Slawomir Shuty, born 1973, is a writer, director and performer from Nowa Huta. His name, Shuty, means "from Nowa Huta". Nowa Huta is  a city next to Cracow, built after World War II by the communists with the aim to create a center for a model socialistic industry, in opposition to the anti-communist Cracow. Shuty made the city's name to his stage name as a sign of admiration of his home town. He is one of the most celebrated polish authors in the last years.

In the distant times of the dark days of communism, Russian, as the language of Poland's greatest friends, was compulsory in all schools, both primary and secondary. Obviously, due to the fact of obligation, Russian lessons were commonly detested and being an active student was condemned among young people. After 1989, in the following years, the Russian load was then off our minds. The process of driving out everything that would be Russian was slow but carried out with consistency. I remember picets at Russian embassies, I remember Russian soldiers leaving their bases located in Poland, I remember finally a bus with Russian tourists surrounded and shaken by an angry Polish mob. Badges "Soviet go home" were most trendy back then.

Few years passed, the social, political and economical situation changed diametrically. We became in a way participants of the Western Paradise, that sadly got ugly and lost its charm; it even became a target for the supporters of anit-consumptionism, and to be honest I myself took an active part in those assaults. In the country, in my home town of Nowa Huta, timid voices were heard that getting rid of the monuments reminding of the heorism of Russian soldiers or of the architects of Russian  revolutions like Lenin was unnecessary. But this opinion was determined by purely mercantile reasons: those monuments would surely be a turist feature for people from the West. There arose a buffer zone of Ukraine and Belarus between Poland and Russia, still, dislike towards anything Russian, mistrust towards Russia, lingered.

Few months ago I set out by car on a journey to the European part of Russian North: Karelia, White  Sea, St.Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Reda, Murmansk, and I must admit that, first of all, I was positively surprised, secondly, I thanked God I had been forced in the past to learn Russian. All the myths concerning Russia I had believed in, fell right on their face; the sympathy we were welcomed with by the people there was astonishing and once again I understood that the images promoted by media are nothing but bullshit, an easy and convenient lie based on stereotypes and political competitions. For example, common citizens we got to, talk to treated Putin's regency with reserve, they perceived it as a part of the big policy, the mortals have nothing to say about.

After this journey I became somewhat pro-Russian, I understood bit more the Russian point of view; I got the opportunity to look at the geopolitics through the eyes of an average Russian. Let me then recommend here the encounter with the Russian masters of words. Firstly because the Russians were truly masters on a global scale, so it belongs somehow to the duties of any one who comes to grips with the difficulty of reading, to reach to the treasury of Russian literature. What is more, this reading allows to understand Russian soul, to understand a man just as he is - without hatred, without politics and medial propaganda.

Dostoyevsky is obviously a classic and a sort of a basis, but there are many more to be recommended: Gogol, Tolstoy, Platonov, Limonov, Babel. I'll be honest - I became a passionate fan of that literature and I get the impression I will be enchanted again and again.