The well-known Polish author of historical novels Teodor Parnicki (1908–1988), when he was still a student at the University of Lwów, made his debut in 1929 with the novel Trzy minuty po trzeciej… (Three Minutes Past Three…), which he described as “exotic-sensational.” Its action takes place at the end of the 1920s in contemporary Manchuria and in central China. Parnicki was born in Berlin and spent his childhood in Russia. At twelve, he fled Russia and the Bolshevik Revolution for Harbin in Manchuria. Here he completed his education at the Polish gimnazjum (high school) and received a grant enabling him to study in Poland. The topic of this article is the historical background to the events Parnicki describes. It notes the fact that the motif of the mistaken abduction of the two central figures by a Japanese secret society, with its subsequent twists and turns of action involving the recovery of documents compromising to the Japanese authorities of North Korea/Manchuria from the hands of Soviet intelligence, was based on Parnicki’s thorough acquaintance with the historical background of these events. It was concretely based on a knowledge, drawn from the independent press of Harbin at that time, of the operations of Japanese secret societies. Barely a few years later, this activity went far beyond the areas in which the action of this debut novel takes place.

The well-known Polish author of historical novels Teodor Parnicki (1908–1988), when he was still a student at the University of Lwów, made his debut in 1929 with the novel Trzy minuty po trzeciej… (Three Minutes Past Three…), which he described as “exotic-sensational.” Its action takes place at the end of the 1920s in contemporary Manchuria and in central China. Parnicki was born in Berlin and spent his childhood in Russia. At twelve, he fled Russia and the Bolshevik Revolution for Harbin in Manchuria. Here he completed his education at the Polish gimnazjum (high school) and received a grant enabling him to study in Poland. The topic of this article is the historical background to the events Parnicki describes. It notes the fact that the motif of the mistaken abduction of the two central figures by a Japanese secret society, with its subsequent twists and turns of action involving the recovery of documents compromising to the Japanese authorities of North Korea/Manchuria from the hands of Soviet intelligence, was based on Parnicki’s thorough acquaintance with the historical background of these events. It was concretely based on a knowledge, drawn from the independent press of Harbin at that time, of the operations of Japanese secret societies. Barely a few years later, this activity went far beyond the areas in which the action of this debut novel takes place.