Z historii polskich przekładów powieści Doktor Żywago Borysa Pasternaka (na podstawie korespondencji Jerzego Giedroycia i Gustawa Herlinga-Grudzińskiego oraz Jerzego Stempowskiego i Marii Dąbrowskiej)

Abstract

This article recalls the circumstances of the first edition of the novel by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, in Polish translation, which appeared in 1959 in volume XLIV of the Biblioteka ‟Kultury” series, published by the Paris Literary Institute. Reconstruction of the history of this publishing initiative in the context of the political situation is possible thanks to historical sources preserved in the Paris and Warsaw archives, publications in periodicals, memoirs and epistolary culture. The circumstances in which the typescript was imported to Poland and in which the Literary Institute obtained a license for a Polish translation, the choice of translator, and Jerzy Giedroyc and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s correspondence are discussed. An important source of information is the lively correspondence between Maria Dąbrowska and Jerzy Stempowski, the son of a publicist and social activist, and Mason Stanisław Stempowski, a longtime life partner of the writer. The fragments of epistolary culture discussed here allow a better understanding of these outstanding individuals of the twentieth century. The content of the correspondence analyzed also allows us to reconstruct many interesting facts from the field of translating Russian literature into Polish, as well as the complex situation of Polish-Russian relations in the post-war period.