Lucjan Szenwald

Who was Lucjan Szenwald?

Lucjan Szenwald was a Polish poet and communist activist.

He first made his appearance as a member of the Skamander group with the poem "Przybierający księżyc". However he was generally associated with a different literary group - the "Kwadryga" - which differentiated itself from the Skamanders by emphasizing the role of social problems in aesthetics. He was an editor of the weekly "Na przełaj" which was a subsidiary of the main organ of the Communist Party of Poland newspaper Lewar. In 1930 he was an active member of the youth organization of the Polish Communists and by 1932 of the party itself. Between 1938 and 1939 he was arrested three times for communist activity.

After the break out of World War II he wound up in Kovel and later in Lwow. In both places he enthusiastically collaborated with the Soviet occupiers. In Lwow he worked in the Lwow Soviet Radio where he was in charge of translating Bolshevik poets, particularly Mayakovsky into Polish.

In 1941 he joined the Red Army. For unknown reasons by 1943 he wound up in Siberia in workers' battalion. He took active part in helping to form the Soviet affiliated Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division. He eventually became the official diarist of the division. He participated in the Battle of Lenino.