Zdzisław Najder

He was primarily known for his studies on Joseph Conrad, for his periods of service as political adviser to Lech Wałęsa and Jan Olszewski, and for having served as chief of the Polish-language section of Radio Free Europe.

[5] In response, the Polish government under the leadership of Wojciech Jaruzelski condemned him to death in absentia, accusing Najder of spying for United States intelligence services.

Najder's interest in Polish-born author Joseph Conrad long predates his exile; in 1998, Barry Langford for Times Higher Education (THE) described it as "four decades of biographical and critical research".

"[6] Said went on to laud the book, asserting that "It is correct, I think, to say that what we get in it is the first, almost rigidly antinomian portrait we have had of him, with the discrepancies and contradictions of fact, character and esthetic laid out starkly, the impossibilities of situation left unadorned, the inexplicable vagaries of career and temperament encouraged to speak for themselves more powerfully than ever before.

[3][13] In 1992 he became central to a controversy in Poland when Jerzy Urban published in the left-wing Polish weekly tabloid magazine NIE a document purportedly written by Najder in 1958, stating that he would cooperate with the Communist secret police.

[12] Because Poland never experienced a full lustration process as did Germany, for instance, it is often the case that persons accused of having cooperated with the secret police (a paid, voluntary activity) deny it.

Zdzisław Najder