
Appearance of the 4th almanac "Ancient World and Us"
The first section of the Almanac originated as a joint project by Polish, German and Russian scholars and is dedicated to the memory of the celebrated classicist Tadeusz Zieliński (Thaddaeus Zielinski, Фаддей Ф. Зелинский; 1859–1944), whose 150th birthday anniversary was celebrated in 2009. An attempt is made to understand Zielinski’s significance and impact in the context of three European cultures. Various facets of the subject are studied in essays by Jerzy Axer (Tadeusz Zieliński among Foreigners, trans. from Polish by I. Tatarova), Michael von Albrecht (Throwing Bridges between Cultures and Nations: Philologist Thaddaeus Zielinski, trans. from German by M. Rutz), and Alexander Gavrilov (Faddej F. Zielinski in the Context of Russian Culture). The main body of this volume consists of Zielinski’s Autobiography (Mein Lebenslauf) translated for the first time from German into Russian by Anatoly Ruban who has also contributed a full commentary on the text. Zielinski began writing his Autobiography in 1924, after he had emigrated from the Soviet Rusia in 1922. The manuscript was initially kept by Zielinski’s son Felix; later it was given to the family of his younger sister Cornelia Zielinski-Kanokogi who lived in Japan. In 1996, the Autobiography was brought to Poland where it was published in translation in 2005. This section also includes a preface to the first edition (2005) of Zielinski’s Diary by Anna Geremek (trans. from Polish by V. Budaragin). The Diary was kept by Zielinski during his last years – after he had left Poland in 1939 and until his death in Schondorf in 1944.