Abstract
In March this year a group of leading Polish writers launched a new literary venture to circumvent the censorship in their country which, though less oppressive than in most other East European states, still prevents them from freely expressing their ideas.
Seventeen novelists, poets and essayists contributed to Zapis, a collection of banned writings which is to be followed, at irregular intervals, by further volumes. Including such famous authors as Jerzy Andrzejewski, Kazimierz Brandys, and the late doyen of Polish letters, Antoni Slonimski, the group asked Index on Censorship to publish the book for them. Zapis I thus came out, in Polish, at the end of May and will in the near future also appear in German, French and English. A press conference was held in London on 26 May to announce this new development in the struggle of Polish writers to free themselves from the fetters of official censorship.
Below, we publish Stanislaw Baranczak's introductory article to Zapis I, in which he explains the reasons behind its compilation, as well as the various meanings of the title.