Inhuman Land

“This gentle, tenacious, adamantine figure has been far too little known in the West—until now. New York Review Books recently published a moving and strikingly original biography by Eric Karpeles, Almost Nothing: The 20th-Century Art and Life of Józef Czapski; a new translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones of Inhuman Land: Searching for the Truth in Soviet Russia, 1941-42; and Mr. Karpeles’s translation of Czapski’s Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp. Together these books document Czapski’s physical and spiritual survival during a nightmare era, but, more than that, they re-create an overlooked life, one marked by an exemplary measure of modesty, moral clarity and artistic richness. Moreover, Mr. Karpeles, a California-based painter and art critic, has ignited international interest in Czapski’s artwork.” —Cynthia Haven, The Wall Street Journal

“The Polish painter and writer Józef Czapski lived through almost the entire twentieth century as an exception to the rule. A pacifist who became a Polish army officer being deported to a Soviet prison camp in 1939, he was one of very few to survive the Katyn massacre perpetrated by Stalin’s secret police the following year….He was both a patriot and a European in the deepest sense, with friends and family connections across the continent. In this year’s centenary of independence regained, a new generation of Poles in a country at the crossroads must decide whether Czapski’s vision will also be theirs.” —Stanley Bill, Times Literary Supplement

“Inhuman Land is a gripping and heartrending depiction of the Soviet Union at war in the years 1941–43. Equipped with a perfect knowledge of Russian, Józef Czapski was able to describe the USSR in all its cruel complexity, alert both to the brutality of Soviet power and the generosity of ordinary Russians. Here Czapski reveals himself as one of the great witnesses of the twentieth century.” —Anka Muhlstein

Józef Czapski (1896-1993) was a painter and writer who witnessed firsthand the tumultuous history of the twentieth century. Born into an aristocratic family in Prague, he grew up in Poland under Tsarist rule. He received his baccalaureate in Saint Petersburg and went on to study law at Imperial University, where he was present during the February Revolution of 1917.

Czapski served briefly as a cavalry officer in World War I and was decorated for bravery in the Polish-Bolshevik War. He later attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków before moving to Paris to pursue his art. After seven years in Paris, associating with circles that included friends of Proust and Bonnard, he returned to Warsaw in 1931. In Warsaw, he began exhibiting his work and writing art criticism.

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Czapski was mobilized as a reserve officer. Captured by the Germans, he was handed over to the Soviets as a prisoner of war. He was among the few Polish officers who were not summarily executed by the Soviet secret police. Czapski documented his experiences in the Soviet Union in several books, including Memories of Starobilsk, Inhuman Land, and Lost Time. The latter reconstructs a lecture he gave to fellow prisoners about Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

Unwilling to live in postwar communist Poland, Czapski established a studio outside of Paris. His essays were published in Kultura, a prominent intellectual journal for the Polish émigré community that he helped found. His painting experienced a significant resurgence in the 1980s. Czapski died at the age of ninety-six, nearly blind.

Almost Nothing: The 20th-Century Art and Life of Józef Czapski, a biography by Eric Karpeles, was published by New York Review Books.

Antonia Lloyd-Jones is a recipient of the 2018 Transatlantyk Award for her outstanding promotion of Polish literature abroad. She has translated numerous works by leading contemporary Polish novelists and reportage writers, as well as crime fiction, poetry, and children’s books. She mentors for the Emerging Translator Mentorship Programme and is a former co-chair of the Translators Association of the United Kingdom.

Timothy Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He is the author of several acclaimed works on European history, including Bloodlands, which received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award, the Hannah Arendt Prize, and the Leipzig Book Prize. His recent books include On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom.

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