Andrzej Hciuk

Contents

Biography

Andrzej Hciuk was born on January 13, 1920 in Drohobych. His parents, Maria, from the Spevak family (1890-1956), and Michal Hciuk (1874-1953), married in 1909. Soon after the marriage, the couple lived in the village of Gubichi near Borislav. In 1912, the Htsyuks moved to Drohobych and bought a small "reality", ie a house at 8 Polna Street (now Bronislaw Kozlowski Street). Andrzej Jan Hciuk was born there - the sixth child in the family. In addition to the three brothers and sisters already mentioned: Antoni Marian Kazimierz (born in 1913), Władysław Wojciech (1915), Tadeusz Tomasz (1916) and Stanisław Michalina (1910), the Khtsyuks had another daughter, Janina, born in 1912, but she died when she was barely a few months old.

He studied at the State Men's Gymnasium . King Vladislav II Jagiello , located on the street. Senkevych in Drohobych (now - Drohobych State Pedagogical University named after Ivan Franko). Among others, Ivan Franko (named after Emperor Franz Joseph I), Kazimierz Wiezynski, co-founder of Scamandra, and Bruno Schultz , who returned to his native Drohobych after studying in Vienna and graduated as a drawing teacher. his high school. Andrzej Hciuk was his student.

In the autumn of 1938, Andrzej Hciuk began his studies at the Faculty of Law of Jan Kazimir University in Lviv . However, after the first year, Andrzej did not pass one exam, which disappointed him in his further studies. Besides, war soon broke out. On September 24, 1939, the Red Army entered Drohobych. Andrzej, together with his brother Tadeusz and another friend, decided to flee through Hungary to the West. In late December, after several attempts, they crossed the border illegally on skis. Then he stayed in a camp for Poles in the Hungarian city of Nyíregyháza , then moved to Budapest , and then to France, where Andrzej joined the Second Infantry Rifle Division.

In November 1941, Andrzej found himself in Toulouse , where, alongside the Polish consulate, the Polish branch of the YMCA began to operate, with which Hciuk began working as an editor and journalist (including Andrzej Bobkowski , editing the Polish YMCA Razem Młodzi Przyjaciele). Then, together with the YMCA, he moved to Lyon , and then, after the liberation of the French capital from the Nazis, to Paris .

In early 1946, with the support of the YMCA, Andrzej Hciuk made three short trips to Germany . He visited the American, French and British occupation zones. Of course, he did not have access to the Soviet Union. He shared his observations, which he called "Echoes of the Three Occupations", with readers of "Together".

In October 1951, mainly due to differences with Polish emigrants in Paris, Andrzej Hciuk left for Australia .

In Australia, Andrzej Hciuk was published in Polish emigration magazines and took an active part in the social and cultural life of the Polish community.

In Australia, Andrzej Hciuk first worked at a garbage disposal plant, asphalt filling, canal cleaning, and finally "with impudence that surprised him but blessed him.", declared himself the chef of French cuisine at the restaurant "Golden Age Hotel" in the mountain town of Omeo. In 1953 he moved to the seaside town of Queenscliff, where he also worked as a chef in a restaurant. On April 1, 1954, Andrzej Hciuk set sail from Melbourne to Smithton, Tasmania. The experience of this trip a few years later served him in writing the stories "Flight to Smithton" and "Old Ocean". In May 1954, Andrzej Chczyuk took part in the founding meeting of the Polish Cultural and Artistic Circle in Melbourne. And in 1966, he began teaching French language and history at a Melbourne high school, while enrolling in distance learning at the University of Melbourne in French language and literature.

After a year in Australia, Andrzej Hciuk established contacts with the Polish press. He published his works in emigration magazines: Głos Polski, Tygodnik Katolicki, Wiadomości Polskie, Widnokręgi and others.

The writer also reacted with interest to the extraordinary events in the life of Ukrainian emigrants, which undoubtedly led to the publication in 1959 in the Library of Paris "Culture" of Yuri Lavrinenko's anthology "Shot Renaissance". This is evidenced by his response, first published in the magazine Wiadomości Polskie, and then translated into Ukrainian and published in the newspaper "Ukrainian in Australia" (June 26, 1960).

