„Dzieci” Bolesława Prusa, czyli „robota nad wolnością”

The article aims to present the complexity of Bolesław Prus’s reflection on collective and individual freedom in the context of the 1905 events. In Children the authordepicts the paradox of the situation, political enslavement generates the obligation to fight for freedom on terms and conditions which are independent of those who must take up the struggle. A kind of distance towards the fate of Poland and the possibility of choosing one’s own attitude to life are hard to find in the world of Prus’s protagonists. The writer’s diagnoses correspond to the greatest questions concerning the identity of Central Europe.