The 12th National Reading has come to an end. The campaign took place in thousands of places in Poland and abroad. This year’s reading was a novel On the Banks of the Niemen by Eliza Orzeszkowa, and the event was held under the patronage of the Presidential Couple, as in previous years.

“Although the word Poland is not mentioned once in the entire novel, it is Poland that is still present and most important there. Eliza Orzeszkowa created a vivid description of the Borderlands of Poland, documenting Polish places and Polish times, which is why one can say that On the Banks of the Niemen is a thoroughly patriotic novel”, said First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda in Warsaw’s Saxon Garden, where she took part in the reading of Orzeszkowa’s work together with President Andrzej Duda.

The National Reading took place in more than 40 countries, including the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. “On the Banks of the Niemen” was also read by our compatriots in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, including Grodno (today’s Hrodna), while in Lithuania, as part of the campaign, the Polish ambassador to Lithuania, Konstanty Radziwiłł, read the novel on the Lithuanian Niemen. This year’s novel was also read in Japanese in Japan, reported Polish Radio Programme 4.

Agata Kornhauser-Duda thanked not only the diplomatic missions, but also the Polish diaspora centres that had organised the events, especially the most remote ones. She added that traditionally the largest number of applications came from Ukraine and the National Reading took place in a hundred places in that country.

“‘On the Banks of the Niemen’ is Eliza Orzeszkowa’s best-known novel. It was written in 1886-1887 and was published in 1888. It is one of the most important works of Polish literature dealing with the January Uprising, which 160th anniversary is being celebrated in 2023.

At the end of the joint reading in the Saxon Garden, the President and the First Lady announced the reading of the next 13th campaign. It will be Juliusz Słowacki’s Kordian.

Adrian Andrzejewski