LEMberg: Lviv Through the Eyes of Stanisław Lem
After World War II, Lem never returned to his hometown. But he often referred to Lviv (formerly Lwów) in his books. Which locations were particularly close to the heart of the future author of Solaris?
As Lem mentioned in one of interviews:
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Before the war, I had neither been to Warsaw nor Kraków. So I can say that Lviv is my place on earth and it’s a part of who I am. I am rooted in the city.
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His autobiographical Highcastle was one of a few books about Lviv published in Poland under the communist regime. In Polish literature, there are many myths related to the history of Lviv. Lem also contributed to the creation of an idealised image of Galician metropolis. Though the idyllic point of view can be easily understood, it describes the world through the eyes of a wealthy teenager.
Lem grew up in Lviv, which was the third largest city in the Second Polish Republic (right after Warsaw and Łódź). It was the Polish capital of modernity and a refuge of free thought in the times of occupation. It was the city of a famous university, the School of Mathematics, and the place where pearls of Renaissance and Secession architecture met with modernity.
In the afterword to Highcastle, Yurii Andrukhovych wrote that Lviv at that time was a city of the strange. There were many funfairs, conjurers, and chocolate fountains. However, there are also faded and unrealistic memories reminding us the horrible history didn’t spare Lviv. One of them is the bullet strike left in the window cover in Lem’s parents’ bedroom – a leftover from the Polish-Ukrainian wars in 1918.
Lem didn’t focus much on describing the difficult side of the city. Once, he mentions riots that broke out after police shot a workman named Władysław Kozak during an anti-government demonstration. Lem observed the riots from his balcony. The image of pre-war poverty is also visible in the writer’s reference to an especially frosty winter of 1930. He wrote that children used to run after coal trucks to catch lumps of coal that fell on the ground. Even less attention was given to Lviv’s cultural mosaic. There’s a mention of the Jewish district surrounding Lem’s house, but there’s no word on Ukrainians. In the talk with Tomasz Fiałkowski, Lem spoke about his Ukrainian classmate Misiek. with whom he used to communicate only in Polish. When during the Soviet occupation of Lviv, Misiek talked to him in Ukrainian on the street, a surprised Lem asked him: ‘Ty szczo, zdurił?’ (‘Have you lost your mind?’)
Maybe the idealised image of the city was a way out from the nightmare of two occupations, or maybe Lem was just too busy with his rich inner life. His thoughts were filled with stars, galaxies and inventions. Lem was a master of sidestepping, so he didn’t mention the painful topics (for instance the story of a large family who died in the Holocaust). But that’s how human memory works; it resembles a chaotic storage rather than an organised catalogue of events. As David Lowenthal, an anthropologist, once wrote in The Past is a Foreign Country: ‘We treat the past as an archaeological museum […] full of randomly scattered bones’.
Children have a good memory for anecdotes and events from the magazine covers, such as the downfall of a human-fly who tried to climb one of the highest tenements in the city centre using only a ‘hook for tying up shoelaces’. Incidentally, Lem’s older cousin – Marian Hemar – wrote a song about this event. The song ends with the words: ‘so that’s how it ended and this you should know, those who climb high, fall down very low’.
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Unfortunately, history finally reached Lem’s family. In 1945, after occupational trauma and a long time spent in Lviv, Lem and his parents had to move to Kraków. In a talk with Stanisław Bereś, Lem explained:
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If you really love somebody – a woman – for instance, and somebody takes her away from you and they have kids, you don’t want to meet her again. Because there’s nothing left to say. And it’s the same with the city. Now it seems alien to me. How can I still care?
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However, Lem treated the city as the love of his life until the end of his days. Lviv appeared not only in Highcastle, but also in interviews and unexpected places. It’s highly possible that Prix the pilot also lived in Lviv.
Let’s take a look at the places which were especially important for Lem in his teenage years.
Home
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Tenement in Lviv at 4 Brajerowska Street, Stanisław Lem and his family lived on the second floor. 'When it was warm outside, I spent time on the balcony, on which I could come out from my father's office', from Highcastle, photo: Wikimedia Commons
Precise information about Lem’s address can be found in Highcastle: ‘We lived on the second floor at 4 Brajerowska Street’. The tenement where Lem grew up still stands there today. Only the street name has been changed. Today the street has the name of the Ukrainian prosaic, poet and leader of the literary group Młoda Muza – Bohdan Łepki. Before the war, Łepki was a professor at Jagiellonian University and a senator of Polish Republic from 1938 to 1939. In the meantime, the street’s name was changed to Malzgasse and had the name of the communist writer – Jarosław Hałan. As Jarosław Hrycak, an Ukrainian historian, said: ‘ If there was a contest for a city where the street names are changed most frequently, Lviv would definitely win’.
