Kazimierz Wyka
Kazimierz Wyka was a Polish literary historian, literary critic, and professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków following World War II. He was a deputy to the Polish parliament from 1952 to 1956 during the era of Stalinism in Poland.
Life
Wyka was the son of Wojciech Wyka, a small sawmill owner, and Maria née Piętakiewicz, born and raised in Krzeszowice. He studied at the Jagiellonian University and during the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany remained safely with the family in his small town. He became active politically only after the Soviet takeover, and obtained a position as a professor at his Alma mater in 1948. In 1952 Wyka co-founded and ran the Polish–Soviet Friendship Society, a cover for the direct Soviet propaganda in Poland, which enabled him to also remain a Member of Parliament in 1952–56 before the collapse of Stalinism during the Polish October. Notably Wyka signed the so-called "Letter of 34" against censorship, delivered in March 1964 to the Council of Ministers (Poland) and then passed on to The Times. However, the resulting uproar in the communist party circles prompted Wyka to sign a counter letter against it, claiming that the Radio Free Europe spreads false information about the Soviet repressions in Poland, which in its own right was an obscene lie, wrote Norman Davies. Wyka was one of only two men who strategically withdrew their names from the original list to save their own jobs at the last moment. His daughter Marta Wyka became a literary critic and literary historian.Books
- Reissued 1974, 1989.
- Reissued 1959, 1985, 2010.
- Reissued 1977.
- Reissued 1968.
- Reissued 1962.
- Reissued 1973.
- Second extended edition 2000.
- Reissued 1986.
- Co-author.
- Reissued 1989.
- Reissued 1987.