Józef Lobodowski (1909–1988) was born into a Polish family at a time when the Polish state did not exist on the political map of Europe. Since 1795, the Third Partition of Poland, his homeland had been divided between the empires of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. .obodowski’s life itself reflects the history of Poland in all its glory and wretchedness. The son of a colonel in the Tsarist army, he entered the world near Kaunas, in present-day Lithuania. Because of his father’s career, he and his family moved to Lublin, then to Moscow, and then to the Kuban, the setting of his most famous works in prose. .obodowski’s life and writing embody the turbulence, resilience, and contradictions of modern Polish history.