From the article ‘Lem’s Lviv’ by Andrij Kozyckij, we learn that:
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At the beginning of the 20th century, Brajerowska Street was one of the youngest streets in Lviv. It was placed on the territory of E.F. Brajer’s residence, and that’s where its name comes from. A prominent diplomat and historian – Szymon Askenazy, and a famous social worker from Lviv – Włodzimierz Stesłowicz – lived in the tenement no 10/12. The tenement no 20 was built for Lviv’s famous doctor – Władysław Tatarczuch.
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As noted by Agnieszka Gajewska in Zagłada I Gwiazdy (The Holocaust and the Stars), Lem’s tenement was on the edge of two different worlds. From the front balcony, you could see the city centre, and a few steps behind the tenement, there was a poor Jewish district.
Lem’s parents didn’t let him go out by himself when he was still at school age. So his small world included the tenement, the closest streets where his relatives lived, Jesuit Garden and the surroundings of St. George’s Cathedral. But thanks to his imagination, he often travelled in his thoughts whilst sitting on the balcony. From that place, Lem coordinated the ‘attacks of local tenements, because the chimneys made buildings look like real battleships. I used to pretend to be Robinson, or simply myself but on a desert island’.
Stryiskyi Park & the Eastern Trade Fair
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Lem described Lviv’s parks and their attractions in Highcastle. The greatest one was Stryiskyi Park, with the nearby pavilions of the Eastern Trade Fair. Even though Lem’s house was only 2.5km away from the park, his family used to take a carriage to get there.
The Eastern Trade Fair was a big investment of the Interwar period. Its goal was to strengthen Lviv’s position in international trade. Its location wasn’t accidental – it was connected to the Polish General Exhibition in Lviv organised in 1984. The market not only presented the economic wealth of Galicia, but also promoted Polish art and culture. Even though the borders were closed, the tourists from all three partition territories visited the place. The new pavilions were developed by prominent architects. As Lem mentioned in the talk with Tomasz Fiałkowski: ‘You could feel the European influence, but me and the boys went there only to drink free Maggi broth and collect advertising prints’.
What else could you find in the park? ‘In summer and winter’, Lem wrote, ‘you could go to the Baczewski tower, which was quadrilateral building covered with colourful bottles. I was always curious if they contained real liquor or just colourful water, but nobody could tell’. A small alley went through the park, and according to the young Lem: ‘it led to the end of the world’.
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International Eastern Trade Fair in Lviv, 1930, photo: audiovis.nac.gov.pl
Very close to the Eastern Trade Fair, Lem wrote, you could find:
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the most beautiful place in the world – ‘Wesołe Miasteczko’ (the Fun Park), which was full of carousels, rollercoasters, ghost towns and different attractions. You could even punch a leather snowman in the face, your strength was measured by a dynamometer. Another interesting spot – the flea circus with fleas dragging mini carriages… and mysterious kiosks and cabinets that I visited with my father. In one of them, you could see a lady taking her clothes off. Not for striptease, but to show everyone the numerous tattoos that decorated her body.
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Sticking to the topic of visual arts, Lem and every child from Lviv used to visit pavilion with the monumental Panorama of the Battle of Racławice:
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You could feel the atmosphere already when you were climbing up. First you had to go through a semi dark sphere and get out to the pier, which reminded a hot-air balloon. From the pier, you could watch the battle as if it was happening all over again.
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The Jesuit Garden
Nowadays the oldest garden in Lviv is named Ivan Franko Park. From 1779 to 1919 it used to be called post-Jesuit, and from 1919 to 1945 – the park of Tadeusz Kościuszko. It’s one of the first East Central European parks that was made public. In Lem’s publications, it always appears under its first name.
According to Lem, the Jesuit Garden wasn’t as attractive as Stryiskyi Park. His family used to walk to the park, ‘which was a pity’ – as he wrote in Highcastle:
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The road ahead of the university was paved with wooden cobblestones so the hooves of the horses made an incredible sound. It felt like there was some enormous space hidden under the surface.
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On this small piece of grassy land, a little boy could experience both fascinating and horrible events. Once Lem even got lost, because his attention was drawn to a large water barrel hidden in a high bush. He mentions it in ‘The Garden of Darkness.’ Another attraction of the park was a man with a wheel of fortune. You could try winning gadgets like pocket mirrors or cigarette cases.
School
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According to intelligence tests conducted in 1939, Lem was the most intelligent teenager in the Eastern Lesser Poland region. He attended the Karol Szajnocha 2nd Public School in Podwale Street. The school opened during the partition of Poland and was dedicated to the kids of Austrian office workers. From that moment on, the school had an extended German language programme. In Highcastle, Lem wrote a detailed description of his professors and their relations.
But his way to school was more interesting than the building itself. ‘Today I could still get to my school even if I was blindfolded. The way to school stuck in my mind as if it were some well-known melody’. There were many architectural statues on the way. But as Lem wrote, ‘at the time I didn’t care much about the ruins and memorials’. He had more interesting things to discover. What could be more interesting than a 19th-century Town Hall or a black Renaissance tenement? Orenstein’s window display with ‘orange, apple and banana pyramids with oval Fyffes sticks’, for instance.
