Poddana „dławiącej nienawiści”? Rosja Beaty Obertyńskiej
Exposed to “Choked Hatred”? Beata Obertyńska’s Russia

Summary/Abstract: The study presents an attempt of such reading of Beata Obertyńska’s “The House of Captivity" that proves its unquestionable, though a priori place in labor camp Polish literature and simultaneously pits against her irritating, openly declared hatred to all what is Russian. In the chronology of narration showing Obertyńska’s vicissitudes in the Soviet Union and in its structure one can find the dynamics of the process of overcoming enmity. This feeling is revealed only on this level on the text that presents the emotionally perceived reality. On the second level the narrator’s individual experience is referred to the tradition of national martyrdom, Obertyńska however emphasizes the community of suffering of Poles and Russians. On the last – deepest level – one finds an attempt to analyze the Soviet reality: a comparison of old, “true” Russia with Stalin’s empire. It was in the labor camp that Obertyńska understood the wonder of arising the internal freedom in the Russians. Due to that she was capable of overcoming the atavistic enmity to Russia and stepping away from the stereotypical image of a Russian with which she found herself in the “house of captivity”.

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