A work of nonfiction by Polish writer, poet, academic and Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz. It was written after the author's defection from Stalinist Poland in 1951. The book catalogs the experiences of Milosz and his colleagues, in pre-war Poland, under the Nazi Occupation, and in the Soviet-dominated People's Republic of Poland. Milosz ponders on the mental gymnastics required for intellectuals to turn against their countrymen and the truth, by turns sympathetical and critical.