Slavonic and East European Review

Abstract:

This article proposes that the genesis of Polish poet Czesław Miłosz's frequently discussed ‘Manichaean world-view was closely tied to his engagement with Russian religious thought and his childhood experiences of Russian history. Subsequently, Miłosz constructed an idiosyncratic theory inscribing a variant of the ‘Manichaean heresy into the historical development of Russian culture, linking this religious tradition to the rise of Bolshevism. The author argues that Miłosz partly derived his ‘Neo-Manichaean theory of Russian culture from certain prominent Polish intellectuals in interwar Wilno, and later used it to explain his own political choices in the face of Soviet power.