Another important square in Lviv is the Mariacki Square, nowadays called Mickiewicz Square. ‘The roofs were lit by Schmidt soaps, and you could see Suchard, Milka, Velma and Bittra chocolates jumping on neon ladders’. Another memory connected to the square is when the students gathered there to mourn the death of Piłsudski.
Pastry shops
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In an interview with Ewa Lipska, Lem mentioned a recurring dream: ‘I am walking around the city in search of marzipan, but it turns out I can’t get it anywhere’. Legend has it he had a sweet tooth. Fortunately, the pre-war Lviv gave many opportunities to experience the ‘dreamy Scheherazade of tasting sweets’ (quote from Pluto’s chocolate advertisement by Aleksander Wat).
The real treasure among pastry shops could be found at 22 Akademicka Street. The place belonged to Ludwik Zalewski. Lem wrote:
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It seems that I had really good taste, because I never saw a pastry window display organised with such momentum again. It looked like a stage in metal frames. They would change the decoration a few times a year. The decoration composed the background for enormous marzipan statues. The place was surely led by some Rubenesque or naturalist artists. They created sweet masterpieces, especially right before Christmas or Easter. Oh, what wonders were enchanted in the cacao-and-almond mass! A sugar Santa Claus in a sleigh and avalanches of sweets trying to escape his sack, frosted platters with ham and fish in jelly sacks – also with marzipan or cookie stuffing. But this information is not simply theoretical. If you looked closer into the jelly, you could notice it even had the slices of lemon, which should be considered a success of a great food sculptor. I remember admiring the herd of pink swine with chocolate eyes, every possible fruit, mushrooms, hams, plants, even forest rans and rough terrains. You come to the conclusion that Zalewski could make the cosmos out of chocolate!
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Lem didn’t exaggerate the impact that Lviv’s pastry shops had on the citizens. A photo from 1933 published in Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny (Illustrated Daily Courier) shows a group of people admiring the window display. Zalewski had top-shelf pastry, so even Lem, from a wealthy family, could only afford to go there from time to time.
Other important spots on the Lviv map were the ice cream truck at Mikolasch passage, and Mr Kawaras’ halva kiosk close to the opera. The second place always provided everyone with a mathematical riddle; is it more worth to buy a bigger halva package for 20gr or a smaller one for 10gr? Another sentimental place was Jugoslav pastry shop, which was close to the Grand Theatre. You could buy there ‘the most delicious local sweets from the East, for example Turkish delights, makagigi, exotic nougats, bread drink and more.’
The Grand Theatre
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The Grand Theatre, photo from the book by Żanna Słoniowska, 'Przedwojenny Lwów. Najpiękniejsze fotografie' (Pre-war Lviv. The most beautiful photographs), photo: wydawnictwo RM, Warszawa 2013
Lem’s memories from the Grand Theatre also involve culinary experiences:
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That’s true; I enjoyed coming to theatre really early, when the enormous Siemiradzki iron curtain wasn’t lifted yet. The shenanigans that took place there were incredibly entertaining. Our theatre seemed extremely luxurious and ‘comme il faut’. It was in the greatest taste. The building had many floors, red velvety chair coverings, chandeliers, a smoking room, and last but not least – a buffet where my father used to buy sztangiels with thinly cut ham. Today I don’t remember what I’ve watched in theatre, but I remember very well that one sztangiel costed 50 gr.
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Marysieńka Cinema
Lem’s adventures with cinematography weren’t very fortunate. His collaboration with Tarkowski ended with a fiery argument. Many adaptations of his books ended in fiasco. In fact, Lem liked only one adaptation of his book – Przekładaniec (Layer Cake), directed by Andrzej Wajda. Is Lem’s childhood to blame for this aversion to cinema? He described his Marysieńka Cinema experience in the following way:
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I really didn’t like the place. I used to go there with my mother when she, as I could deduce, didn’t have anything better to do with me. I didn’t understand the things that happened on screen. Sometimes I used to silently slide down the armchair and crawl on the cold floor. But I got bored with that too, so I had to wait for the film’s ending. The people on-screen were only moving their mouths without making any sounds, and you could only hear the music.
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Sound movies were much better, but he only remembered pre-war films about monsters like King Kong, Frankenstein and The Mummy with Boris Karloff. ‘The scarier the film was, the more I enjoyed it’, he wrote.
High Castle
And finally, we get to the high castle towering over the city. Lem explained how important it was for children:
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The high castle was as important to us as heaven is to every Christian. You would go there every time when classes were cancelled because of our professor’s absence. So that was always a rare, delightful surprise for us. Nobody went there to skip classes, because of the danger of meeting a professor. The deserters preferred Kaiserwald, in the surroundings of Piaskowa Mountain. That’s where they could easily hide in the bushes, smoking special Silesian treats or Junak cigarettes. Whilst in the castle, we could be very strongly seduced by the unbelievable amount of ease and sweet freedom.
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Originally written in Polish, Aug 2021, translated by SS, Sep 2021