YULIAN STRYIKOVSKYI: “A CHRONICLER OF THE JEWISH DESTINY”

The article tells about the life and creative contribution of Yulian Stryikowski. In particular, special attention is paid to his works, which reflect the life of the Jewish people of the Polish-Ukrainian border in the XX century. The article also depicts the translational work of the writer. The aim of the work is to highlight biographical information and analyze the creative work of Julian Stryikowski, a Polish writer and journalist of Jewish origin. The article covers factors having influenced the formation of Stryikowski’s worldview, it tells about his education and the birth of his creative talent. A special place in Stryikowski’s life is taken by the Polish language, which allowed the future writer to make a living while still being a student. The turning point in the writer’s work was the Second World War. The pre-war period of the work can be described as the time of searches and discoveries. The future author of “Głosy w ciemności” was looking for himself and for inner harmony. He tried to overcome the traditional religious education received in the Jewish family in the pursuit of communist ideas. His Jewish culture and language were constantly confronted with polish and Ukrainian ones, especially because he lived on the polish-ukrainian border. Stryikowski dreamed of a writer’s career, but could not completely dive into it, because he was always forced to seek means for survival and existence. The article also talks about journalistic career of the writer. After the war, Stryikowski settled in the soviet-occupied Lviv, where he worked as editor and journalist in the communist newspaper “Czerwony Sztandar” (“The Red Flag”) and published his works there. The problematics of the Stryikowski’s works most deal directly with the fate of the Jews in the diaspora, their culture, the people who suffered for two millennia. When writing about this, he violates the themes that touch upon a human being in general, religious and ideological choice of every one of us, the themes of the good and the evil, love and hatred. The author also raises the question of the existence and essence of being a Jew, certain limitations and duties connected with it. Autobiographical motifs can be traced within the works of the writer. His characters often have a lot in common with his own life, and sometimes almost duplicate events from it. The main work of Stryikovski’s life is tetralogy, which consists of novels “Głosy w ciemności”, “Echo”, “Austeria”, “Sen Azrila”. This is a huge cycle, which was finally completed in the late 80’s of the XX century. Motives from the Old Testament, especially from the Talmud, are interwoven in it. The tetralogy shows the collapse of the traditional world, the indifference of young people to religion, their aspiration to assimilate with the multinational and multicultural society of the Austro- Hungarian Empire.