JASIEŃSKI (Zyskind), BRUNO

JASIEŃSKI (Zyskind ), BRUNO (1901–1939), Polish poet, novelist, and playwright. Jasieński was born in Klimentów. Together with another prominent futurist writer, Anatol *Stern, he published a celebrated pamphlet, Nuż w bżuchu ("A Knife in the Belly," 1921), and a collection of verse, Ziemia na lewo ("Land on the Left," 1924). Two volumes of his own poetry were But w butonierce ("The Boot in the Buttonhole," 1921) and Pieśń o glodźe ("Song of Hunger," 1922). After emigrating to Paris in 1925, Jasieński published Słowo o Jakubie Szeli ("A Word about Jacob Szela," 1926), a poem in which he tried to rehabilitate the leader of an anti-feudal peasant uprising in West Galicia in 1848. Jasieński's famous novel Palę Paryż ("I Burn Paris," 1928), first printed in the French Communist daily L'Humanité, was a fantasy of the destruction of the citadel of capitalism by the international proletariat. The French government promptly expelled the author. From 1929 until his death Jasieński lived in the U.S.S.R., where he helped to organize the Union of Soviet Writers and contributed to Polish and Russian periodicals. His play Bal manekinów ("The Dummies'" Ball, 1931) appeared in both Polish and Russian, and he also wrote short stories in Russian, and the novel Chelovek menyayet kozhu (1934; Man Changes his Skin, 1935), of which the Polish, Człowiek zmienia skére, was published in 1935-37 (2 vols.). This novel dealt with the conflicts arising from Socialist reconstruction in Tadzhikistan. In 1937 Jasieński was arrested. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but died later on the way to his place of exile near Vladivostok. He was officially rehabilitated by the Communists in 1956. A collected edition of his poems, edited by Anatol Stern, appeared in 1960.

bibliography:

Polski Słownik Biograficzny, 11 (1964-65), 27-30 (incl. bibl.).

[Stanislaw Wygodzki]