Syzyfowe Prace

"Syzyfowe prace" is a novel by Polish author Stefan Zeromski which first appeared in the magazine Nowa Reforma in 1897. The novel is based on the author's personal experiences as a child and adolescent in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland. It is a portrait of his school and its students' attempts to resist the policy of Russification imposed by the Tsarist authorities. The title refers to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, and portrays the attempts to indoctrinate the students as an occasionally successful, but ultimately doomed to failure, endeavor.