Melchior Wańkowicz (10 January 1892 – 10 September 1974) was a Polish army officer, popular writer, political journalist and publisher. He is most famous for his reporting for the

Polish Armed Forces in the West The Polish Armed Forces in the West () refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. Polish forces were also raised within Soviet territories; thes ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and writing a book about the

battle of Monte Cassino The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino, was a series of four assaults made by the Allies against German forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The ultimate objective was ...

Biography

Melchior Wańkowicz was born on 10 January 1892 in Kalużyce in the

Minsk Governorate The Minsk Governorate (russian: Минская губерния, Belarusian: ) or Government of Minsk was a governorate ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. The seat was in Minsk. It was created in 1793 from the land acquired in the partition ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, now Kolyuzhitsa,

Byerazino Raion Byerazino District is a second-level administrative district of Minsk Region, Belarus. The capital of the town is Byerazino. Notable residents * Mikola Ravienski (1886 - 1953), Belarusian composer, conductor and music critic, author of the mus ...

Minsk Region Minsk Region or Minsk Oblast or Minsk Voblasts ( be, Мі́нская во́бласць, ''Minskaja voblasć'' ; russian: Минская о́бласть, ''Minskaya oblast'') is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center is Minsk, ...

, Belarus. He attended school in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, then the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, which he graduated from in 1922. An activist in the Polish independence movement, he was an officer in the Riflemen Union (Związek Strzelecki). During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he fought in the

Polish I Corps in Russia Polish I Corps in Russia ( pl, I Korpus Polski w Rosji; russian: 1-й Польский корпус) was a military formation formed on 24 July 1917 in Minsk from Polish and Lithuanian personnel serving in the Western and Northern Fronts of the ...

under General

Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki (Iosif Romanovich while in the Russian military; sometimes also Dowbór-Muśnicki; ; 25 October 1867 – 26 October 1937) was a Russian military officer and Polish general, serving with the Imperial Russian and then Poli ...

. After the war he worked as a journalist, for a time working as a chief of the press department in the

Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs The Ministry of the Interior (Polish: ''Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych'', ''MSW'') was a ministry responsible for internal security, law enforcement, civil defence and registry functions in Poland. The current ministry was formed on 18 November ...

. In 1926 he founded a publishing agency, "Rój". He also worked in the advertising business, coining a popular slogan for the product advertisement of sugar – "cukier krzepi" (Sugar Invigorates). He wrote three books during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

, all of them gaining him increasing fame and popularity. A few decades later he coined another famous slogan – "LOTem bliżej" ("closer with LOT"), advertising the Polish LOT airlines. After the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

he lived for a while in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, where he wrote about the events of the Polish September. Later, from 1943 to 1946 he undertook what would be perhaps his most famous endeavour – he became a war correspondent for the

. Later he wrote an account of the

, his most famous book. One of his daughters, Krystyna Wańkowicz, died as a member of Polish resistance

Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

during the

Warsaw uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

in 1944. From 1949 to 1958 he lived in the United States, afterwards returning to

communist Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

. He opposed the communist regime, writing and lecturing about the Polish Forces in the West (whose participation was minimized by the government, which tried to emphasize the role of the Soviet-aligned

Berling Army Berling may refer to: *Berling, Moselle, France * Berling (surname) *Berlingr, a dwarf in the short story " Sörla þáttr" See also * Berlin (disambiguation) * Berlinger (disambiguation) *Berlingske ''Berlingske'', previously known as ''Berli ...

). His most known work is a three tome book about the

, a tribute to the soldiers of the

Anders Army Anders' Army was the informal yet common name of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in the 1941–42 period, in recognition of its commander Władysław Anders. The army was created in the Soviet Union but, in March 1942, based on an understandi ...

– a book that was published in Poland only in a shortened, censored form (until the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...

in 1990). After he cosigned the

letter of 34 ''Letter of 34'' – two-sentence protest letter of Polish intellectuals against censorship in Communist Poland, addressed to the Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz, delivered on 14 March 1964 to by Antoni Słonimski. The name refers to the numb ...

in 1964, protesting against the censorship, he was repressed by the government – the publication of his works was prohibited, and he was himself arrested, charged with

slander Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

of Poland"A Symptom"
TIME, Friday, 20 November 1964 and "spreading anti-Polish propaganda abroad" (partially due to the publication of some of his works by

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

,Melchior Wańkowicz
, biography in "Tworzywo", an online monthly of Wyższa Szkoła Dziennikarska im. Melchiora Wańkowicza but the chief evidence was a private letter to his daughter living in the USA) and sentenced to three years of imprisonment. However the sentence was never executed, and he was rehabilitated in 1990, after the fall of communism in Poland. Melchior Wankowicz monument

Wańkowicz died on 10 September 1974 in Warsaw.

