Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski; Polish Critic of Soviets

Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski, 81, a Polish emigre writer who survived a Soviet Gulag and criticized the Soviet system. Born in the Polish village of Skrzelczyce, he was arrested by the Soviets in March 1940 and imprisoned in a labor camp. He escaped in 1942 and joined the Polish forces that fought at Monte Cassino, Italy. Herling-Grudzinski was one of the first writers to publicize Soviet atrocities in a post-World War II era when most critics of totalitarianism concentrated on fascism. He described his Soviet labor camp experiences in his 1953 book, “A World Apart,” which was translated into several languages. Herling-Grudzinski worked briefly for Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany, then moved to Italy in 1955. With Jerzy Giedroyc, he created the Paris-based magazine Kultura, an influential voice of the Polish anti-Communist opposition. Herling-Grudzinski left Kultura in the mid-1990s because of its softened treatment of former Communists after the fall of Communist rule in 1989. He preferred a radical settling of accounts with the members of the old regime who restyled themselves as social democrats and won elective office. Among his other books was “Journal Written at Night,” a collection of his reflections on literature, art, history, politics and religion. On Tuesday in Naples, Italy, of a stroke.