March 7, 1911 in Warsaw - September 27, 1991, Warsaw

Stefan Kisielewski, literary pseudonyms Kisiel, Teodor Klon, Tomasz Staliński, Julia Hołyńska and musical Jerzy Mrugacz  - Polish prose writer, publicist, composer, music critic, educator, member of parliament Seym of the People's Republic of Poland of the 2nd and 3rd term on behalf of Znak, founding member of the Union of Real Politics. The Kisiel Prize has been awarded since 1990. In 2015, the Foundation for Stefan Kisielewski.
Pre-war period Son of Zygmunt Kisielewski and Salomea née Szapiro (aunt of Hanka Sawicka), nephew of Jan August Kisielewski, satirist and co-founder of the "Zielony Balonik" cabaret. In 1929–1931 he studied Polish studies and philosophy at the University of Warsaw, and from 1927 at the Warsaw Conservatory (now the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music), where in 1934–1937 he received diplomas in music theory (1934), composition in the class of Kazimierz Sikorski ( 1937) and piano in the class of Jerzy Lefeld (1937). In 1938–1939 he stayed in Paris, where he wanted to study composition with Nadia Boulanger, but he managed to attend only one lesson.
In the interwar period, he began his activity as a composer, critic and writer; in 1932, he published his first music reviews in the bi-weekly Echo Tygodnia. In the years 1935–1937 he was the secretary of the editorial office of "Muzyka Polska", from 1935 he was a publicist and reviewer of music magazines: "Pion", "Bunt Młodych", "Polityka" and "Zet". After returning from Paris in April 1939, he took the position of music director of the "Warszawa II" radio station.

The Second World War He took part in the defensive war in 1939, being a soldier of the 85th Infantry Regiment of the 19th Infantry Division in Nowowilejka. After disbanding, he returned on foot to Warsaw, where he spent the period of German occupation. He gave private piano lessons, worked as an accompanist at Stefan Szelestowski's gymnastics school and at the "Rio Rita" cafe in Krakowskie Przedmieście. He was a clerk of musical and verbal broadcasts in the Polish Radio Section of the Government Delegation for Poland. In 1942 he married Lidia Hintz. In 1943, their first son, Wacław, was born. During the Warsaw Uprising he worked on the radio. Wounded on the third day of the uprising, he was transported with a civilian transport. He escaped from the transport in Skierniewice, where he spent the rest of the war. During the uprising, he lost most of his compositional output.

After war After the war, he settled in Kraków and lived with his family in the famous House of Writers at 22 Krupnicza Street. In 1945, he founded the magazine "Ruch Muzyczny", of which he was the editor-in-chief until 1948. After the magazine was closed down for political reasons and then reactivated, he was 1959 member of the editorial team. In the years 1945–1949 he taught theoretical subjects at the State Higher School of Music (now the Academy of Music in Kraków). Removed from the university by the communist authorities in 1949, he taught composition privately (among his students was Adam Walaciński). At the same time, he was involved in composing, literary and journalistic work. In the years 1945-1989 (with breaks in the years 1953-1956, when the publication of the magazine was suspended, in the years 1968-1971 due to censorship regarding the ban on publication of Kisielewski, in the years 1981-1983, i.e. during the period of martial law) he was a publicist, columnist " Tygodnik Powszechny” in the series Head to the Wall, No Dogma, Against the Hair, A Shovel to the Head, Nails in the Brain and Crying in the Wilderness. He used the pseudonym "Kisiel". In the years 1950-1953 he was the editor of the "Concert Guide" of the Krakow Philharmonic, in the years 1955-1957 the author of the radio Rozmów o Muzyczne, in the years 1956-1961 the president of the Polish Composers' Union in Krakow. In 1961 he settled in Warsaw, living at Aleja Jana Chrystian Szucha 16.

Member of the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland In the years 1957–1965 he was a member of the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland, together with, among others, with Tadeusz Mazowiecki, as part of the Znak group. In 1957[3] and in 1961 elected from the list of the National Unity Front[4]. In 1964 he was one of the signatories of List 34. In the years 1965-1968 he was the editor-in-chief of the music publishing house "Synkopa", in the years 1971-1974 the president of the music section of ZAiKS; four times he was a member of the main board of the Polish Composers' Union, he was also a member of the Polish Writers' Union. In 1968, for his criticism of censorship (he used the famous term "dictatorship of ignorant people" at a meeting of the Polish Writers' Union, but - according to his own interpretation in Dzienniki - not against the authorities, but against the censors) he was forbidden to publish for three years. On March 11, in an alley at Kanonia Street, he was also beaten by "unknown perpetrators". In December 1975, he was a signatory of the protest against changes in the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic (Letter 59)[5]. In 1976, he signed letter 14 against the repression of the participants of the Radom June. On August 23, 1980, he joined the appeal of 64 scholars, writers and publicists to the communist authorities for dialogue with striking workers[6]. In 1984, he published the so-called "My types" ("a list of scoundrels"), a list of names of people who were particularly active in propaganda in the People's Republic of Poland, without commentary.
Kisielewski's journalistic work was characterized by the spirit of pragmatism and liberalism, and at the same time - taking into account the times in which he lived - was extremely defiant. Mariusz Urbanek stated that he was “the most read, though least listened to, journalist of the People's Republic of Poland. The communists did not want to listen to him because he said that he was their enemy. In the free Republic of Poland, his friends did not listen to him, because he said that he completely disagreed with them”[7]. Kisielewski was also known for his perverse character - when Leopold Tyrmand got himself a completely new car, Kisiel took a brick and scratched the word "ASS" on it in capital letters (after this incident, the gentlemen did not speak to each other for a year)[7]. After 1989 In political and social matters, he represented conservative-liberal views. He was one of the founders of the Real Politics Movement in 1987 and the Real Politics Union in 1989. He also sympathized with the Center Agreement[8]. After 1989, after disagreements with the editors of "Tygodnik Powszechny", which began to censor his columns, he refused to publish his texts in this weekly and moved to "Wprost", where he agreed to give short interviews, commenting on current events. At the same time, from March 1988 until September 2, 1991, he recorded weekly Kisiel columns straight from Warsaw for the Polish community radio program at the WPNA radio station in Chicago, the transcripts of which were reprinted in the local "Dziennik Związkowy" and which were published in full in Poland in 2016[9 ]. In 1990, he established the annual Kisiel Award, awarded first by himself, and after his death by the jury consisting of his son Jerzy and winners from previous years. In the years 1968–1980 he wrote a personal diary, which included several rough drafts. The diary was published after his death under the name Diaries. His son Wacław was a co-creator of the piano duo Marek and Wacek, and his daughter, Krystyna Kisielewska-Sławińska, is a Romanesque scholar and translator. The younger son, Jerzy Kisielewski, is a radio and television journalist.
Stefan Kisielewski composed many pieces of music in the style of 20th-century neoclassicism, for which he was awarded many times in Poland and abroad. He was also the author of a number of novels, books on music (including The Music Star), as well as hundreds of columns and political publications, including in the Res Publica Nowa magazine. Author of the term liturgical socialist realism. Buried at the Powązki Cemetery.