The Diary of a Red Army Officer by Sergiusz Piasecki is a brilliant narrative that reflects the mentality of 'Soviet man'. The author was able to capture precisely the phenomenon of political conformism through the figure of Mikhail Zubov, second lieutenant in the Red Army. In Zubov, he created a grotesque depiction of Homo sovieticus in the Stalinist era: a person incapable of independent thought who blindly follows orders and lacks any kind of moral compass. This effect is reinforced by the character's mode of expression, which mixes the crude and vulgar language of a soldier with the vocabulary of official propaganda in a way that offers a vivid glimpse of the times. Piasecki carefully crafts a hidden metaphorical layer within Zubov's bombast, suffusing the book with biting sarcasm through deft satirical touches.
From the Foreword by Karol Nawrocki, Ph.D., President of the Institute of National Remembrance