Works

*''Anoda-katoda'' *''Bitwa o Monte Cassino'' (t. 1–3 1945–47) *''C.O.P – ognisko siły'' (1938) *''Czerwień i Amarant'' *''De profundis'' *''Drogą do Urzędowa'' (1955) *''Dwie prawdy'' (połączone w jednym wydaniu dwie rzeczy: "Hubalczycy" i "Westerplatte") *''Dzieje rodziny Korzeniewskich'' *''Hubalczycy'' (1959) *''Karafka La Fontaine'a'' (t. 1 1972, t. 2 pośm. 1980) *''Kaźń Mikołaja II '' *''Klub trzeciego miejsca'' (1949) *''Kundlizm'' (1947) *''Monte Cassino'' (skróc. wyd. krajowe ''Bitwy o Monte Cassino'', 1957) *''Na tropach Smętka'' (1936) *''Od Stołpców po Kair'' (1969) *''Opierzona rewolucja'' (1934) *''Polacy i Ameryka'' *''Prosto od krowy'' (1965) *''Przez cztery klimaty 1912–1972'' (1972) *''Reportaże zagraniczne'' *''Strzępy epopei'' *''Szczenięce lata'' (1934) *''Szkice spod Monte Cassino'' (1969) *''Szpital w Cichiniczach'' (1925) *'' Sztafeta'' (1939) *''Tędy i owędy'' (1961) *''Tworzywo'' (Nowy Jork 1954, wyd. kraj. 1960) *''W kościołach Meksyku'' (1927) *''W ślady Kolumba'' (cz. 1 ''Atlantyk-Pacyfik'' 1967, cz. 2 ''Królik i oceany'' 1968, cz. 3 ''W pępku Ameryki'' 1969) *''Walczący Gryf'' (1963) *''Westerplatte'' (1959) *''Wojna i pióro'' (1974) *'' Wrzesień żagwiący'' (1947) *''Ziele na kraterze'' (1951, wyd. krajowe 1957) *''Zupa na gwoździu'' (1967, wyd. 3 pt. ''Zupa na gwoździu – doprawiona'' 1972)

Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

has written introductions, footnotes, etc., to: * Melchior Wankowicz, ''Reportaze zagraniczne'' (Reportage from Abroad), Kraków, 1981, * Series: ''Dziela emigracyjne i przedwojenne Melchiora Wankowicza'' (8 titles), Warsaw, 1989–1995 * ''Korespondencja Krystyny i Melchiora Wankowiczow'' (Correspondence between Krystyna and Melchior Wankowicz), Warsaw, 1992, * Jerzy Giedroyc and Melchior Wankowicz, ''Listy 1945–1963'' (Series: ''Archiwum Kultury''; correspondence between Jerzy Giedroyc and Melchior Wankowicz), Warsaw, 2000, * ''King i Krolik. Korespondencja Zofii i Melchiora Wankowiczow'' (correspondence between Zofia and Melchior Wankowicz), Warsaw, 2004, 2 Volumes, ; . *'' Series: Dziela Wszystkie Melchiora Wankowicza, 16 volumes, Warsaw, 2009–2011

Legacy

A private journalism school on '' ulica Nowy Świat'' in

, the Higher School of Journalism, founded in 1995, is named after Wańkowic

Notes

References

*Mieczyslaw Kurzyna, ''O Wańkowiczu nie wszystko'', Warsaw, 1975 *Krzysztof Kakolewski, ''Wańkowicz krzepi'', Warsaw, 1977 *

, ''Blisko Wańkowicza'' (Near Wańkowicz), Kraków, 1975, 1978, 1988, *

, ''Z miejsca na miejsce'' (From Place to Place), Kraków, 1983, Warsaw, 1986, 1997, *

, ''Na tropach Wańkowicza'', Warsaw, 1989, 1999, *

, ''Process M. Wańkowicza 1964 roku'' (The 1964 Trial of M. Wańkowicz), Warsaw, 1990, *

, ''Na tropach Wańkowicza po latach'' n the Trail of Wańkowicz, after Many Years Warsaw, 2009. . Se

*

Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm (born 15 April 1949, in Łódź, Poland), is a Polish-born U.S.-based writer and academic. She obtained her Ph.D in Humanistic studies at the Warsaw University. Her works include historical biographies,Dr Christoph ...

: ''Wokół Wańkowicza'',(Around Wańkowicz), Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 2019. *

,
Melchior Wańkowicz: Poland’s Master of the Written Word
', Lanham, MD 2013, Se

. *

, ''Wokół Wańkowicza'' (Around Wankowicz), Warsaw, PIW 2019,

External links

Correspondences between Wańkowicz and

Jerzy Giedroyc Jerzy Władysław Giedroyc (; 27 July 1906 – 14 September 2000) was a Polish writer and political activist and for many years editor of the highly influential Paris-based periodical, '' Kultura''. Early life Giedroyć was born into a Polish- ...

Sarmatian Review The ''Sarmatian Review'' () is an English-language peer-reviewed academic tri-quarterly journal devoted to Slavistics (the study of the histories, cultures, and societies of the Slavic nations of Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe). The '' ...

'' September 1999 *Boguslaw Wlodawiec
Melchior Wankowicz

MELCHIOR WAŃKOWICZ
culture.pl

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the g ...

, 2004-12-22
Melchior Wańkowicz
biography in "Tworzywo", an online monthly of Wyższa Szkoła Dziennikarska im. Melchiora Wańkowicza

in Encyklopedia WIEM {{DEFAULTSORT:Wankowicz, Melchior 1892 births 1974 deaths People from Byerazino District People from Igumensky Uyezd Polish publishers (people) Polish non-fiction writers Polish male non-fiction writers Polish I Corps in Russia personnel Polish people of World War II Burials at Powązki Cemetery 20th-century Polish journalists People associated with the magazine "Kultura"