Listy Jerzego Giedroycia i Józefa Łobodowskiego

Abstrakt

The purpose of this article is to present the importance of the work of Józef Łobodowski for the implementation of the Eastern program of the Paris-based Kultura from an epistolographical perspective. Łobodowski and Giedroyc exchanged 839 letters between 1947 and 1988. They covered various issues, from literary translations, reviews of Ukrainian and Belarusian literature, to cultural journalism. Łobodowski and Giedroyc had similar cultural experiences, and as such they both were acutely aware that achieving a mutual understanding and forging a political partnership between Poland and Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus had to rooted in knowledge of each other’s history and national aspirations. In 1951 Kultura, considered the most important center of political thought in exile after 1945, published an article by Łobodowski entitled “Against the ghosts of the past”. This article initiated a discussion on the permanence of borders in Eastern Europe after World War II and the need to overcome stereotypes. Based on the reception of this article and the project of the anthology of Belarusian literature, it can be concluded that Łobodowski participated in promoting the assumptions of Kultura among émigrés from the so-called ULB area. His work was important for the realization of the cultural aspect of the Eastern idea.