After he finished studying at the Institute of Political Science in 1914, Wańkowicz was drafted into the Russian Army and attached to the Kołomieński Infantry Regiment, stationed in Minsk. He was soon released from the army based on a falsified medical form.
First World War
The First World War ultimately shaped his personality. He witnessed refugees seeking shelter from the horrors of war. As a representative of the Central Committee of the Citizens of the Kingdom of Poland for the evacuation of Poles from the territory of Russia, he witnessed first hand the terrible losses people suffered as a result of the war.
In 1916, Wańkowicz married Sofia Małagowski, and in 1917, he joined the First Polish Corps of Gen. Joseph Dowbór-Muśnicki, formed in the Mogilev region. At the start of 1918, Wańkowicz fought the Bolsheviks as a soldier and was awarded the Cross of Valour. In May 1918 he took part in a revolt against an agreement with the Germans. He was brought before a court-martial but was acquitted.
In 1919 Wańkowicz acted as a wartime correspondent for the Warsaw Gazette. In 1920, he became the head of the propaganda department of the Borderland Guard. In Warsaw, Wańkowicz continued law school and in 1923 he received his master’s degree from the University of Warsaw. Shortly after graduation, he began work as the head of the Press Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A year later, in 1924, he founded the Publishing House Rój, of which he was co-owner and editor-in-chief until 1939.
Journalism and Travel Reports
He made his literary debut just after the First World War. In 1919 he published Tales of Wladyslaw Pasika the Soldier in the journal Government and Army.
In the interwar period, Wańkowicz devoted himself to journalism and literature, publishing, among others, in the Kurier Warszawski (Warsaw Courier), Wiadomości Literackie (Literary News) and Kurier Poranny (The Morning Courier). He was also active in other areas; for example, he was an advertising consultant for the Polish Sugar Union and famously coined the slogan ‘sugar strengthens’.