Kultura sometimes referred to as "Kultura Paryska", was a leading Polish

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...

-émigré literary-political journal, published from 1947 to 2000 by Instytut Literacki (Literary Institute), initially in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, then 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...

.

It was edited and produced by Jerzy Giedroyc

Jerzy Giedroyc

Jerzy Giedroyc was a Polish writer and political activist....

 and ceased publication upon his death.

Giedroyc was one of the main reasons why Kultura enjoyed an unwavering prestige and a constant stream of esteemed contributors that enabled it to play a prominent role in Polish literary life. Kultura magazine published polemics and articles by Nobel laureates Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska, as well as works by numerous other authors. Literary critics such as Maria Janion

Maria Janion

Maria Janion is a Polish scholar, critic and theoretician of literature as well as a renowned feminist. She is a Professor at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, specialising in literary Romanticism.Janion is also a member of the Polish Academy of Learning. She...

, Jan Kott

Jan Kott

Jan Kott was a well-known Polish critic and theoretician of the theatre.Born in Warsaw in 1914, Kott moved to the United States in 1966 and lectured at Yale and Berkeley. A poet, translator, and critic, he was also one of the finest essayists of the Polish school...

 and Ryszard Nycz also contributed. Kultura is an essential reading for those studying Polish literature. Over the years, it printed and popularized the names of many leading Polish intellectuals living under Communism and abroad, such as Gustaw Herling-Grudziński

Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński was a Polish writer, journalist, essayist and soldier. He is best known for writing a personal account of life in the Soviet gulag - A World Apart.-Biography:...

, Witold Gombrowicz

Witold Gombrowicz

Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish novelist and dramatist. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavor...

, Marek Hłasko, Juliusz Mieroszewski, Józef Czapski

Józef Czapski

Józef Czapski was a Polish artist, author, and critic, as well as an officer of the Polish Army. As a painter, he is notable for his membership in the Kapist movement, which was heavily influenced by Cézanne...

, Konstanty Jeleński

Konstanty Jeleński

-Biography:Konstanty Aleksander Jeleński was born January 2, 1922 in Warsaw, Poland and died May 4, 1987 in Paris, France. At the age of eighteen he left Poland to serve the Polish Army in France...

 and Bogdan Czaykowski

Bogdan Czaykowski

Bogdan Czaykowski was a Polish Canadian poet, essayist, literary translator and literary critic, professor emeritus and former Dean at the University of British Columbia. He wrote numerous articles in academic journals and literary magazines, and was the subject of literary research papers...

.

Kultura played a major role in Poland's reconciliation with Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

 and Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, as the first independent Polish intellectual circle to openly advocate, in the 1950s, recognizing Poland's postwar eastern borders. This involved renouncing Poland's claims to Lwów

Lviv

Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

 in favor of a future independent Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, and to Wilno

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

 in favor of a future independent Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

.

The concept of supporting the independence of Poland's eastern neighbors, elaborated by Juliusz Mieroszewski and known as "ULB" (from Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

), has had a major influence on Poland's foreign policies since 1989.

External Links

• A guide to the Konstanty Jeleński Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
• A guide to the Olga Scherer-Virski Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
• A guide to the Witold Gombrowicz Archive at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library