May 7, 2022 was the 155th birthday anniversary of Władysław Stanisław Reymont.

Bestowing human features on animals has a very long tradition in world’s literature. It is believed that Aesop, who probably lived in the 6th Century BC, was the first to use such a stylistic technique in his fables. Among his literary heirs one can name, for instance, George Orwell, the author of the famous novel “Animal Farm”. Let us recall: this anti-utopia, published in 1945, is a satire on communism in its Soviet version.

Two anti-utopias

Behold at a certain farm the animals, unhappy about their situation, decide to radically change it. In order to achieve this they choose to take the power that men exercise over them. They trigger a revolution. Their exploiter i.e. the farm’s owner, Mr Jones, is driven out.

The new society is led by a group of boars: Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer. They commanded the rebellion so the time has come for them to implement an ideology giving a vision of a reality in which animals are to be equal and free. However, it turns out that no promise to improve the world is fulfilled. Napoleon eliminates Snowball in his struggle for power. And, what is most important, he and other pigs increasingly become like humans, thus turning into exploiters of other animals.

In the mid-1940s, Orwell had extensive knowledge of the Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin, and at that time he was familiar with the over 20-year history of this totalitarian state. There is no evidence, however, that he had the opportunity to read the novel “Revolt” (“Bunt”) by Władysław Stanisław Reymont, written two decades earlier, which was an allegorical depiction of the Bolshevik coup d’état and its consequences. And it is worth recalling because in it animals also act against people for the sake of social justice.

As much as Orwell cast boars as main rebels, in the Reymont work it’s the dog Rex (rendering from Latin: a King) who leads the rebellion. He falls into his landlords’ disgrace because he is unruly and brutal. Not only does he steal meat but he also bites the young master’s favourite dachshunds to death. He therefore flees before the wrath of men to the woods. There, thanks to his brave and very aggressive attitude he gains recognition of its inhabitants. Eventually, he becomes the leader of both wild and farmed animals.

This is how their great journey begins. Rex promises to lead them to a place where human power over them doesn’t reach. On the way to this goal, however, they have to face great hardship and enormous sacrifices. They fight people and face the elements. And it turns out that instead of finding the expected happiness, they feel the bitter taste of disappointment.

Reymont – like Orwell – portrayed communism as contestation of the laws of nature that leads to nowhere. But there is one more important issue in “Revolt”. In this novel, the communist utopia appears as a false messianism. The animals’ migration irresistibly brings to mind the biblical pilgrimage of Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land (the poet and essayist Krzysztof Koehler even noticed the stylistic similarity of “Revolt” with the Book of Exodus). Except that Rex – just like communist ideologues – turns out to be a false prophet.

A friend to Dmowski

Reymont’s novel was published in episodes in 1922, on the pages of “Tygodnik Ilustrowany”. And as a book it was released in 1924. After WWII, quite significantly, it hadn’t been reissued and it was veiled in silence. It would only come to pass that somebody mentioned it briefly, e.g. Józef Rurawski, the biographer of Reymont who, in 1977, called it a “lampoon of the revolution”. The historian of ideas Dariusz Gawin rightly noticed that in the Polish People’s Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, HRTA the PRL) literature textbooks there were attempts to take the master of Polish naturalism’s heritage to the advantage of the leftist tradition. In this context, he pointed to Reymont's most famous novels, namely “The Peasants” (“Chłopi” – awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924) and “The Promised Land” (“Ziemia Obiecana”) stating: “the Nobel Prize winner's great works were meant to show the difficult life of the Polish people and to expose the ruthless nature of capitalism emerging in Polish lands”.

Obviously, under the PRL regime facts regarding writer’s political involvement that deemed inconvenient for the communists were ignored. Before WWI Reymont had been a member of the National League (Liga Narodowa). Over many years – until his death in 1925 – he had been friendly with Roman Dmowski. He was therefore close to the National Democracy (Narodowa Demokracja/ND) movement, even if by the end of his life he joined the Polish Peasant Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe) “Piast”. By no means then was he a leftist (as opposed to Orwell, although he, having socialist views, also defined himself as an anti-communist after all).

Political movements, wherewith Reymont was in any way connected, had to take a stance in the face of conflicts tearing apart capitalist societies. However, they rejected the class struggle postulated by the communists and put forward the program of social solidarity as an alternative to it. They preferred the national interest to both the left-wing (class) and liberal (individualist) perspective.

From today’s perspective, the issues Reymont brought up in his “Revolt” may seem a thing of the past. However, the writer focused on timeless problems. Usurpation as towards God – and that’s how the attempt on the order of nature should be perceived – as well as succumbing to lies are no phenomena unique to the 20th Century. Since the beginning of time, having to choose between good and evil, people have always been put to some test.

– Filip Memches

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

– Translated by Dominik Szczęsny-Kostanecki