Sergiusz Piasecki (; 1901 in Lachowicze near Baranowicze – 1964 in Penley, London) was one of the best known Belarusian-Polish writers of the mid 20th century. He was mainly portraying life of criminals and lowlifes of Minsk, which he knew very well, as well as work of Polish spies in Soviet Union and later the anti-Nazi conspiracy in Wilno; he had personal experience in both matters. His novel written in prison, Lover of the Great Bear, published in 1937, was the third most popular novel in the Second Polish Republic. Following World War II, Piasecki's books were banned by communist censorship in the People's Republic of Poland. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in early 1990s, Lover of the Great Bear became again one of the best selling books in the country according to Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper. His other novel, an Anti-Soviet satire The Memoirs of a Red Army Officer, had already been reprinted several times. Early life Sergiusz Piasecki was born on April 1, 1901 (or June 1, 1899) in Lachowicze, 130 km from Minsk, then in Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire (now Brest Province, Belarus). The latter date was presented by Piasecki on several occasions, in order to mislead the authorities. He was an illegitimate son of an impoverished russified Polish nobleman Michal Piasecki and a mother Klaudia Kukalowicz, a Belarusian peasant, working as a servant for the Piasecki family, whom he has never met. He was looked after by his stepmother Filomena Gruszewska, who bullied him physically and mentally. His family spoke exclusively in Russian at home and he didn't learn Polish language until his later imprisonment. His childhood was very difficult because children at school mocked his Polish roots, calling him "Lach" (which, in loose translation, is the Russian equivalent of the ethnic slur Polack). Piasecki hated the Russian school – as he later explained – and in the seventh grade, armed with a pistol attacked the teacher. Sentenced to jail, he escaped from prison, and thus his formal education ended. After he run away from jain, he headed to Moscow, where he experienced October Revolution and watched his close friends' deaths. It was then that his disgust with communist ideology started. During the revolution he traveled to Minsk, where he got to know the criminal underworld. In Minsk he joined troops fighting for Belarusian independence. Those were soon defeated, and Piasecki himself got