Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki

Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki
Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki
	Zofia Potocka; Olga Potocka; Bolesław Potocki
Father	Franciszek Salezy Potocki
Mother	Anna Elżbieta Potocka

Count Stanisław Szczęsny Feliks Potocki (Polish pronunciation:

Piława coat of arms, known as Szczęsny Potocki^[1]

was a member of the Polish szlachta and a military commander of the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and then Poland. Knight of the Order of the White Eagle, awarded in August 1775.

He was named Great

Chorąży of the Crown in 1774–1780, voivode of Ruthenian Voivodeship in 1782–1791, Great Lieutenant General of the Crown since 1784, General of Artillery of the Crown in 1789–1792, starost bełski, hrubieszowski, sokalski, hajsyński, zwinogrodzki, Marshal of the Targowica Confederation

in 1792. He plotted with others against the state, was convicted of treason and sentenced to death in his absence. He died in ignominy.

Biography

Early life

He was the son of

lieutenant-general

in the Royal Army.

A "Great" nobleman

He was a great magnate, grandly ruling in his vast estates in the eastern parts of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, known as the Kresy. His annual income was over 3 million zloties.^[2]

Elected deputy for

Four-Year Sejm, he began that career of treachery which was to terminate in the ruin of his country. Yet his previous career had awakened many hopes in him. His popularity culminated in 1784 when he presented an infantry regiment of 400 men as a free gift to the Commonwealth. But he identified the public welfare with the welfare of individual magnates, his aims in seeking reforms was to transform the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a magnate oligarchy.^[2]

Family

The father of numerous children, one of his daughters, Olga, married Lev Naryshkin.

Time of the Partitions

His scheme was to divide Poland into an

Kazimierz Lew Sapieha as marshals of the Four Years Sejm still further alienated him from the Liberals. After strenuously but vainly opposing every project of reform, he slipped off to Vienna

whence he continued an active propaganda against the new proposals.

Protest against the Constitution

He opposed the

Empress Catherine II of Russia formed the Targowica Confederation

allegedly for the maintenance of the ancient and lax institutions of Poland (14 May 1792), of which he had been marshal, or rather the dictator.

He continued directing the conspiracy from his castle at Tulczyn. When the May Constitution was overthrown and the Prussians were already in occupation of Greater Poland, Potocki (March 1793) went on a diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg. There finding himself duped and set aside, he again went to Vienna until 1797, when he retired to Tulczyn and devoted himself to the improvement of his estates and large wealth for the remainder of his life.

He had been sentenced to death in absentia by the Supreme Criminal Court during the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. On 17 November 1797 he was made a general of the Russian infantry, but was dismissed on 30 October 1798. He was buried with the ignominy of a "traitor" general.

Quote

After the signing of the Targowica Confederation: "Each true Pole, not blinded by the Prussian and royalist cabal, is convinced, that our Fatherland can only be saved by Russia, otherwise our nation will be enslaved".

After Stanisław August Poniatowski's abdication and the destruction of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: "About past Poland and Poles [I don't want to talk anymore]. Gone is this country, and this name, as many others have perished in the world's history. I am now a Russian forever."

References

^ E. Rostworowski, Potocki Stanisław Szczęsny (Feliks) herbu Pilawa, [in:] Polski Słownik Biograficzny, t. XXVIII, Wrocław–Warszawa–Kraków–Gdańsk–Łódź 1984–1985, p. 183.
^
ISBN 978-83-02-04615-5
. Retrieved 2 January 2012.