ŚWIDERSKI Bronisław

Born on 19 April 1946 in Lodz; son of Czesław Świderski, a Party activist to 1956, and the civil servant Irena. From 1950, he and his family lived in Warsaw, where he attended the General K. Świerczewski (today: M. de Cervantes) Grammar School (No. XXXIV). He completed his advanced secondary education in 1964. He then studied Polish philology for several months at the University of Warsaw (UW), before starting a degree in sociology in 1966. During this period, he started publishing book reviews. He made his debut in 1966 with a discussion of Ewa Berberyusz's novel Wychodne dla Ewy (Ewa's Days Off). The review appeared in the monthly "Wiedza i Życie" (no. 2). He also published several reviews in the weekly "Polityka" (1967), in "Współczesność" (1968 and 1969) and in "Fołks Sztyme" (1968). As a result of his involvement in student protests in March 1968, he was made to serve in a military penal company for a month before being expelled from university in April that year. He left for Denmark in 1970, having been issued with a travel document permitting a single border crossing. He settled in Copenhagen, where he continued his studies at the Institute for Cultural Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. During his studies, he earned a living from various jobs involving physical labour. He graduated with a master's degree in 1977 having submitted a thesis titled Marxisme, sociologi og kritisk intelligentsia. De marxistiske sociologer som repræsentanter for den kritiske intelligentsia i Polen fra slutningen af den 19. århundrede til 1957. From 1980 to 1994, he worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the same university. During this period, he published essays and political science articles on Poland in Danish periodicals and daily newspapers including "Østnyt" (Aarhus; 1982), "Politiken" (Copenhagen; 1981–83 and 1988–91), "Information" (Copenhagen; 1989–91), and "Vandkunsten" (1990). From 1986 to 1988, he was editor of the Slavonic studies journal "Svantevit. Dansk tidsskrift for slavistik". He cooperated with the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen (Søren Kierkegaard Forskningscentret) as a translator of Kierkegaard's works into Polish. He also published studies on Kierkegaard. From 1990, he published pieces of journalism, essays, reviews and translations, as well as prose from 1993, in Polish periodicals including "Res Publica" (1990) and then "Res Publica Nowa" (1992–2002), "Życie Warszawy" and its book supplement "Ex Libris" (1993–95), "Teksty Drugie" (1994, 1997–98, and 2000), "Przegląd Polityczny" (1996–97 and intermittently 2000–10), "Zeszyty Literackie" (1996–98), "Znak" (1996–2007), "Literatura na Świecie" (1998–2000), "Rzeczpospolita" and its supplement "Plus Minus" (intermittently 1999–2006), "Tygodnik Powszechny" (2004–05), "Krytyka Polityczna" (2002–04 and 2010), "Czas Kultury" (2008 and 2010–13) and "Kronos" (from 2010). He joined the Polish Writers' Association (SPP) in 1988. He married the Danish citizen Birgitte Ellen Hertz, with whom he was in a relationship from 1970. He lives in Copenhagen.