“The Quack” was filmed on the basis of his book. He died tragically when he was going for bread

“One of the most disgusting events in the history of the morality of reborn Poland” – this is how the weekly “Wiadomości Literackie” wrote about the death of Dołęga-Mostowicz, whose authors openly supported Józef Piłsudski’s policy. These words are even stronger because it was for criticizing the Marshal, according to some newspapers, that the writer was to die at the hands of seven attackers. However, there are many versions of this story.

Enthusiast, journalist, critic

“The most widely read Polish writer of the interwar period” was born at the end of the 19th century in what is now Belarus. The exact place is still difficult for researchers to determine – although he himself gave Okuniewo, a farm on his mother’s side, he was supposed to come from Głębokie. In his hometown, Polish literature accompanied him since childhood. The writer supposedly knew by heart the entire “Pan Tadeusz” by Adam Mickiewicz. He did not expect that in the future he himself would become the creator of today’s canon, but he knew that he wanted to work with the word.

In 1924, he joined the editorial office of “Rzeczpospolita”, where he started as a proofreader and ended up as a recognized columnist. He used the pseudonyms “TEM” and “Chrzan” and added the name of the family coat of arms – Dołęga to his name. After a year, he also published his first literary attempt in the newspaper – Sen Pani Tuńci. The job that seemingly helped advance his career later became his curse. Although in his youth he belonged to the Polish Military Organization recognizing Piłsudski’s supremacy, as a columnist for a Christian Democratic-national periodical, he was not afraid to criticize his policy, which intensified after the May coup. It was then that his columns were censored, in which, among other things, he criticized violent men who dealt with skeptics by force.

How many attacks have we had with armed officers on publicists and politicians? How many times, sober or drunk, has he used a saber or a revolver against a defenseless citizen? How many acts of terror disgracing the officer’s uniform, how many tavern brawls in pubs and cabarets have been recorded in the chronicles? There are so many of them that this register burns with a blush of shame, as if on the slap of our immaculate knightly tradition. Between the priests of honor and chivalry silently entered, a boor slipped in. A vulgar boor with a flail in his fist, who gathers in gangs, attacks people at night and beats the defenseless until they bleed, until they lose consciousness, and kicks the fainted with his shoe.

he wrote. Perhaps that is why one of the versions of the events concerning his death says that he himself became a victim of similar practices. The motif of being beaten by “unknown perpetrators” can also be found in his literary works.

Different versions of the same story

The editors of the writer’s home newspaper reported on the course of his tragic death. Seven armed men were supposed to get the publicist on Grójecka Street when he came by truck to the bakery in Kuty to buy bread for the soldiers. They were dragged into a car and mercilessly beaten in a suburban forest. For journalists, the motives were clear: criticism of Sanation.

The hail of blows fell so unexpectedly that red. Mostowicz, who did not even have a cane with him, could not think about defending himself at all. Therefore, in less than a minute, editor Mostowicz, stunned by the blows, fell to the pavement. The attackers threw him into a passenger car, a torpedo […] red. Mostowicz regained consciousness when the car was among the fields. He was at the bottom of the car […] A handkerchief gag was forced into the mouth of the abused man. Soon the car stopped at the edge of the forest and everyone, after pushing their victim into a nearby ditch, started mercilessly beating him with sticks, while shouting: “And he won’t write about the Marshal like that! Today you got it, tomorrow others!”.

– was written in “Rzeczpospolita”.

ABC also wrote about Mostowicz’s beating ABC, R.2, No. 250 (September 10, 1927) p. 3, Public Domain

The reconstruction of the events was difficult to determine for a long time, but the most probable version was presented in the “Biuletyn” in the article “Dołęga-Mostowicz killed by the Soviets in Kuty” from 1979. Some of the facts coincide with the story described in “Rzeczpospolita” or “ABC”, e.g. the place of death or the way to the bakery, some of them, however, are completely different. Dołęga-Mostowicz as a corporal took part in the defensive war in 1939 and it was during it that on September 20 he was to die, shot by the Soviets. Three days before his death, he participated in the evacuation of the government after the Soviet aggression. He probably received an order to transport important documents to Kut and then to Romania. He also dealt with the transport of food. Despite the tragic end, the writer’s legacy is still alive, which can be seen, for example, in the popularity of the filming of “The Quack” watched every year.