Niewiadomski, Eligiusz Joseph

Best known as the Polish painter, art critic, and right-wing activist (with ties to The National Democratic Party [Polish: Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne] founded in 1897 by avowed anti-Semite Roman Dmowski) who assassinated the first President of the Polish Republic, Gabriel Narutowicz, after just five days in office, in December 1922. The National Democratic Party claimed Narutowicz was elected by “…the Reds, Jews and Germans” rather than by Poles. He was tried and shot by a firing squad. He was also a significant mapmaker of the historic Lithuanian area because of his publication of a series of Polish historical atlases, “Atlas do dziejów Polski zawierający 13 mapek kolorowanych” beginning in 1899, with editions in 1908 and 1920, in which he promoted the historical significance of Poland, often at the expense of Lithuania.