Melchior Wańkowicz, On the Trail of Smetka 1936.

Year of publication: 1936
Publisher: Bibljoteka Polska
Condition: Used
Cover type: Soft
Size: 17x25cm
Number of pages: 372
Weight: 0.9 kg

In the novel, Wańkowicz describes his stay in the summer of 1935 in what was then East Prussia. It included canoeing "Kuwaka" with his younger daughter Marta "Tila" Wańkowiczówna on the rivers and lakes of the Masurian Lake District and a car tour of the rest of Warmia and Masuria. The trip is a pretext and canvas for historical, political and philosophical reflections on the intertwined, complicated fate of the inhabitants of these lands over the centuries: the Mazurians, Poles and Germans. Descriptions of the escalating violence and hatred of the population of German origin against the indigenous, Polish-speaking Mazurian population help to understand what was happening in this national melting pot on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. The novel also allows one to understand why the result of the 1920 plebiscite was a defeat for Polishness in these territories closely associated with Poland. "On the Tracks of Smetka" has been recognized as the most outstanding volume of reportage of the interwar period.