Jerzy Urban

Jerzy Urban (born Jerzy Urbach, 3 August 1933 – 3 October 2022) was a Polish journalist, commentator, writer and politician, best known as the founder and editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Nie. From 1981 to 1989 he was the Press Secretary of the Polish government under the People's Republic of Poland, and the Head of the Polish Radio and Television Committee in 1989.

An anticlerical and socialist throughout his life, he frequently was the centre of numerous controversies due to his comments and political views resulting in support of Polish government; on the other hand, he was an intelligent and uncompromising satirist, writer and journalist, which results in a complex legacy of his life.

Biography

Before 1989

Urban was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Łódź. His father, Jan Urbach, was an activist of Polish Socialist Party and the General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland. In 1939, they relocated to the city of Lwów (Lemberg, now Lviv). Following the outbreak of the Second World War and the German–Soviet occupation of Poland, a Soviet official mistook the last two letters of the family surname and incorrectly transcribed it as "Urban". His parents later refrained from returning to the original spelling.

Urban reportedly attended 17 different primary and high schools. He completed his senior high school exams as an external student. He studied in two faculties of the University of Warsaw and was expelled from both. He started his journalistic career with the journal Nowa Wieś.