Helena Boguszewska, née Radlià Âska (1883âÂÂ1978) was a Polish writer, columnist and a social activist.
She was born on 18 October 1883, in Warsaw, as Helena Radlià Âska. Her father was scholar Ignacy Radlià Âski who studied religions, especially the origins of Christianity. Helena received a university education.
Helena Boguszewska wrote prose documenting the life of the working class, as well as psychological fiction. She wrote reportages, novels, short stories, radio novels and works for children and young adults. Additionally, she wrote several novels with her husband Jerzy Kornacki, such as Wisà Âa (1935). Its screen adaptation, Ludzie Wisà Ây, was directed in 1938 by Aleksander Ford and Jerzy Zarzycki, starring Stanisà Âawa Wysocka, Ina Benita and Jerzy Pichelski.
Together with Kornacki, Boguszewska stood behind the idea of creating the Przedmieà Âcie literary group, which operated in the 1930s in Warsaw and Lviv. The aim of the collective was to focus on writing about the life of the working class, often by employing journalistic or sociological methods of research. Among the members of the group, which consisted only of prose writers, were Gustaw Morcinek, Zofia Naà Âkowska and Halina Krahelska.
Boguszewska also engaged in activism, striving for equality and social justice.
In 1944, Boguszewska joined Polish Committee of National Liberation and State National Council.
After World War II, Boguszewska refused to follow the socialist realism doctrine in her writing, which led to challenges in the publishing industry. Her 1947 novel The Iron Curtain, while praised by Soviet critics for its subject showing the divide between members of the family that lived on the opposite sides of the curtain, was criticised for not following Soviet ideology of the times, like giving a political commentary praising Soviet forces. Boguszewska continued to write, penning for example two autobiographical works: Nigdy nie zapomnà(1946) and Czekamy na à ¼ycie (1947). In 1969, her novel Caà Âe à ¼ycie Sabiny was adapted as a TV play directed by Jerzy Antczak.
Boguszewska died on 11 November 1978, in Warsaw.