Yearbook of Bibliology and Press Studies

Summary

The article presents a controversial unsuccessful doctoral dissertation by a historian, who at the same time was a satirist, columnist and writer. Karol Zbyszewski wrote this thesis entitled "Niemcewicz front and back" before the outbreak of the World War II under the supervision of prof. Marceli Handelsman. The study was rejected by the Department of Humanities in the University of Warsaw. A seven-year preliminary archiwal research was conducted by Karol Zbyszewski on the last polish king and the great Prince of Lithuania - Stanisław August Poniatowski. This study showed a different and incompatible common opinion about the ruler taking his age into consideration.
The reservations of the Faculty Council in the University of Warsaw were focused on the author's fussy, unrefined and vulgar style as well as the language which, instead of being in a scientific form, exhibits a "terrible and fierce, virulent lampoon". The desecration of national sacreds was not acceptable to the scientists. The book published by the famous Publisher "Rój" in February 1939 became a bestseller overnight. This was followed by another issue which provoked great polemics in the contemporary polish press. The literary biography of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, being a cruel evaluation of the national polish vices, was again published in exile in London in 1986, thanks to the Polish Cultural Foundation. Experiences from World War II led to this intriguing book, which was not distasteful. Its universal character was manifested in the polish reality after 1945 which entails the betrayals and loyality to the Moscow invaders.