Komunista, szpieg i wybitny fizyk. Kim był Weissberg-Cybulski?

Aleksander Weissberg-Cybulski's book "The Great Purge" is the testimony of a man who experienced firsthand the criminal nature of two totalitarian regimes – communism and Nazism. His life is a dramatic journey through pre-war Germany, the Soviet Union, an NKVD prison, and the Krakow Ghetto, all the way to his postwar escape from Poland to the West. It is the story of a physicist, engineer, writer, and gambler who left one of the most important testimonies of the era. Weissberg found himself at the center of events – his stay in the USSR coincided with the Great Famine and the Great Purge, which claimed millions of lives. He himself became a victim of repression, spending two years in an NKVD prison. After the war, it was Arthur Koestler, his friend and world-renowned writer, who encouraged him to write "The Great Purge." Why did a young man from a Jewish family in Krakow come to believe in communism? When did he become disillusioned with this criminal ideology? Did Weissberg-Cybulski consider himself a victim? Or perhaps, due to his communist sympathies, he felt co-responsible for what Soviet communism entailed? Dr. Michał Przeperski and Prof. Irena Grudzińska-Gross from Princeton University and the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences discuss all of this in today's podcast. This podcast was produced as part of the project: continuation and expansion of the multimedia information and educational project - History Portal Dzieje.pl