page_title: Eligiusz Niewiadomski
section_title: Assassin
hierarchical_section_title: Eligiusz Niewiadomski / Assassin
caption_attribution_description: Grave of painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski at Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw, Poland
context_page_description: Eligiusz Niewiadomski was a Polish modernist painter and art critic who belonged to the right-wing National Democratic Party till 1904 and later continued supporting it. In 1922 he assassinated Poland's first President, Gabriel Narutowicz, in his first week in office as president.
context_section_description: On December 9, 1922, Gabriel Narutowicz was elected by the National Assembly as the first President of Poland. After a heated debate, Narutowicz's candidacy managed to gather 289 votes, including 113 votes of various national minority MPs. The defeated candidate of the National Democratic Party Maurycy Zamoyski gathered 227 votes, yet the National Democrats decided to boycott the President and announced that he was elected by the Reds, Jews, and Germans rather than Poles. This started a period of civil unrest in Warsaw, where the supporters of nationalist ideas protested against the election of their president. 
  On December 16, 1922, the newly elected President attended the opening of an art exhibition at the Zachęta Art Gallery. Niewiadomski, a frequent guest at such gatherings, approached Narutowicz and shot him. Arrested on December 30, he demanded a death penalty for himself, and was sentenced to death by firing squad, and the sentence was carried out at the Warsaw Citadel on January 31, 1923. He was 53 years old. His body was interred at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery. 
  After his execution, Niewiadomski remained a controversial figure. His funeral was attended by 10,000 people. He was depicted by some right-wing journalists as a hero, but most Poles perceived him only as a murderer.
caption: Niewiadomski's grave at Powązki Cemetery
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