Wacław Sieroszewski

{{Short description|Polish writer and activist (1858–1945)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Wacław Sieroszewski

| image = Image:Waclaw Sieroszewski 1933 (75127607) (cropped).jpg

| caption = Wacław Sieroszewski before World War II

| office1 = President of the Polish Academy of Literature

| term_start1 = 1933

| term_end1 = 1939

| successor1 = position abolished

| predecessor1 = position established

| office2 = Member of the Senate of Poland

| term_start2 = 1935

| term_end2 = 1938

| office3 = President of the {{ill|Trade Union of Polish Writers|pl|Związek Zawodowy Literatów Polskich}}

| term_start3 = 1927

| term_end3 = 1930

| successor3 =

| predecessor3 = Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1858|08|24}}

| birth_place = Gmina Tłuszcz, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1945|04|20|1858|08|24}}

| death_place = Piaseczno, Poland

| resting_place = Powązki Cemetery, Warsaw

| spouse =

| nationality =

| occupation =

| alma_mater =

| party = Polish Socialist Party

| awards = Virtuti Militari

| allegiance = Austria-Hungary

| branch = Austro-Hungarian Army

| unit = 1st Uhlans Regiment of Polish Legions

| serviceyears = 1914-1915

| rank =

| battles = World War One

}}

Wacław Kajetan Sieroszewski (24 August 1858 – 20 April 1945) was a Polish writer, Polish Socialist Party activist, and soldier in the World War I-era Polish Legions (decorated with the Virtuti Militari). For activities subversive of the Russian Empire, he had spent many years in Siberian exile.

Sieroszewski's Siberian experiences became the subjects of his many stories and novels—Na kresach lasów (At the Edge of the Woods, 1894), Dno nędzy (The Depths of Misery, 1900), Risztau (1899), Ucieczka (The Escape, 1904), Zamorski diabeł (The Overseas Devil, 1900). He also authored the popular Bajki (Fables, 1910). His 12 lat w kraju Jakutów (12 years in the Yakut country, 1900) provides the first extensive ethnographic account of the Yakut people.

Sieroszewski visited Korea (then the Korean Empire) in 1903. He arrived via boat to Busan, then traveled through the peninsula with an interpreter, speaking with locals on the way to the capital Seoul.{{Cite web |date=2018-03-26 |title=[여행반올림#] 누가 최초로 한국 관련 책을 폴란드어로 썼을까요? |url=https://www.mk.co.kr/news/culture/8242704 |access-date=2023-09-16 |website=매일경제 |language=ko}} He published a book on his experiences in the peninsula in 1905.{{Cite book |last=Sieroszewski |first=Wacław |url=http://archive.org/details/koreakluczdalek00siergoog |title=Korea (Klucz dalekiego wschodu) .. |date=1905 |publisher=Warszawa, Gebethner i Wolff |others=University of California}} The trip appeared to make an impression on him, and he would frequently mention Korea in later interviews. He once likened Korea's political situation, in which multiple foreign powers were encroaching on it, to Poland's.

Whilst in Paris in 1910, he heard that Jan Wacław Machajski had been asking his friend Stefan Żeromski to provide a reference so that Machajski's wife would be employed by Kazimierz Dłuski. Having heard rumours circulated by the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia that Machajski was a terrorist, Sieroszewski wrote to Dłuski warning against getting involved with the Machajskis. When this letter fell into the hands of the police, they promptly arrested Machajski.{{cite book |last1=Shatz |first1=Marshall S. |title=Jan Waclaw Machajski: A radical critic of the Russian intelligentsia and socialism Chapter 6: Cracow-Paris-Moscow |date=1989 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |location=Pittsburgh |url=http://libcom.org/library/chapter-6-cracow-paris-moscow |language=en}}