Bruno Jasienski
Encyclopedia
Bruno Jasieński (ˈbrunɔ jaˈɕeɲskʲi; Бруно Ясенский, real name Wiktor Zysman) (1901 – 1938) was a Polish poet and the leader of the Polish futurist
movement.
Bruno Jasieński was born Wiktor Zysman on 17 July 1901 in Klimontów
in southern Congress Poland
, Russian Empire
to a Polish family of Jewish and German roots, but from his mother's side he was a descendant of the nobility (Pol. szlachta
). His father, Jakub Zysman, was a local doctor and a social worker, one of the members of the local intelligentsia
and elite. He converted to Protestantism, mostly to be able to marry a Catholic girl, Eufemia Maria Modzelewska, a Polish noble, member of the Modzelewski family of the Bończa coat of arms, with whom he had three children: Bruno, Jerzy and Irena. Today one of the streets of Klimontów is named after him.
Little is known of Jasieński's early life, especially as he did not describe it in his later works. In 1914 his family moved to Russia
, where Bruno graduated from the secondary school in Moscow. There his fascination with Igor Severyanin
's ego-futurism started, followed by lectures of works by Velimir Chlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky
and Alexiey Kruchonykh's Visual poems. In 1918, after Poland
regained its independence, Bruno returned to Kraków
, where he applied for a position in the philosophical faculty of the Jagiellonian University
. However, he suspended his studies to join the volunteer unit of the Polish Army and took part in the disarming of Austrian and German soldiers. After the Polish-Soviet War
(February 1919 – March 1921), he returned to University and studied at various faculties (including philosophy, law and Polish literature). He also became one of the founders of a club of futurists named Katarynka. In 1921 he published one of the first of his futurist works, Nuż w bżuchu (Nayf in the Abdomen) and, together with Stanislaw Mlodozeniec 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 all kinds of new art, formerly unknown in Poland. Also, a volume of poems entitled But w butonierce (Shoe in a Buttonhole) was published in Warsaw.
The same year he gained much fame as an enfant terrible of Polish literature
and was well-received by the critics in many Polish cities, including Warsaw
and Lwów, where he met other notable writers of the epoch. Among them were Marian Hemar
, Tytus Czyżewski
, Aleksander Wat
and Anatol Stern
. He also collaborated with various newspapers of the time, including the leftist Trybuna Robotnicza, Nowa Kultura and Zwrotnica. In 1922 another of his works was published, the Pieśń o głodzie (Song of Hunger), followed by 1924 Ziemia na lewo (Earth Leftwards). In 1923 he married Klara Arem, daughter of a notable merchant from Lwów.
They moved to France
, where they settled in Paris
in Passage Poissonniere. The couple lived a humble life, making ends meet as journalists and correspondents of various Polish newspapers. Although Bruno Jasieński did not seek contacts with the local Polonia
, together with Zygmunt Modzelewski
he formed an amateur theatre for the Polish worker diaspora living in Saint Denis. He also wrote numerous poems, essays and books, many of which were quite radical.
In 1929 Jasieński wrote Palę Paryż (I Burn Paris), a futurist novel describing the collapse, decay and social tensions within the city of Paris and capitalist societies in general. The novel was also a humorous reply to Paul Morand
's pamphlet I Burn Moscow published shortly before. It was published in French by the leftist L'Humanité
newspaper and instantly translated into Russian. The novel gained Jasieński much fame in France, but also became the main reason why he was deported from that country. Not admitted to Belgium
and Luxembourg
, he stayed in Frankfurt am Main for a while and - when the extradition order had been withdrawn - returned to France only to be expelled once more. In 1929 he moved to the USSR and settled in Leningrad
, where he was greeted almost as a national hero. The first Russian edition of I Burn Paris was issued in 130,000 copies and sold out in... one day. The same year his son was born and Bruno became the editor in chief of Kultura mas (Culture of the Masses), a Polish-language monthly and a journalist of the Soviet Tribune. The following year he divorced Klara, allegedly because of numerous scandals she was involved in. Soon afterwards he married Anna Berzin, with whom he had a daughter.
In 1932 he was moved from the Polish division of the French Communist Party
to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
and soon became a prominent member of that organization. He moved to Moscow
and was quickly promoted by the communist authorities. During that period he served at various posts in the branch unions of communist writers. He was also granted honorary citizenship of Tajikistan
. By the mid-1930s he had become one of the strongest supporters of Genrikh Yagoda
's purges within the writers' community. Jasieński is often mentioned as the initiator of the persecution of Isaak Babel. However, in 1937 the tide turned and Yagoda himself was arrested and Jasieński lost a powerful protector. Soon afterwards Jasieński's former wife, Klara, who had had an affair with Yagoda, was also arrested, sentenced to death and executed. Jasieński was expelled from the party, and soon afterwards he was also caught up in the purges. Sentenced to 15 years in a labour camp, he was executed on 17 September 1938 in Butyrka prison
in Moscow
.
