Assassination
Only five days after taking office, on 16 December 1922, Narutowicz was assassinated while attending an art exhibition, in the National Gallery of Art “Zachęta”. The assassin was a painter, Eligiusz Niewiadomski, who had connections with the right wing National Democratic Party. Narutowicz's murder was the culmination of an aggressive propaganda campaign vilifying him. His assassin was sentenced to death and his execution took place outside of the Warsaw Citadel on 31 January. Part of the right wing camp perceived him as a hero.
The murder of the first president of the Second Polish Republic and the angry canvassing against him revealed impermanence of democratic mechanisms in Poland at that time. December 1922 revealed a huge level of intolerance and nationalist feeling in Polish society.
The murder of Narutowicz was the main theme of the 1977 Polish feature film Death of a President (Pol: Śmierć prezydenta), directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz.
Read more about this topic: Gabriel Narutowicz