Andrzej Hciuk died on May 15, 1978. He is buried in Melbourne Necropolis Cemetery.

Creativity

Major works

Smutny uśmiech (Paris, 1957) is a 1955 award of the Parisian Culture .

Flight to Smithton. Stary Ocean (Paris, 1960)

Pamiętnik poetycki (Melbourne, 1961)

Atlantis. Opowieść o Wielkim Księstwie Bałaku (London, 1969) - award of the London weekly "Wiadomości"

Security goods. The Story of the God of History (London, 1970)

Ziemia księżycowa. The Second Tale of the Grand Duchy of Balak (London, 1972)

Visit to Israel (Paris, 1972)

Emigrant Narrative (London, 1975)

Three Hundred Months (Toronto, 1983)

A brief overview

Andrzej Hciuk's literary debut dates back to his years of study at the Drohobych Gymnasium. It was published in the school magazine Młodzież, founded in 1932. The emblem of the magazine was designed by Bruno Schultz .

In 1938, Andrzej Chczyuk joined the editorial board of the Drohobych scout magazine Włóczęga, which was subtitled: "It comes out when he wants."

In France, Htsyuk collaborated with the editors of the magazines Wrócimy and Służba; from 1944 he also edited the body of the Polish YMCA "Razem".

In Australia, Andrzej Chczyuk was published in emigration magazines: Głos Polski, Polish Catholic Weekly (Tygodnik Katolicki), Widnokręgi, Polish News (Wiadomości Polskie). , where he had a permanent column "A pinch of salt" ("Szczypta soli"), and others.

Andrzej Hciuk has been collaborating with Jerzy Giedroyc 's Parisian Culture since 1957, and with the London magazine Wiadomości , edited by Mieczyslaw Gridzewski , since 1958 . In particular, Htsyuk's short stories Smutny uśmiech (1957) and Flight to Smithton were published in the Library of Culture. The Old Ocean (Rejs do Smithton. Stary Ocean, 1960) and a report on a trip to Israel (Wizyta w Izraelu, 1972). In London, on the other hand, the Drohobych collections Atlantyda (1969) and Ziemia Księżycowa (1972) were published.

At the end of 1961, Hciuk embarked on a trip to Australia to report on, collect material for a book on the Polish diaspora, and gain new subscribers to the Polish press, most notably for the Polish newspaper Wiadomości Polskie. in Sydney, who, together with the Parisian "Culture" and other emigrant publications, helped the writer in organizing the trip. The result was a weekly article in Sydney's Wiadomościach Polskich entitled "From Wędrówek Chciuka".

The writer also reacted with interest to the extraordinary events in the life of Ukrainian emigrants, which undoubtedly led to the publication in 1959 in the Library of Paris "Culture" of Yuri Lavrinenko 's anthology "Shot Renaissance" . This is evidenced by his review, first published in the magazine "Wiadomości Polskie", and then translated into Ukrainian and published in the newspaper "Ukrainian in Australia" (June 26, 1960).

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Andrzej Hciuk's creative activity in London, a collection of his Drohobych memoirs "Atlantis" was published by the Polish Cultural Foundation. On June 6, 1970, the jury of the annual Wiadomości Prize in London recognized it as the most outstanding book by a Polish writer published in exile in 1969.

In 1970, Khtsyuk's novel Comrades in Security. A novel, God forbid, historical "(" Towarzysze z bezpieczeństwa. Powieść, daj Boże, historyczna ") about the times of Stalinism in Poland.

In 1972, the second part of Htsyuk's dilogy, Moon Land, was published in London. As the author himself wrote, “people need such books with a sad smile to recognize themselves in their pages, like in a mirror, to see their local Drohobych, perhaps a little decorated with longing, but also preserved in the heart with complete sincerity. This human view of everything is the most necessary thing in life, especially when you need to put things in order, accounts with the land, full of tears and blood, love and guilt.

