Сибирь в изображении философа : "В никуда" Михала Мильчарка

The article is dedicated to Michal Milcharek’s image of Siberia presented both in his book “Nowhere. Journey to the Edge of Russia” (2019), and his essays about Siberia, published in the newspaper „Tygodnik Powszechny”. The author of the article argues that the writer’s perception of Siberia is rooted in the philosophical concepts of existentialism, most importantly Martin Heidegger’s ideas of “the hiddenness of being” and nothingness. The latter one allows the play of notions which unfolds in the book. While describing the Siberian landscape with its inhabitants and their everyday life, including the images of the decaying matter, disorder, and empty spaces, Milcharek does not perceive them in their sociological or axiological perspectives, but in ontological ones. In his interpretation, these images, previously perceived by many writers as negative, acquire not only a neutral association, but also a positive meaning. Milcharek shows Siberia as a place of naked existence -- of nothingness. As a result of this philosophical approach, the reader receives an ambiguous picture of Siberia that carries a multitude of ambivalent meanings.