The testament of Augustyn Wróblewski

Abstract

The article presents an outstanding chemist and biochemist Augustyn Wróblewski (1866-1913), a docent at the Jagiellonian University, and his publishing, journalistic and editing activity. He was a founder and editor of the “Czystość” (Cleanness) biweekly (1905-1909), “Przyrodniczy Pogląd na Świat i Ludzi” (Natural View on the World and the People) monthly (1912), and “Sprawa Robotnicza” (Labour Matter) weekly (1912). Besides a brief biography of Wróblewski, the article analyses his last published text Czarna lista agentów prowokatorów polskich (The blacklist of Polish agents provocateurs) published on September 1, 1913, in his anarcho-syndicalist journal “Sprawa Robotnicza”, where he listed names of alleged agents of the tsarist “Ochrana”. The list consisted mostly of former co-operators, family members, people close to Wróblewski, who besmirched them with no clear reason. Even Polish anarcho-syndicalists distanced themselves from this publication. The author states that Wróblewski said good-bye to his contemporaries with this list, it was his specific “testament” written down after 11 years of struggling with the charge of mental illness, suspicion of psychosis.