Osvajanje vlasti

The masterpiece of political prose, “The Conquest of Power” by the distinguished Polish writer and Nobel Prize winner for Literature Czesław Miłosz, is a powerful novel written during the writer’s period of exile in Paris. The plot covers the dramatic period of the end of World War II and the first post-war year in Poland, following the moment when, under Soviet influence, the fate of a nation is being torn apart and a new totalitarian order is being established.

Through a gallery of striking characters – from disillusioned intellectuals and idealists to opportunists and political commissars – Miłosz shows with exceptional psychological penetration and moral clarity how politics and repressive systems change human nature. The novel uniquely depicts moments of choice between resistance, suffering and necessary compromises, and vividly depicts the mechanisms by which totalitarianism dominates society.

The work represents the perfect narrative complement to his famous essayistic anatomy of Stalinism and is an indispensable, superbly written read for all lovers of serious historical fiction, political philosophy, and profound human dramas of the 20th century.