Dialogues with the Soviets

The outstanding Polish writer Stanisław Winczens (1888–1971) dreamed of spending his whole life in the mountains in the village of Bystrzec among the Hutsuls dear to his heart, whom he studied and described. However, in 1939, the Soviet occupation thwarted these plans: Winczens ended up in an NKVD prison. The writer miraculously escaped from prison, then illegally crossed the mountains to Hungary, where he became a refugee. Here he was again overtaken by Stalin’s invasion, and he had to flee further to the West.

During these dramatic life ups and downs, the writer constantly encountered Soviet border guards, Chekists, and soldiers – people from very different backgrounds, and, talking to them, he never missed an opportunity to explore the cogs of the totalitarian machine that was destroying his native Hutsul region and threatening European civilization. Vincenz described all these events in his memoirs, Dialogues with the Soviets, first published in 1966. Today, when the invasion of the “Russian world” is once again destroying Ukraine and threatening Europe, Stanislav Vincenz’s memoirs remain interesting and relevant.