His second wife Anna was arrested the following year and spent 17 years in various Russian concentration camps. Jasieński's son was stripped of his identity and sent to an orphanage, but managed to escape during World War II
. After the war he went on to become a prominent figure in Russia's criminal underworld. He eventually discovered his true heritage though, and under a Polish name became a member of various illegal organizations in opposition to the Communist authorities. He was killed in the 1970s.
Bruno Jasieński remains one of the most notable Polish futurists and as such is still acclaimed by members of various modernist art groups as a patron. A yearly futurist Brunonalia festival held in Klimontów
is named after him.
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
movement.
Bruno Jasieński was born Wiktor Zysman on 17 July 1901 in Klimontów
Klimontów
Klimontów may refer to the following places in Poland:*Klimontów, Jędrzejów County in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship *Klimontów, Sandomierz County in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship...
in southern Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
to a Polish family of Jewish and German roots, but from his mother's side he was a descendant of the nobility (Pol. szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
). His father, Jakub Zysman, was a local doctor and a social worker, one of the members of the local intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
and elite. He converted to Protestantism, mostly to be able to marry a Catholic girl, Eufemia Maria Modzelewska, a Polish noble, member of the Modzelewski family of the Bończa coat of arms, with whom he had three children: Bruno, Jerzy and Irena. Today one of the streets of Klimontów is named after him.
Little is known of Jasieński's early life, especially as he did not describe it in his later works. In 1914 his family moved to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where Bruno graduated from the secondary school in Moscow. There his fascination with Igor Severyanin
Igor Severyanin
Igor Severyanin was a Russian poet who presided over the circle of the so-called Ego-Futurists.Igor was born in St. Petersburg in the family of an army engineer. Through his mother, he was remotely related to Nikolai Karamzin and Afanasy Fet. In 1904 he left for Manchuria with his father but later...
's ego-futurism started, followed by lectures of works by Velimir Chlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
and Alexiey Kruchonykh's Visual poems. In 1918, after Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
regained its independence, Bruno returned to Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, where he applied for a position in the philosophical faculty of the Jagiellonian University
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....
. However, he suspended his studies to join the volunteer unit of the Polish Army and took part in the disarming of Austrian and German soldiers. After the Polish-Soviet War
Polish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...
(February 1919 – March 1921), he returned to University and studied at various faculties (including philosophy, law and Polish literature). He also became one of the founders of a club of futurists named Katarynka. In 1921 he published one of the first of his futurist works, Nuż w bżuchu (Nayf in the Abdomen) and, together with Stanislaw Mlodozeniec 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 all kinds of new art, formerly unknown in Poland. Also, a volume of poems entitled But w butonierce (Shoe in a Buttonhole) was published in Warsaw.
The same year he gained much fame as an enfant terrible of Polish literature
Polish literature
Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages, used in Poland over the centuries, have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German and...
and was well-received by the critics in many Polish cities, including Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and Lwów, where he met other notable writers of the epoch. Among them were Marian Hemar
Marian Hemar
Marian Hemar , born Jan Maria Hescheles, also Jan Mariański , Marian Wallenrod, was a Polish Jewish poet, journalist, playwright, comedy writer, and songwriter: he himself said that before the outbreak of World War II he had written 1200 songs including hits like Może kiedyś innym razem and Upić...
, Tytus Czyżewski
Tytus Czyzewski
Tytus Czyżewski was a Polish painter, art theoretician, Futurist poet, playwright, member of the Polish Formists, and Colorist.In 1902 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in the painting studios of Józef Mehoffer and Leon Wyczółkowski. Czyżewski travelled to Paris and learned from the...
, Aleksander Wat
Aleksander Wat
Aleksander Wat, was a Polish poet, writer and art theoretician, one of the precursors of Polish futurism movement in early 1920s....
and Anatol Stern
Anatol Stern
Anatol Stern was a Polish poet, writer and art critic. Born October 24, 1899 to an assimilated family of Jewish ancestry, Stern studied at the Polish Studies Faculty of the University of Wilno but did not graduate...
