Eligiusz Niewiadomski
Eligiusz Niewiadomski was a Polish modernist painter, art critic, and political activist born on December 1, 1869, in Warsaw. His early life was marked by personal loss, as his mother passed away when he was just two years old. After studying art in St. Petersburg and Paris, he returned to Warsaw to teach and write, while simultaneously engaging in political activism with the National League. Niewiadomski's life took a dramatic turn when he assassinated Gabriel Narutowicz, Poland's first president, on December 16, 1922, an act fueled by his opposition to the perceived influence of leftist politics and Jewish representation in government.
Captured shortly after the assassination, Niewiadomski was tried and sentenced to death, a punishment he seemingly accepted with resolve. He was executed by firing squad on January 31, 1923. Despite his earlier acclaim as an artist, Niewiadomski is primarily remembered for this violent act, which highlighted the political tensions of the time between communist and democratic factions in Poland. His legacy remains complex, as some right-leaning groups later celebrated him as a martyr for their cause, demonstrating the lasting impact of his actions on Polish political discourse.
Subject Terms
Eligiusz Niewiadomski
Polish modernist painter, art critic, political activist, and assassin
- Born: December 1, 1869
- Birthplace: Warsaw, Poland
- Died: January 31, 1923
- Place of death: Warsaw, Poland
Major offense: Assassination of Poland’s first president, Gabriel Narutowicz
Active: December 16, 1922
Locale: Warsaw, Poland
Sentence: Death by firing squad
Early Life
Eligiusz Niewiadomski (ehl-EE-gyoosh nyehv-yuh-DOHM-skee) was born in Warsaw, Poland (under Russian occupation), on December 1, 1869, to Wincenty and Julia Niewiadomski. His father was a writer, military veteran, and laborer at the Warsaw minting house. His mother died when Niewiadomski was two years old, and his older sister Cecylia took over the maternal duties of the family. After graduating from a Warsaw trade school in 1888, Niewiadomski went to St. Petersburg and later to Paris to study art. Upon his return to Warsaw, he began teaching sketch drawing at the Warsaw University of Technology and wrote for a number of Warsaw-based art journals and newspapers as an art critic. During this period, he also began his radical political career as a supporter of the National League (Democratic Party) and taught history and art courses at various institutions of higher learning. He later served in the Polish army during the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921). It was after Niewiadomski’s return from his military service—when he regained his esteemed position of director of painting and sculpture for the Regency Council of Warsaw—that he began to realize his true discontent with the direction of the Polish government.
Criminal Career
After not receiving his requested budget allocations for his art department, Niewiadomski resigned his post as director with the Regency Council. His anger and frustration with the Russian-Communist influence on the new Polish government became heightened. The December, 1922, election of Gabriel Narutowicz as the first president of Poland sparked a national revolt (led by the Democratic Party) throughout much of Poland. Although Narutowicz’s election was supported by leftist, centrist, and peasant deputies, right-leaning deputies rebelled against the election because they claimed that the group of deputies who supported Narutowicz included Jews. The National League took to calling Narutowicz President of the Jews.
The election of Narutowicz seemed to send Eligiusz over the edge of reason. On December 16, 1922, Narutowicz was present at an opening of an art exhibition at an art gallery in Warsaw. Niewiadomski, a frequent guest at such events, approached Narutowicz, brandished a small-caliber pistol, and shot the president-elect three times at close range. Narutowicz died immediately.
Legal Action and Outcome
On December 30, 1922, Niewiadomski was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death, a penalty some scholars believe he proposed to the high court himself. At trial, he also openly admitted that he had intended to kill the chief of state, Józef Piłsudski, but was not given an adequate amount of time to carry out his plan. Niewiadomski was convicted on the assassination charge, and his death sentence was carried out by firing squad in Warsaw, Poland, on January 31, 1923. His funeral was attended by an estimated ten thousand people. His body was then laid to rest at Powąki Cemetery in Warsaw.
Impact
Niewiadomski, although an acclaimed modernist painter, art critic, writer, and activist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, regrettably gained his notoriety and place in historical annals as the assassin of Poland’s first president. The murder of President Narutowicz brought to light the political unrest between the Communist and democratic parties of the Polish government. Even decades after his execution, many right-wing media representatives and political figures presented Niewiadomski as a national hero and political martyr for the National League.
Bibliography
Davies, Norman. Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland’s Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Takes an in-depth historical look at Poland beginning in 1945 but examines the country’s past in order to understand the history and politics of a proud yet oppressed and continually conquered people.
Wandycz, Piotr. Soviet-Polish Relations, 1917-1921. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969. Offers a detailed account leading up to the assassination of Poland’s first president and the Polish-Soviet War. An unbiased look at the problems between the two nations and their sometimes varied views of political ideology.
Zimmerman, Joshua. Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Czarist Russia, 1892-1914. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. Although predominantly focusing on the role of the Jewish people in Polish politics, this text provides a tremendous understanding of the escalating political turmoil in czarist Poland.