imported>JJMC89 bot III: Moving :Category:Polish writers in Russian to :Category:Russian-language Polish writers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy

2025-10-19T19:52:49Z

Moving Category:Polish writers in Russian to Category:Russian-language Polish writers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy

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{{Short description|Polish poet and activist (1901–1938)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Bruno Jasieński
| image = Bruno Jasieński portrait.jpg
| imagesize = 180px
| caption = Bruno Jasieński
| birth_name = Wiktor Zysman
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1901|07|17|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Klimontów, Sandomierz County|Klimontów]], [[Congress Poland]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1938|09|17|1901|07|17|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Kommunarka shooting ground]], [[Moscow]], [[Soviet Union]]
| occupation = Poet
| language = [[Polish language|Polish]]
| notableworks = ''But w butonierce'' ('A Boot in the Boutonniere')<br/>''Pieśń o głodzie'' ('Song of Hunger')<br/>”Palę Paryż” (‘I Burn Paris’)
| awards =
}}
'''Bruno Jasieński''' ({{IPA|pol|ˈbrunɔ jaˈɕeɲskʲi|lang}}; born '''Victor Bruno Sysmann'''; {{langx|pl|Wiktor Bruno Zysman}}; {{langx|ru|Зисман, Виктор Яковлевич}}; 17 July 1901 – 17 September 1938) was a [[List of Polish-language poets|Polish poet]], novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the [[Second Polish Republic|Polish]] [[Futurism|Futurist]] movement in the [[interwar period]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/><ref name="Tomaszewski">Dr Feliks Tomaszewski, [http://literat.ug.edu.pl/autors/jasien.htm Bruno Jasieński. Biography.] ''Virtual Library of Polish Literature'', University of Gdansk. {{in lang|pl}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=2025-05-18 |author=John Clute |date=2022 |title=SFE: Jasieński, Bruno |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/jasienski_bruno |website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Jasieński was also a [[communism|communist]] activist in [[Poland]], [[France]] and the [[Soviet Union]], where he was executed during the [[Great Purge]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/> He is acclaimed by members of the various modernist art groups as their patron. An annual literary festival ''Brunonalia'' is held in [[Klimontów, Sandomierz County|Klimontów]], [[Poland]], his birthplace,<ref name="polishculture.org"/> where one of the streets is also named after him.

==Early life==

Wiktor Bruno Zysman was born at Klimontów, [[Congress Poland]], to the family of Jakub Zysman, who was of [[Jews|Jewish]] origin. Wiktor's mother, Eufemia Maria (''née'' Modzelewska), came from a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Polish people|Polish]] ''[[szlachta]]'' (nobility) family. Jakub Zysman was a prominent local doctor and social worker, active in Klimontów [[intelligentsia]]. Zysman converted to [[Lutheranism]] to be able to marry Eufemia Maria. They had three children: Wiktor Bruno, Jerzy, and Irena.<ref name="polishculture.org"/><ref name="Tomaszewski"/>

Jasieński attended a [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] secondary school in [[Warsaw]]. In 1914, as [[World War I]] raged on, his family relocated to [[Russia]] proper, where in 1918 he graduated from a secondary school in [[Moscow]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/><ref name="Tomaszewski" /> There, his fascination with [[Igor Severyanin]]'s [[Ego-Futurism]] started, followed by readings of [[Velimir Khlebnikov|Velimir Chlebnikov]], [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]] and Alexiey Kruchonykh's so-called ''Visual poems''.<ref name="Tomaszewski" />

==Literary career and political activism==

===In Poland===

In 1918, Jasieński arrived in [[Kraków]], where he attended courses in [[Polish literature]], law and philosophy at the [[Jagiellonian University]] and became active in the [[avant-garde]] circles. In 1919, he became one of the founders of a club of Futurists named ''Katarynka'' ([[Barrel organ|Barrel Organ]]), to suggest identification with the common people and anti-elitism of its members. His pursuits included literary productions and social activities in Kraków, Warsaw, and elsewhere in Poland. Among his collaborators were [[Stanisław Młodożeniec]], [[Tytus Czyżewski]], [[Anatol Stern]] and [[Aleksander Wat]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/><ref name="Tomaszewski"/>

