosopher, philologist, translator and essayist. She is the recipient of the 2012 for the essay collection ''Wojny kultur i inne wojny''. She was born in Łódź in 1960 to the family of p ...

, (paperback, hardcover) * ''My'' (''We''), publisher: Oficyna Wydawnicza MOST; 1st edition (1994), 295 pages, language: Polish, , also published as e-book * ''Byli'' (''Bygones''), (reportage), publisher: Świat Książki, Warsaw 2006, 318 pages, language: Polish, (hardcover) * ''Są - Rozmowa o dobrych uczuciach'' (''They are - Conversation about Good Feelings''), Świat Książki, Warsaw 2007, 288 pages, language: Polish (hardcover) * ''Dworzec gdański'' (''Gdańsk Train Station'') documentary directed by Maria Zmarz-Kozanowicz, Poland, 2007 * ''Jesteśmy'' (''We are''), Świat Książki – Bertelsmann Media, Warsaw 2008, * ''Śmierć spóźnia się o minutę'' (''Death is a minute too late''), Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej, Warsaw 2010,

Awards

* In 2000 Teresa Torańska received the Ksawery Pruszyński Award of the Polish

PEN Club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

for the book ''Them: Stalin's Polish Puppets''. * Torańska was the first recipient of the annual Barbara Łopieńska Award for the best press interview, received in 2005 for her conversation with

References

External links

Teresa Torańska's home site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toranska, Teresa 1944 births 2013 deaths Polish women writers Burials at Powązki Military Cemetery