Today at 10:30 am Bohdan Urbankowski – Poet, playwright and philosopher, as well as publicist and long-term head of the culture section of the “Gazeta Polska” weekly passed away “on the eternal watch”.
Bohdan Urbankowski he was an adviser on culture and education at the Ministry of National Defense in the government of Prime Minister Jan Olszewski. In 1993, he ran for the Senate from the KPN list. Since January 16, 2010, he has been the chairman of the Program Council of the Piłsudski Union, as well as the president of the renewed Branch of the Polish Writers’ Union in Warsaw.
He was the author of over 50 books – dramas, essays and collections of poetry. among them there are philosophical works (“Romantic thought”, “Absurd – irony – deed”, “Directions of search”), collections of theater and radio plays (“Płock dramas”, “Dreams about the homeland”), poems (“In the shadow” , “Voices”, “Adolescence”, “The Boy Who Is Leaving”, “Erotic for the Successor”) and monographs by: Adam Mickiewicz, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Józef Piłsudski, Karol Wojtyła and Zbigniew Herbert. His sketches “The Romantic Teatre; its bounds and the overstepping of bounds” and “The unknown Witkacy” have been awarded at international competitions. The value of Polish philosophy was also reminded of by such essays by Urbankowski: “In response to the challenge of the age. (Brzozowski)”, “On the philosophy of Juliusz Słowacki”, “Dialectics of psychology and sociology in the social thought of Edward Abramowski”, “The world as a work of art: on the philosophy of Karol Libelt, 1807–1875”. Author of The Red Mass or Stalin’s smile (second and third editions as Red Mass, or Stalin’s Smile), in which he presents the biographies of creators of culture in the post-war period.
In 1972 he was awarded the J. Czechowicz (for a collection of poetry entitled “Głosy”), and in 1993 also the J. Słowacki (for the self-published “Głosy”) and the Laurel of the Messenger of Truth and the title of Prince of Poets (for the third edition of “Erotyk do successor” and the fourth edition of “Głosy”) in 1993.
In 2001, he was twice awarded the Solidarity Medal “Meritorious in the Fight for Poland’s Independence and Human Rights” and the “Meritorious Cultural Activist” badge for his work in the underground publishing movement (1982-1989), and a year later, for the patriotic nature of his work, the Polonia Mater Nostra Est Medal.
In the same 2002, he was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit for his merits in literary work and achievements in social activities. On January 30, 2014, the Association of Polish Journalists awarded him a special prize “Laur SDP” for 2013. For his publication “Józef Piłsudski: To Poles! Thoughts, Speeches and Commands” (published by Biały Kruk) In 2017, Urbankowski was awarded the Book of the Month award by the Literary Magazine “Książki”.
In 2014 he was awarded the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity. In 2016 President Andrzej Duda decorated him with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 2017, he received the silver Medal “Zasłużony Kulturze Gloria Artis” from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Piotr Gliński, and in 2018, the Annual Award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Tomasz Merta Between Literature and History.
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