Objects

A six-sheet (twelve-page) fragment of an informative leaflet on syphilis and gonorrhoea, sent anonymously to Julian Stryjkowski. It is folded into a small square and bound in a piece of paper with text printed in red. The receiver’s name and address are written by hand. The postage stamp was issued in 1987, it commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Artur Grottger and shows one of his patriotic engravings.

The leaflet has not been identified. Missing cover. When it is spread, one can see pages 14 and 3 next to each other – it was probably the innermost part of the mail. The piece of paper with the address and the postage stamp is glued to page 8. The leaflet was sent without the dust jacket and the cover pages, so that text would be visible immediately upon opening the mail (on page 3: INTRODUCTION and other subheading: A TRULY RELEVANT PROBLEM and cont.).

On page 8 and on the piece of paper with the address, there are visible squiggles left by testing a pen.

The artefact is a testament to the harassment experienced by the writer, probably for his contacts with the opposition circles (however sparse they might have been). Many harassers exploited his homosexuality and Jewish background, as well as former involvement in the communist movement.

Przemysław Kaniecki