Inhuman Land: Searching for the Truth in Soviet Russia, 1941-1942-Fast Shipping

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A classic work of reportage about the Katyń Massacre during World War II by a soldier who narrowly escaped the atrocity himself.

In 1941, when Germany turned against the USSR, tens of thousands ofPoles—men, women, and children who were starving, sickly, andimpoverished—were released from Soviet prison camps and allowed to jointhe Polish Army being formed in the south of Russia. One of thesurvivors who made the difficult winter journey was the painter andreserve officer Józef Czapski.

General Anders, the army’scommander in chief, assigned Czapski the task of receiving the Polesarriving for military training; gathering accounts of what their fateshad been; organizing education, culture, and news for the soldiers; and,most important, investigating the disappearance of thousands of missingPolish officers.
Blocked at every level by the Soviet authorities,Czapski was unaware that in April 1940 many officers had been shot deadin Katyn forest, a crime for which Soviet Russia never acceptedresponsibility.
Czapski’s account of the years following hisrelease from the camp and the formation of the Polish Army, and itsarduous trek through Central Asia and the Middle East to fight on theItalian front offers a stark depiction of Stalin’s Russia at war and ofthe suffering, stoicism, and bravery of his fellow Poles. A work ofclear observation and deep compassion, Inhuman Land is one of the twentieth century’s indispensable acts of literary witness.