Czesław Miłosz

30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004

Czesław Miłosz was a Polish poet, essayist and translator who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980. Born in what is now Lithuania, he spent the German occupation in Warsaw, served the postwar Polish government as a cultural attaché, and defected to the West in 1951. His essay collection The Captive Mind examined intellectuals under Stalinism, and he taught Slavic literature at Berkeley for three decades.

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Life events

Born in Šeteniai
30 June 1911

Born in the village of Šeteniai in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire, now in Lithuania.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Takes a law degree at Stefan Batory University in Vilnius
1934

Studied law in Vilnius, where he co-founded the literary group Żagary and published his first poems.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Spends the German occupation in Warsaw
1940 – 1945

Lived in occupied Warsaw, writing and publishing in the underground press.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Serves as a Polish cultural attaché in the United States and France
1946 – 1951

Held diplomatic posts for the postwar Polish government in New York, Washington and Paris.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Breaks with the Polish government and seeks asylum in France
1951

Defected in Paris and lived there for a decade, associating with the émigré journal Kultura.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Publishes The Captive Mind
1953

His study of how writers accommodated themselves to Stalinist rule brought him international attention.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Moves to the United States to teach at Berkeley
1960 – 1978

Became a professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of California, Berkeley.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
1980

Honoured for a body of work that, in the citation's words, voiced man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Settles in Kraków
1993

Returned to live in Poland after the fall of communism, dividing his time between Kraków and Berkeley.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Dies in Kraków
14 August 2004

Died at his home in Kraków at the age of 93 and was buried at the Church of St Michael and St Stanislaus.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