Book: Syzyfowe Prace

Author: Stefan Żeromski

Publishing: 1898

Small town in Poland 1893. A brave group of young students has turned a dusty attic into an ultimate headquarters for cultural survival. Inspired by the courage of the previous generation during the January Insurrection of 1863, they share bright perspectives about a future Independence of Poland. Living in a region under Russian oppression, they fight the russification system with passive resistance. In the attic, they are hiding books in Polish, political leaflets and patriotic pictures. There they can speak in Polish but they remain under the permanent threat of sudden raids from the Russian police. Together, they have turned reading into a powerful weapon of defiance. They all know that they risk exile to Siberia for the noble cause of keeping their language and identity alive.

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