The year of 2021 was declared the Year of Stanisław Lem in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

by a resolution of the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

(the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

parliament of Poland The parliament of Poland is the bicameral legislature of Poland. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the Sejm). Both houses are accommodated in the Sejm and Senate Complex in Warsaw. The Constitution of Poland does ...

), passed on November 27, 2020. It assigned several patrons for the year, so 2021 was known as the

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fi ...

Year,

Stefan Wyszyński Stefan Wyszyński (3 August 1901 – 28 May 1981) was a Polish Roman Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Warsaw and Archbishop of Gniezno from 1948 to 1981. He previously served as Bishop of Lublin from 1946 to 1948. He was created a ...

Year,

Cyprian Norwid Cyprian Kamil Norwid (; – 23 May 1883) was a Polish poet, dramatist, painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the four most important Polish Romanticism, Polish Romantic poets, though scholars still debate whether he is ...

Year,

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, (; nom de guerre: Jan Bugaj; 22 January 1921 – 4 August 1944) was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most well known of the Generation of Columbuses, the young generation of Polish poets, of whom several ...

Year, Tadeusz Różewicz Year, as well as the

Constitution of 3 May The Constitution of 3 May 1791, titled the Government Act, was a written constitution for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was adopted by the Great Sejm that met between 1788 and 1792. The Commonwealth was a dual monarchy comprising t ...

Year in

."Sejm wybrał patronów roku 2021"
/ref> 2021 is the 100th anniversary of Stanisław Lem's birth.

History

A petition dated by March 11, 2020, for the declaration of the Year of Lem was submitted to

Marshal of Sejm Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated of ...

Wydawnictwo Literackie Wydawnictwo Literackie (abbreviated WL, lit. "Literary Press") is a Kraków-based Polish publishing house, which has been referred to as one of Poland's "most respected". Company history Since its foundation in 1953, Wydawnictwo Literackie has ...

(a major publisher of Stanisław Lem's books), the Kraków Festival Bureau, and the Stanisław Lem Poland of the Future Foundation (). President

Andrzej Duda Andrzej Sebastian Duda (born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as the sixth president of Poland since 2015. Before becoming president, he served as a Member of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014 and before becoming Member of ...

was one of the petition's supporters.Rok Stanisława Lema w 2021 roku? Do Sejmu trafiła petycja w tej sprawie
July 30, 2020 On July 11, 2020, a draft resolution was submitted to Sejm, and the final resolution was approved on November 27, 2020.

Activities

The preparations for this celebration have been underway in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, the city associated with Lem, for several years. These preparations include the establishment of Kraków Centre of Literature and Language "Planet Lem" intended to popularize the works of Lem and to supplement the project "Lem 2021", implemented within the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

program "Kraków is the City of Literature ("Kraków Miasto Literatury"). In 2021

is planning to release a new biography of Lem by Agnieszka Gajewska of

Adam Mickiewicz University Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam si ...

in Poznań and the book ''Lem in PRL'' by

Wojciech Orliński Wojciech Orliński (born 24 January 1969 in Warsaw) is a Polish journalist, writer, and blogger. In the 1990s, he was a member of the Polish Socialist Party. Between 1997 and 2021, he was a regular columnist for Gazeta Wyborcza. From 2011 to ...

about the peripeteias of Lem in

People's Republic of 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. ...

, as well as new editions of Lem's books. The major event will be the celebration of Lem's birthday (September 12–14) at the . Lem will be the focus of number of regular events, such as Children's Literature Festival and Sacrum Profanum Festival, as well as in theaters, musical works, symposia and conferences.""Jego książki były przejawem wolności". Sejm wybrał patrona 2021 roku"
November 28, 2020 More web festivals are announced. For example, the collaboratively developed #StanislawLem Festival 2021 from 28.-31. October 2021.

References

External links

Year of Lem websiteYear of Lem website (English)
{{Stanisław Lem, state=collapsed Commemoration of Stanisław Lem 2021 in Poland