The September Victory: The Switches of History According to Ziemowit Szczerek

The article analyzes counterfactual historical scenarios developed in the works of Ziemowit Szczerek. In his prose (journalism, essays, documentaries, novels), the writer reflects on the possible history of the Second Polish Republic after its victory over the Germans in the September campaign of 1939. In a narrative game in which he confronts, on the one hand, interwar geopolitical projects, modernization programs, colonial plans, artistic utopias, as well as an urbanist and technical thought, and, on the other hand, contemporary historical knowledge and current ideological discussions, the author considers the extent to which the events he depicted in Rzeczpospolita zwycięska [Victorious Poland] and Cham z kulą w głowie [A Lout with a Bullet in the Head] could be reconciled with the processes unfolded during the PRL and after 1989. The idea is to reveal a hidden continuity between the interwar and postwar periods and the post-transformation years, as well as to the continued presence of the legacy of 1918– p1939. Among the factors that might influence this state of affairs, he points to the condition of the society, its moral standards, mentality, and models of civilization. Another important motif in Szczerek’s writings is the projection of the imperial and colonial experience of the Poles and the reflection on the consequences that Poland would have to face if it acquired the status of a Central European superpower.