Cezary Łazarewicz

(b. 1966) – a journalist, reporter, and author of historical reportage.

He graduated from the Technical College of the Coastal School Complex in Darłowo, then, in the mid eighties, he got involved in the democratic opposition in communist Poland. In 1985, he became a participant in the Peace and Freedom Movement (WiP), becoming its local leader in Darłowo, and participating in the Polish WiP rallies in Rabka (1988) and Poznań (1989). In 1987–89, he co-organised the distribution of underground publications. He was a printer and distributor of leaflets in Darłowo, Koszalin and Kołobrzeg; he also organised screenings of independently produced video cassettes in private homes.

In 1989, he co-founded the structure of the Independent Poland Confederacy (KPN) in the Koszalin region, and after the elections of 4 June 1989, he co-created the Gazeta Obywatelska weekly.

In 1991, he began working as a journalist for Gazeta Wyborcza, then was a contributor to Przekrój and Polityka, among others. In 2000–3, he served as director of Radio na Fali in Szczecin. Since 2015, he has been tied to the Wirtualna Polska web site, though has increasingly more focused on books of reportage than on the daily news.

Łazarewicz has written numerous books in which investigative journalism joins with a literary tale of historical processes, a social backdrop, and the mechanics of power. A large number of sources and conversations with witnesses are common in his books, as are analyses of archival documents and an aversion to blunt moralising. His books present complex portraits of participants in events and a broader context to the epoch.

In his initial phase, his reportage focused on Western Pomerania. Later, he expanded his focus to include stories about the most important events in the history of postwar Poland: political murders, court trials, society’s memory and myths. One example of this approach is ‘Żeby nie było śladów. Sprawa Grzegorza Przemyka’ (Leave No Trace: The Case of Grzegorz Przemyk, 2016), for which he received the Nike Literary Award, among others.

Łazarewicz stresses in interviews that the aim of his books is not the spectacle of a crime or thrill-seeking, but a deeper understanding of history, including the chapters that have been forgotten and marginalised. In a conversation for TVN24, he said: ‘I’m not God, just a reporter. […] I leave the decisions to the reader’.