Everything about Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski totally explained
Antoni Ferdynand Ossendowski (
1876-
1945) was a
Polish writer,
journalist, traveller,
globetrotter,
explorer and
university professor. He is best known for his novels on
Lenin and
Russian Civil War, which he took part in.
Biography
Early years
Antoni Ferdynand Ossendowski was born
May 27,
1876, in his family manor in Lucyna on
Dvina near
Vitebsk. He studied at the famous
gymnasium in
Kamieniec Podolski, but he moved with his father, a renowned doctor, to
Saint Petersburg, where he graduated from a Russian-language school. Then he joined the mathematical-physical faculty of the local university, where he studied chemistry. As an assistant to professor
Aleksander Zalewski, he traveled to many distant areas, including
Siberia,
Caucasus and
Altay. During the summer he was frequently enrolled as a ship writer on the
Odessa-
Vladivostok line, a job that allowed him to visit most of
Asia, including
Japan,
Sumatra,
China,
Malaya and
Indonesia. For his description of his trip to
Crimea and
Constantinople he received the first royalty. His record of a trip to India (
Chmura nad Gangesem -
A Cloud Over Ganges) gained the prestigious
Petersburg Society of Literature prize.
In
1899, after a students' riot in Saint Petersburg, Ossendowski was forced to leave
Imperial Russia and move to
Paris, where he continued his studies at the
Sorbonne, his professors being
Maria Curie-Skłodowska and
Marcelin Berthelot. It is possible he received a
doctorate back in Russia, but no documents survived. In
1901 he was allowed to return to Russia, where professor Zalewski invited him to the newly-founded Institute of Technology of the
University in Tomsk. There he gave lectures on chemistry and physics. At the same time he also gave lectures at the Agricultural Academy and published numerous scientific works on
hydrology,
geology,
physical chemistry,
geography and
physics.
After the outbreak of the
Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) Ossendowski moved to
Harbin in
Manchuria, where founded a
Central Technical Research Laboratory, a Russian-financed institution for development of ore deposits in the area. At the same time, he headed the local branch of the
Russian Geographic Society in
Vladivostok. As such he made numerous trips to
Korea,
Sakhalin,
Ussuri and the shores of the
Bering Strait. In Manchuria he also became one of the leaders of the
numerous Polish diaspora and published his first novel in
Polish language -
Noc (
Night). He also got involved in the
Main Revolutionary Committee, a leftist organization that tried to take over the power in Manchuria during the
Revolution of 1905. After the fall of the revolution, Ossendowski organised a strike against the brutal repressions in
Russian-held Poland, for which he was arrested. A military tribunal sentenced him to death for conspiracy against the Tsar, but his sentence was later changed to several years of hard labor.
Petersburg to China
In
1907 he was released from prison with a so-called
wolf ticket, which prevented him from finding a job or leaving Russia. At that time he devoted himself to writing. His novel
V ludskoi pyli (
In Human Dust), in which he described his several-years-long stay in Russian prisons, gained him much popularity in Russia and was even described by
Lev Tolstoi as
one of his favourites. The popularity allowed him to return to Petersburg in
1908. There he continued to write books and at the same time headed the
Society of Gold and Platinum Industry and several newspapers and journals, both in
Russian language and in Polish. After the outbreak of the
Great War, Ossendowski published several books more, including a
science fiction novel, a
propaganda novel on German spies in Russia and a brochure describing German and Austro-Hungarian
war crimes.
After the outbreak of the
February Revolution of
1917, Ossendowski yet again moved to
Siberia, this time to
Omsk, where he started giving lectures at the local university. After the
October Revolution and the outbreak of the
Russian Civil War he also got involved in the counter-revolutionary Russian government led by Supreme Governor Admiral
Aleksandr Kolchak. He served at various posts, among others as an
intelligence officer, an envoy to the intervention corps from the United States and an assistant to the
Polish 5th Rifle Division of maj.
Walerian Czuma. In
1918 he was responsible for transfer of many tsarist and
white documents to the Entente, including many proofs of German support for
Lenin and his
bolsheviks (so-called
Sisson Documents).
After Kolchak's defeat in
1920, Ossendowski joined a group of Poles and White Russians trying to escape from communist-controlled Siberia to
India through
Mongolia, China and
Tibet. After several thousands of miles the group reached Chinese-controlled Mongolia, only to be stopped there by the take-over of the country led by mysterious baron
Roman Ungern von Sternberg. A mystic who was fascinated by beliefs and religions of the Far East such as
Buddhism and
Lamaism, and who believed himself to be a
reincarnation of
Genghis Khan, Ungern-Sternberg's philosophy was an exceptionally muddled mixture of
Russian nationalism with Chinese and Mongol beliefs. He also proved to be an exceptional military commander and his forces grew rapidly.
Ossendowski joined the baron's army as a commanding officer of one of the self-defence troops. He also briefly became Ungern von Sternberg's political advisor and chief of intelligence. Little is known of his service at the latter post, which adds to Ossendowski's legend as a mysterious person. In late
1920 he was sent with a diplomatic mission to
Japan and then
USA, never to return to Mongolia. Some writers believe that Ossendowski was one of the people to hide the semi-mythical treasures of the
Bloody Baron.
After his arrival to
New York, Ossendowski started to work for the
Polish diplomatic service and possibly as a spy. At the same time, in late
1921 he published his first
English language book:
Beasts, Men and Gods. The novel, a description of his travels during the
Russian Civil War and the wars led by the
Bloody Baron, became a striking success and a best-seller. In
1923 it was translated to Polish and then several other languages.
Back to Poland
In
1922 Ferdynand Ossendowski returned to Poland and settled in
Warsaw. Immediately upon his return he started giving lectures at the
Wolna Wszechnica Polska,
Higher War School and School of Political Sciences at the
Warsaw University. At the same time he remained an advisor to the Polish government and an expert
sovietologist. He continued to travel to different parts of the world and after each travel he published a book or two. In the interbellum he was considered the creator of a distinct genre called
travelling novel. With over 70 books published in Poland and translated almost 150 times to 20 various languages, Ossendowski was also the second most popular Polish author abroad, after
Henryk Sienkiewicz. He repeated the success of his
Beasts, Men and Gods with a book on
Lenin, in which he openly criticized the communist methods and policies of Russia, as well as the double face of the communist leaders. In Poland, three of his books were being filmed at the moment the
World War II started.
World War II
After the
Polish Defensive War of
1939 and the outbreak of World War II, Ferdynand Ossendowski remained in Warsaw, where he lived at 27 Grójecka street. In
1942 he converted to
Catholicism (previously being a
Lutheran) and the following year he joined the ranks of the underground
Stronnictwo Narodowe party. He worked in the structures of the
Polish Secret State and cooperated with the
Government Delegate's Office in preparation of the
underground education in Poland during World War II and post-war learning programmes.
After the
Warsaw Uprising, Ossendowski - then seriously ill - moved to the village of Żółwin, near the Warsaw's suburb of
Milanówek, where he died on
January 3,
1945. He was buried the following day on the local cemetery in Milanówek.
After his death
Two weeks after Ossendowski's death, on
January 18, the area was seized by the
Red Army. It turned out that Ossendowski was being sought by the
NKVD, and was being considered an
enemy of the people for his book on Lenin and the Soviet system, which was considered an act of
anti-Soviet agitation. The Soviet agents dug out his body to confirm his identity and that he was really dead.
After the war, the new
communist Soviet-led authorities of Poland issued a ban on all books by Ossendowski. His name wasn't mentioned in encyclopedias and all of his books were confiscated from the libraries and burnt. It wasn't until
1989 that his books were again published openly in Poland.
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