In 1921, Jasieński published one of his first Futurist works, ''Nuż w bżuhu'' ('Knife in the Stomach', with intentional misspellings in the title) and, together with Młodożeniec, became known as one of the founders of the Polish Futurist movement. The same year he published a number of other works, including manifestos, leaflets, posters and various kinds of ''new art'', formerly unknown in Poland. A volume of his poems entitled ''But w butonierce'' ('A Boot in the Boutonniere') was published in Warsaw.<ref name="Tomaszewski"/>

He gained much fame as an ''enfant terrible'' of Polish literature and was well-received by critics in many Polish cities,<ref name="polishculture.org"/> including Warsaw and [[Lviv|Lwów]], where he met [[Marian Hemar]]. Jasieński collaborated with various newspapers, such as the [[Left-wing politics|leftist]] ''Trybuna Robotnicza'', ''Nowa Kultura'' and ''[[Zwrotnica]]''. In 1922, ''Pieśń o głodzie'' ('Song of Hunger') was published, followed in 1924 by ''Ziemia na lewo'' ('Earth Leftwards', written together with Stern).<ref name="Tomaszewski" /> In 1923, he married Klara Arem, daughter of a merchant from Lwów.

That year, Jasieński witnessed a [[1923 Kraków riot|workers' rebellion]] in Kraków, which prompted him to join the Polish communist movement. He gave public lectures on [[Marxist philosophy]] and revolutionary strategies for [[class conflict|class struggle]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/>

===In France===

Persecuted by the police, Jasieński and his wife moved to France in 1925;<ref name="polishculture.org"/> they settled in [[Paris]] in ''[[2nd arrondissement of Paris|Passage Poissonniere]]''. The couple lived a humble life, making ends meet as journalists and correspondents of various Polish newspapers.<ref name="polishculture.org"/> Jasieński, together with [[Zygmunt Modzelewski]], formed an amateur theatre for the Polish worker [[Polish diaspora|diaspora]] living in [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint-Denis]]. He wrote numerous poems, essays and books, many of which expressed his radical views. Jasieński became an active member of the [[French Communist Party]]. He pursued library research on the [[Galician slaughter|1846 peasant uprising]] of [[Jakub Szela]] in the [[Austrian Partition]] of Poland and on Polish [[folklore]]. He wrote the poem ''Słowo o Jakubie Szeli'' ('A note on Jakub Szela').<ref name="polishculture.org"/>

In 1928, he serialised the work which secured his reputation, ''Palę Paryż'' ('I burn Paris'), a Futurist-Catastrophist novel depicting the collapse and decay of the city and social tensions within [[capitalism|capitalist]] societies. It was published in the leftist ''[[L'Humanité]]'' newspaper in [[French language|French]] as ''Je brûle Paris'', which was soon translated into [[Russian language|Russian]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/> In 1929, the original Polish text was published in Warsaw. The novel was also a humorous reply to [[Paul Morand]]'s pamphlet ''I Burn Moscow'', published shortly before.<ref name="Tomaszewski" /> It gained Jasieński much fame in France, but also became the main reason why in 1929 he was deported from the country, ostensibly for disseminating dangerous political propaganda.<ref name="polishculture.org"/> Not admitted to [[Belgium]] and [[Luxembourg]], he moved to [[Germany]] and stayed in [[Frankfurt]] for a while. After the withdrawal of the extradition order, he returned to France, only to be expelled once more.<ref name="Tomaszewski" />

===In the Soviet Union===

In 1929, Jasieński moved to the [[Soviet Union]] and settled in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]], where he accepted Soviet citizenship and was promoted by the authorities.<ref name="Tomaszewski" /> The first Russian edition of ''I Burn Paris'' was issued in 130,000 copies and sold out in one day.<ref name="polishculture.org"/> The same year his son was born and Jasieński became editor-in-chief of ''Kultura mass'' ('Culture of the Masses'), a [[Polish language]] monthly, and a journalist for the Soviet Tribune. He divorced Klara and married Anna Berzin, with whom he had a daughter. Jasieński began to write in [[Russian language|Russian]]; he produced a play (1931), a novel, and collections of stories.<ref name="polishculture.org"/>

