Xavras Wyżryn

Inspiration and background of the novel

Dukaj wrote his novel inspired by the First and Second Chechen War (which started while he was writing). Xavras' guerrillas fighting against Soviet forces resemble Chechens battling with the Russian army. As in the Chechen conflict, it is hard to decide which side is the right one, as both commit crimes and horrible acts to reach their goals. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, a story about terrorists calling themselves "freedom fighters" gains much more meaning, and dialogues in the book concerning morals, ethics and freedom become deeper than ever.

Editions

The story of Xavras Wyżryn has had two editions. It was first published in 1997, in a book entitled Xavras Wyżryn, which contained the title story together with a second one, "Zanim Noc" ("Before the Night"). In 2004, the story was reprinted in Xavras Wyżryn i inne fikcje narodowe (Xavras Wyżryn and Other National Fictions), this time accompanied by the following three short stories: "Sprawa Rudryka Z." ("The Case of Rudryk Z."), "Przyjaciel prawdy" ("Friend of the Truth") and "Gotyk" ("Gothic").

Plot summary

In 1996, a young American reporter, Ian Smith, is sent by his news network to the Soviet republic of Poland, to document guerrilla actions of Polish freedom fighters against the Soviet regime. His task includes interviewing the charimastic leader of Polish Freedom Army, Colonel Xavras Wyżryn. Ian does not realize that during his long trip from Ukrainian steppes to Moscow, alongside hardened veterans of Polish forces, he will experience the horror of war in which there is no good and evil side. Neither does he expect to find himself in the midst of the most reckless of Wyżryn's campaigns - when the Polish forces capture a Soviet atomic bomb and start to smuggle it towards Moscow.

Alternative world in the novel

After World War I, Poland managed to regain its freedom, but not for long - the Polish–Soviet War was lost in 1920 and Poland became a Soviet republic, alongside the Ukraine and other Baltic states. In the USSR, Joseph Stalin quickly took the chair of first secretary and his regime tried to eradicate the Polish culture to prevent any Polish uprisings of the kind that shook the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Thousands of Polish civilians were sent to Siberia. Speaking Polish or using Polish national symbols was punishable by death.

The increased power of the Soviet Union and the Republic of China meant that the League of Nations soon signed treaties with the USSR, allowing it to annex Poland. Meanwhile, another power rose in the south - the followers of Islam created a huge empire in the Middle East. The United States was far enough to ignore European problems, but supported those armies which were in conflict with the Soviet forces. Those conflicts were relatively minor, mostly only "border engagements", as the media called them.

But then, in 1939 came the Great Bolshevik War, as the Soviet Union tried to take control over Western Europe. The war, taking place mostly on former Polish and Ukrainian territories, lasted until 1944, when allied forces dropped three atomic bombs on Lviv, Kiev and Warsaw to stop the huge Soviet armies. Millions were killed in the explosions, and many more died of radiation poisoning. The area between the three bombed cities became known as "The Atomic Triangle". Children born there died at a young age from radiation sickness, and the few who survived were consumed by mutations.

The Bolshevik War ended with the Treaties of Berlin, documents which were signed on Prussian territory. The Soviet Union and the League of Nations agreed to stop the bloodshed. Still, countries taken by force in 1920 remained Soviet republics.

After Stalin's death at the end of 1981 the Soviet regime in Poland eased up a bit, but Soviets still maintained a huge force there, remembering all the Polish uprisings during earlier occupation. People living inside the "Atomic Triangle" became hardened, nearly soulless creatures, balancing on the edge of death and rendered numb because of the great suffering of the whole nation. Meanwhile, the USSR had some minor border conflicts with China, Sweden and Prussia.

The status quo lasted until the 1988, when Xavras Wyżryn appeared. He quickly organised a considerable guerrilla force and commanded his troops with uncommon charisma and valor, fighting Soviets on their own ground. His legend quickly spread around the world, and his victories inspired other nations to fight against the Soviet Union. Many local conflicts started, when Hungary, the Balkans, Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine also started their own revolutions against Soviet occupants. In the south, the power of the Islamic empire increased, and under the command of a figure known only as Muhammad's Son, the war in the Middle East began, reminiscent of the old wars between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. In the east China took the opportunity to attack the weakened USSR and started yet another conflict. The whole Central-Eastern Europe was now known as EWZ or European War Zone, reaching as far as Constantinople in the south, Finland in the north, the Prussian border in the west and the Dnieper River in the east, with battles taking place mostly on radiated, polluted territory.

The plot of the novel starts in the year 1996. The whole European War Zone is a no man's land, where Soviet control is based on a 'shoot first, ask questions later' strategy. Various partisan groups, in an uneasy truce with each other, are scattered throughout the area and engaged in battles with small Soviet garrisons, German troops are making occasional raids across the borders to test Soviet defences, Soviets retaliate in kind, China's forces are advancing towards the Ural, and Muhammad's Son is preparing a Jihad in the Middle East. The US government finances guerrillas secretly, while Western Europe fortifies its borders to defend against presumed Soviet or, more feared, Chinese attack.

Main characters