Gustaw Herling–Grudziński – Mikhail Heller. Correspondence in the years 1972–1994

Abstract

The compiled collection of letters from Gustaw Herling-Grudziński and Mikhail Heller is only a small testimony to the relationship between these two outstanding intellectuals – a Polish and a Russian emigrant. Both of them were very strongly experienced by the repressive Soviet system, but in both of them we find a strong fascination with the Russian culture, mentality – maybe even “civilisation”. It is not surprising, then, that they found common topics for talks and disputes, had the same friends, and read the same books. In a sense, each of them found in the other person a kind of “soul mate”, an intellectual partner and finally a friend. Correspondence played a rather complementary and additional role in their relationship, it was only one of the many available methods of contact. They both met frequently in Paris and Italy, the “Russian dinners” with Mikhail and Eugenia Heller became famous, which Herling remembered very fondly. The author of the “Inny Świat”, as a co–creator and one of the most important people in the editorial group of “Kultura”, also had constant contact with Heller – an author who printed monthly reviews of the Soviet press in the periodical of the Literary Institute. The Polish emigre also wrote two forewords to the Russian’s books. An important element in the correspondence – and probably also in their lives – was the mutual mediation in contacts with the third parties: by providing leads, letters, articles or press clippings.

Despite the fact that the correspondence is “defective”, containing obvious “holes” (whether it is caused by the loss of the letters or simply the interruption of their exchange), the correspondence shows how the acquaintance of Mikhail Heller and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński evolved. It is an important source for recreating the excerpts from the biographies of both of them and – in a broader context – tells us a bit about the relations within the community of “Kultura” and the contacts of this community with the Russian emigration.