The authors analyse around 300 names with ideological components drawn out from a list of around 5,000 colonies, villages, hamlets, rural settlements and khutors located in the USSR, in which Germans lived in the 1920s and 30s. These oekonyms-sovieticisms can be classifi ed into three groups: 1) those derived from the names of individuals who had achieved renown (e.g. Ленинфельд, Подарок Ильича, Роза Люксембург, Марксфельд, Либкнехтдорф, Тельман, Клара Цеткин, Кировсфельд, Калининталь), 2) those commemorating phenomena and events linked with the Revolution and the era of Soviet rule (e.g. Красная Германия, Ротвейде, Ротер Штерн, Краснофельд, Октоберберг), 3) those referring to areas of production (e.g. Счастливый Труд, Культурный пахарь, Арбейтслибе).

This article looks at Professor Stanisław Jaworski’s contribution to the development of textual criticism in Poland. It was his book I write, therefore I am that offered Polish readers a comprehensive and erudite introduction to French genetic and textual criticism. Published in 1993, it set this enormously important critical movement in the broader perspective of cultural and literary anthropology. The second part of the article examines the impact of this book on Polish studies into the processes of text creation and the ‘avant-textes’. The third, final part surveys the late Professor Jaworski’s role in organizing conferences and stimulating debate on all aspects of genetic criticism.