In 1932, he transferred from the Polish division of the French Communist Party to the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]] and soon became a prominent member of that organisation. He relocated to Moscow. He served in various posts in literary departments of the communist party and at the [[Union of Soviet Writers]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/> He was granted honorary citizenship of [[Tajikistan]]. By the mid-1930s, he became a strong supporter of [[Genrikh Yagoda]]'s political [[purge]]s within the writers' community; according to Wat, Jasieński was active in the campaign against [[Isaac Babel]].<ref name="polishculture.org"/> From 1933 to 1937, he worked on the editorial staff of the multilingual magazine ''[[Internatsionalnaya Literatura]]'' ('International Literature').<ref name="Tomaszewski" /> However, in 1937 Yagoda himself was arrested and Jasieński lost a powerful protector. Soon afterwards, Jasieński's former wife, Klara, allegedly involved in an affair with Yagoda, was also arrested, sentenced to death and executed.<ref name="polishculture.org"/> Jasieński was expelled from the party, and he too was caught up in the purges. Sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on charge of participation in a counter-revolutionary terrorist organisation on 17 September 1938 and executed the same day in [[Kommunarka shooting ground]] near Moscow, as finally established in 1992.<ref name=Sakharov>{{Cite web | title =Ясенский Бруно |trans-title = Bruno Jasieński| url = http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/martirolog/?t=page&id=15893 | publisher = Сахаровский центр | access-date = 2019-08-23}}</ref>

He was [[Rehabilitation (Soviet)|rehabilitated]] in 1955.<ref name=Sakharov/>

==Family==

Jasieński's second wife, Anna, was arrested in 1939 and was imprisoned in Soviet [[gulag]]s for seventeen years. His underage son was sent to an orphanage to be brought up with no knowledge of his or his family's past. He escaped during [[World War II]]. After the war, he became prominent in Russia's criminal underworld. Having eventually discovered his true origins, he adopted a Polish name and became active in dissident organisations opposing the communist regime. He was killed in the 1970s.<ref name="polishculture.org">{{cite web | url=http://www.polishculture.org.uk/literature/news/article/i-burn-paris-by-bruno-jasienski-1777.html | title=I Burn Paris by Bruno Jasieński. One of Poland's most uncomfortable masterstrokes of literature | publisher=Polish Cultural Institute | date=July 2, 2012 | accessdate=September 29, 2012 | author=Zespół Polska}}</ref>

==See also==

* [[Polish Operation of the NKVD]]
* [[Tomasz Dąbal]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* Anna Meller, Pawel Wawrzyniak, [http://monika.univ.gda.pl/~literat/bruno/ Bruno Jasieński. List of works, including poetry and manifestos.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205223510/http://monika.univ.gda.pl/~literat/bruno/ |date=2005-02-05 }} University of Gdańsk. (Polish)
* [http://brunonalia.pl Brunonalia festival] at brunonalia.pl
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927051359/http://loosavor.org/2006/09/bruno_jasienskis_i_burn_paris_t.html Bruno Jasienski's ''I Burn Paris'' & the Plague of Proletarian Internationalism]}} at loosavor.org
* [http://www.twistedspoon.com/jasienski.html Jasieński at Twisted Spoon Press]
* [http://www.twistedspoon.com/iburnparis.html ''I Burn Paris''] (Twisted Spoon Press)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jasienski, Bruno}}
[[Category:20th-century Polish male writers]]
[[Category:Polish communists]]
[[Category:Jewish socialists]]
[[Category:Jews executed by the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Futurist writers]]
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1938 deaths]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Great Purge victims from Poland]]
[[Category:People from Sandomierz County]]
[[Category:People from Radom Governorate]]
[[Category:Polish deportees to the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Executed people from Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship]]
[[Category:Polish Gulag detainees]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish poets]]
[[Category:Soviet people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Soviet male writers]]
[[Category:Executed writers]]
[[Category:Soviet rehabilitations]]
[[Category:Polish people imprisoned in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Russian-language Polish writers]]
[[Category:French-language Polish writers]]

Bruno Jasieński - Revision history

imported>JJMC89 bot III: Moving :Category:Polish writers in Russian to :Category:Russian-language Polish writers per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy