INFORMATION PORTAL OF THE MARSHAL'S OFFICE OF THE KUJAWSKO-POMORSKIE Region IN TORUŃ

Mathematician, chess player, poetry translator, one of the pillars of the democratic opposition in Toruń – Andrzej Lewandowski, a former long-time teaching staff member, received the highest provincial award, the Unitas Durat Palatinatus Cuiaviano-Pomeraniensis gold medal, from Marshal Piotr Całbecki.

‘It is not only an honour for me, but also a real pleasure to meet such a versatile and inspiring person who combines the world of mathematical precision with the beauty of poetry and courage of spirit,’ says Marshal Piotr Całbecki.

Dr Andrzej Lewandowski was born on 18 January 1937 in Zalesie and has been associated with the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń as a lecturer in mathematics since 1958. He obtained his doctorate in 1969. He was a senior lecturer at the Department of Logic and Foundations of Geometry of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at Nicolaus Copernicus University. He was also highly regarded as a translator of literature, translating, among others, Petrarch’s sonnets and Pushkin’s ‘Eugene Onegin’. He is also a multiple Polish champion in chess composition, a separate field of chess involving the creation of an artificial arrangement of pieces on the chessboard that contains an interesting idea or combination.

He is also known as the ‘voice of Solidarity’ at Nicolaus Copernicus University, one of the founders and deputy chairman of the university structures of NSZZ Solidarity. On the day martial law was imposed on 13 December 1981, he co-organised an all-day protest at the UMK rector’s office. He edited and distributed leaflets informing about the repression of opposition activists. Arrested on 28 December 1981, he miraculously avoided internment.

For his cultural activities, he was awarded the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis (2014). His profile was described in the fourth volume of the Dictionary of Anti-Communist Opposition Activists, prepared by Rev. Dr. Michał Damazyn.

Beata Krzemińska

spokesperson for the Marshal’s Office

28 May 2025