Through the intervention of a young girl, Marateck's sentence was commuted to merely ten years of hard labor in Siberia followed by permanent exile. This was known as getting a "tenner," and was the equivalent in Russia at the time of being declared "Not guilty." But the man who repeatedly stood up for what he believed in despite the consequences wasn't satisfied with even this lenient sentence. Instead, he escaped from Siberia along with Warsaw's colorful, self-proclaimed "King of Thieves," and traveled 3000 miles back to Warsaw to find the young girl who had saved his life.
Rather than being a "war diary," The Accidental Anarchist is the account of an ordinary man living during extraordinary times whose sense of humor and optimism were critical to his survival.
Sixty years after Marateck's death, the stories from his personal diaries were compiled, edited and published by his granddaughter, Bryna, who was named for the young girl who saved Marateck's life. Told in Marateck's singular voice, The Accidental Anarchist is the true story of an ordinary man living during extraordinary times. An unforgettable character, he was not larger than life, but rather a unique reflection of it.