. He also collaborated with various newspapers of the time, including the leftist Trybuna Robotnicza, Nowa Kultura and Zwrotnica. In 1922 another of his works was published, the Pieśń o głodzie (Song of Hunger), followed by 1924 Ziemia na lewo (Earth Leftwards). In 1923 he married Klara Arem, daughter of a notable merchant from Lwów.
They moved to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where they settled in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in Passage Poissonniere. The couple lived a humble life, making ends meet as journalists and correspondents of various Polish newspapers. Although Bruno Jasieński did not seek contacts with the local Polonia
Polonia
The Polish diaspora refers to people of Polish origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish language as Polonia, which is the name for Poland in Latin and in many other Romance languages....
, together with Zygmunt Modzelewski
Zygmunt Modzelewski
Zygmunt Modzelewski was a Polish communist politician.He was a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and Communist Party of Poland. From 1923 to 1937 he was a member of the French Communist Party and even joined its Central Committee...
he formed an amateur theatre for the Polish worker diaspora living in Saint Denis. He also wrote numerous poems, essays and books, many of which were quite radical.
In 1929 Jasieński wrote Palę Paryż (I Burn Paris), a futurist novel describing the collapse, decay and social tensions within the city of Paris and capitalist societies in general. The novel was also a humorous reply to Paul Morand
Paul Morand
Paul Morand was a French diplomat, novelist, playwright and poet, considered an early Modernist.He was a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies...
's pamphlet I Burn Moscow published shortly before. It was published in French by the leftist L'Humanité
L'Humanité
L'Humanité , formerly the daily newspaper linked to the French Communist Party , was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the French Section of the Workers' International...
newspaper and instantly translated into Russian. The novel gained Jasieński much fame in France, but also became the main reason why he was deported from that country. Not admitted to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, he stayed in Frankfurt am Main for a while and - when the extradition order had been withdrawn - returned to France only to be expelled once more. In 1929 he moved to the USSR and settled in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, where he was greeted almost as a national hero. The first Russian edition of I Burn Paris was issued in 130,000 copies and sold out in... one day. The same year his son was born and Bruno became the editor in chief of Kultura mas (Culture of the Masses), a Polish-language monthly and a journalist of the Soviet Tribune. The following year he divorced Klara, allegedly because of numerous scandals she was involved in. Soon afterwards he married Anna Berzin, with whom he had a daughter.
In 1932 he was moved from the Polish division of the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and soon became a prominent member of that organization. He moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and was quickly promoted by the communist authorities. During that period he served at various posts in the branch unions of communist writers. He was also granted honorary citizenship of Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
. By the mid-1930s he had become one of the strongest supporters of Genrikh Yagoda
Genrikh Yagoda
Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda , born Enokh Gershevich Ieguda , was a Soviet state security official who served as director of the NKVD, the Soviet Union's Stalin-era security and intelligence agency, from 1934 to 1936...
's purges within the writers' community. Jasieński is often mentioned as the initiator of the persecution of Isaak Babel. However, in 1937 the tide turned and Yagoda himself was arrested and Jasieński lost a powerful protector. Soon afterwards Jasieński's former wife, Klara, who had had an affair with Yagoda, was also arrested, sentenced to death and executed. Jasieński was expelled from the party, and soon afterwards he was also caught up in the purges. Sentenced to 15 years in a labour camp, he was executed on 17 September 1938 in Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison was the central transit prison in pre-Revolutionary Russia, located in Moscow.The first references to Butyrka prison may be traced back to the 17th century. The present prison building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate on the site of a prison-fortress which had been built...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
His second wife Anna was arrested the following year and spent 17 years in various Russian concentration camps. Jasieński's son was stripped of his identity and sent to an orphanage, but managed to escape during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the war he went on to become a prominent figure in Russia's criminal underworld. He eventually discovered his true heritage though, and under a Polish name became a member of various illegal organizations in opposition to the Communist authorities. He was killed in the 1970s.
Bruno Jasieński remains one of the most notable Polish futurists and as such is still acclaimed by members of various modernist art groups as a patron. A yearly futurist Brunonalia festival held in Klimontów
Klimontów
Klimontów may refer to the following places in Poland:*Klimontów, Jędrzejów County in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship *Klimontów, Sandomierz County in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship...
is named after him.
External links
- Jasieński's works (Polish)
- Jasieński's works (Polish)
- Jasieński's poems (Polish)
- Brunonalia festival
- Bruno Jasienski's I Burn Paris & the Plague of Proletarian Internationalism
- Jasienski at Twisted Spoon Press
- I Burn Paris (Twisted Spoon Press)