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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Conrad and Censorship in Poland

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This essay explores the ways in which Conrad's life and letters were inextricably connected with the censorship imposed by three political systems: Tsarist autocracy, Nazi totalitarianism, and Communism. Conrad's oeuvre was itself a “victim” of two regimes of totalitarian censorship and political persecution. In occupied Poland between 1939 and 1945, his writing became a spiritual guide for the young generation, helping them to survive the horrors of the war and occupation. After the war, Conrad was banned by the Polish Communists, and supposedly forgotten. Totalitarian systems, it is argued, regard Conrad's works as dangerous and subversive because of their moral message of respect for human dignity and individuality. Even though the ban on Conrad's works was lifted after the death of Stalin and the liberalization of censorship, his political novels and essays on Russia and revolution long remained unpublished in Poland: Conrad was acknowledged by the authorities as a classic author but the existence of ...