Leon Kruczkowski


Leon Kruczkowski was a Polish writer, publicist and public figure. He wrote books and dramas and was prominent in Polish theatre of the post-World War II period. His best known work is the drama Niemcy, written in 1949.
A left-wing activist before World War II, Kruczkowski spent the war in German prisoner of war camps. After the war, he became active in politics of communist-ruled Poland. He was a deputy minister of culture and art in 1945–1948, member of Polish parliament from 1947 to 1962, and member of the Polish Council of State from 1957. He had significant influence on Polish cultural policies of the period.

Biography

Kruczkowski was born on 28 June 1900 in Kraków. While completing his higher education in chemistry and technology, he published his first poems around 1918 and 1919. He moved to the Dąbrowa Basin, where in 1928 he published his first poetry anthology, Młoty nad światem, and in 1932 his first novel, a "peasant response to Juliusz Słowacki's Kordian", entitled Kordian i cham.
He became a full-time writer, moved back to Kraków and in 1935 wrote the first of his dramas, Bohater naszych czasów. It was rewritten three years later as Przygoda z Vaterlandem, both versions notable for their strong critique of Nazism. He also wrote essays published in leftist magazines and newspapers, and political brochures: Człowiek i powszedność, W klimacie dyktatury, Dlaczego jestem socjalistą?. He wrote two more novels, Pawie pióra and Sidła.
After the German Invasion of Poland, in which Kruczkowski fought in the Polish army as an officer, he was arrested and spent the war in a prisoner-of-war camp, where he was an educational and cultural activist. Two of his novels, not finished before the invasion, were lost during the war. After the war, he returned to his literary career, writing more dramas for the theater. His 1948 Odwety was well received, but it was his 1949 Niemcy, a drama addressing the issue of Germany's moral responsibility for World War II, that gained him international recognition. It was translated into 14 languages.
Kruczkowski also became a political activist and politician. He was a deputy minister of culture and art during 1945–1948 and chairman of the Main Council of the Polish Writers' Union in 1949–1956. Member of the State National Council from 1945 to 1947, member of the Sejm from 1947 to 1962, and from 1957 also a member of the Polish Council of State.
He was an active and vocal supporter of the new communist order in Poland, involved in politicizing the culture and in introducing the style and doctrine of socialist realism. Recognized as a major literary figure, Kruczkowski also exerted significant influence on cultural policy of post-war Poland.

Awards

He received several Polish state prizes, including the Order of the Builders of People's Poland, and the Lenin Peace Prize.

Works