In July 1971, at the age of twenty, Htsyuk embarked on a journey through Europe. In Munich he met his brother Thaddeus and his family (last seen in 1951 in France). Tadeusz Hciuk worked in the Polish edition of Radio Free Europe (he was one of its founders). Andrzej Hciuk and his wife spent August 1971 in Israel, resulting in the book Wizyta w Izraelu (Visit to Israel). It was published in 1972 by Jerzy Giedroyc in Paris.

In 1975, the Polish Cultural Foundation in London published Andrzej Hciuk's next work, The Emigrant Story (Emigrancka opowieść). For it, the author received the award of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad as the best book of the year. As Htsyuk wrote, "emigration is a horrible incarnation, schizophrenia, another dimension and planet, a disease and sublime service, protest and atrophy; it has everything: boredom and pathos, and everything comes in at once, in different conditions and styles, in different moments and tonalities.

Principality of Balak

A special place in the writer's legacy is occupied by his "Drohobych dilogy": the books "Atlantis" and "Moon Land". Their pages unfold the "inner" biography of the writer, ie the history of his memory. It is a story of returning to his native home, which Htsyuk was deprived of forever, a story of a lost homeland, a world that history doomed to the fate of Atlantis, and only the duty of memory, true love for the land makes him describe its outlines to at least somehow delay this "damned human oblivion."

"Return" to Drohobych for Htsyuk began with the need to tell about his teacher, whose work and destiny have already become textbooks - it is, of course, about Bruno Schultz.

In both "Drohobych" books the image of Schultz remains pervasive, because for the writer it is like a sign-symbol of what happened to "his" Drohobych, his people and himself: in "Atlantis" Schultz is dedicated to the extensive memory of "Bruno Schultz enchanted and ordinary ", Two stories about the Teacher -" The Enchanted Circle of Destiny "and" On the corner of Mickiewicz and Chatsky "- contains" Moon Land ". In addition to those mentioned, Schultz's figure - by mention, stroke, comparison - appears in other Htsyuk's texts. The writer tries as if to realize the communication with the Teacher, to understand Schultz's influence on his own formation and vision of art, as well as to recreate the outlines of the city in which they were students and teachers.

Htsyukiv Drohobych appears as a mosaic of memories that "emerge from the pen" - the dialect that is still used by Galicians. That is why the subheadings of both books contain the outline "Principality of Balak" - that's what the author calls Galicia.

"As I write this diary of my maturity, it is as pure as a tear, as an icicle hanging from the roof of the Zaroslyak base in Montenegro, glistening in the sun on a beautiful clear day, as transparent as a glass of strong Polish sivuha, the best cure for melancholy and sorrow." I have often wondered in what order to list those types and types, how to put them in a hierarchy, how to combine their destinies into one big mosaic of the vast space of life of a small town - and all could not decide on something. So, let them appear to you on the stage of this book as they emerge from the pen: there is no other composition here than love and touch than the truth of memory, which both hurts and pleases, and is guided by its right to memory, which adorns everything a little., but also understands everything better and better. " (Andrzej Hciuk)

"My Drohobych is gone. He lives only in remembrance and heartfelt emotion, in the exaltation and ascension of memories. I deliberately avoid the word "longing", because all our literature has been abusing and abusing this tone for years <…> Of course, an emigrant must long for Poland, but within its current borders… "

In 2011, the Kyiv publishing house Critique published a Ukrainian translation of Andrzej Khtsiuk's Drohobych books: Atlantis and Moonland.

In 2014, according to the online publication "Drohobyczer Zeitung" , Andrzej Hciuk's dilogy "Atlantis" and "Moon Land" (translated by Natalka Rimska) is included in the Top 5 popular books about Drohobych.

Works

Andrzej Hciuk . Atlantis: The story of the Grand Duchy of Balak. The Land of the Moon: The Second Story of the Grand Duchy of Balak1

Andrzej Hciuk . "The blind do not go to the match"

Andrzej Hciuk. Haimik

Andrzej Hciuk. Bruno Schultz is fascinated and ordinary