Gabriel Narutowicz came from a Polish patriotic noble family. He was born and raised in Żmudź, where his father, Jan Narutowicz, served as a county judge and owned the Brewniki estate. As a foresighted and progressive landowner, Jan abolished serfdom on his lands. Additionally, he participated in the January Uprising, for which he was sentenced to a year in prison. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to enjoy the birth of his son Gabriel (he also had an older brother, Stanisław, who became one of the signatories of Lithuania’s independence in 1918) because Gabriel was born in 1865, and Jan passed away a year after his birth.
After her husband’s death, Wiktoria Narutowicz, along with her sons, moved to Liepāja. It was in this city that Gabriel took his first steps in education. He completed high school there and then went to St. Petersburg to study at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the local university. Unfortunately, due to a serious illness, he had to interrupt his studies. Nevertheless, during that time, he assisted Poles sought by the Russian police. Consequently, he himself was at risk of arrest and couldn’t return to the Kingdom of Poland. Eventually, fate brought him to Switzerland, where he began studying at the Zurich Polytechnic.
After completing his studies, he initially worked on the construction of Swiss railways, but in the following years, he gained a reputation as an outstanding engineer and constructor. He was one of the pioneers of electrification in Switzerland and constructed several hydroelectric power plants in France, Spain, Italy, and other countries. In 1907, he became a professor at the Zurich Polytechnic, a member of the Swiss water economy commission, and in 1915, he chaired the international commission for the regulation of the Rhine.
After the outbreak of World War I, as a Swiss citizen, he became involved with the Swiss General Committee for Aid to the Victims of War in Poland. Simultaneously, he became increasingly aligned with the political ideas of Józef Piłsudski, who had become the most important Polish politician since the end of 1918.
Narutowicz returned to the Republic of Poland in 1919 at the invitation of the Polish government and engaged in rebuilding Polish statehood. In subsequent Polish governments, he served as the Minister of Public Works and later as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1922, he decided to run in the presidential elections on behalf of the Polish People’s Party „Liberation.” Besides him, four other candidates were nominated: Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, Ignacy Daszyński, Stanisław Wojciechowski, and Maurycy Zamoyski. Each of these represented a different political option that was present in the Polish parliament at that time.
The National Assembly, which was to elect the head of state, convened on December 9, 1922. Five votes were taken, during which those candidates who received the least number of votes were successively eliminated. First, it was Daszyński, then de Courtenay, and Wojciechowski. In the final vote, which took place at 7:15 p.m., Narutowicz was elected the President of the Republic of Poland, defeating Zamoyski with a ratio of 289 to 227. He took the oath five days later, on December 11, 1922.
Meanwhile, in the mind of Eligiusz Niewiadomski, an increasingly pathological hatred for the rule of Marshal Józef Piłsudski was growing. Niewiadomski was only four years younger than Narutowicz – born in Warsaw in 1869. From a young age, he was passionate about painting, and his education followed in that direction. He first graduated from one of the Warsaw high schools and then studied at Wojciech Gerson’s art school. Later, like Narutowicz, he continued his education in St. Petersburg. However, unlike the future President of Poland, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was considered one of the most talented students there, earning a two-year scholarship. At the same time, he was associated with socialist Polish patriots.
After completing his studies in St. Petersburg, he went to Paris to further his education and then returned to Warsaw. There, he worked, among other places, for the „Kurier Warszawski” and collaborated with the „Tygodnik Ilustrowany.” Everywhere, he wrote reviews for exhibitions, which were recognized and respected, for example, by Stanisław Witkiewicz (the father). In addition to the above activities, Niewiadomski continued to paint and exhibit his works at the Warsaw „Zachęta.” He was also a member of the artistic elite, belonging to the Artistic Society in Warsaw and working to establish the Warsaw School of Fine Arts.
He was also employed at the Warsaw Polytechnic, where he taught drawing, as well as at the school of Hipolit Rotwand and Stanisław Wawelberg. During World War I, he had a position at the Humanistic Department of the Scientific Courses Society in Warsaw, where he conducted art history classes. During this time, he became a supporter of National Democracy, led by Roman Dmowski. His nationalist views supposedly crystallized in Paris, and upon returning to Warsaw, he began engaging in illegal activities, smuggling, for example, the magazine „Przegląd Wszechpolski,” for which he ended up in the notorious X pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel for several months.
In 1918, he worked in the Ministry of Culture and Art of the Regency Council. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, he tried to join the ranks of the Polish Army. However, his application was initially rejected. Eventually, Niewiadomski was accepted into the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Polish Army and later transferred to the 5th Infantry Regiment. In this last unit, he took part in battles against the Bolsheviks.
After Narutowicz’s election as President of the Republic of Poland, Niewiadomski couldn’t understand how this election had come about. He was among those who loudly protested against the new head of the Polish state. It is worth noting that immediately after the decision of the National Assembly, that part of society which supported National Democracy began to organize demonstrations, including under the slogan „Down with Narutowicz.” General Józef Haller and the then nationalist press echoed them, accusing the Polish President of atheism and membership in Freemasonry. Wincenty Witos wrote in his memoirs: „The right-wing press clearly incited, presenting Narutowicz’s election as the triumph of Jewry and the misfortune for Poland. Crowds began to rage, threatening anyone who voted for Narutowicz. The press and right-wing organizations did not properly rebuke the unprecedented excesses against the first President of the reborn state. It almost became an encouragement for further excesses.”
There was no peace on the streets of Warsaw even on the day of the swearing-in of the new President. Supporters of the Polish Socialist Party and the National Democracy clashed, and President Narutowicz himself was pelted with snowballs on his way to the Sejm. Moreover, some deputies and senators boycotted the swearing-in of the new head of state.
The final act of this drama unfolded on December 16, 1922. On that day, the President first visited Cardinal Aleksander Kakowski and then went to the Warsaw „Zachęta” to view an exhibition. When he stood in front of Theodor Ziomko’s painting „Frost,” he was shot by the artist Eligiusz Niewiadomski.
