Historical calendar – the anniversary of the clash at Markusov between Poles and Moskals. The conflict had its origin in the bitterness of the troops after the betrayal of the government.
Today in our calendar we will look at the circumstances accompanying the last conflict of the Polish-Russian War of 1792.
After the failure of defence of the Bug line, Polish troops withdrew to the west, but retained full combat capability. Moreover, the fresh regiments created in Wielkopolska have gained readiness. The chief chief, Prince Joseph Poniatowski, drawn Russians into the Republic of Poland. He hoped to long their communication lines and general fatigue of their troops, which had constantly marched for 2 months. He wanted to give them a conflict in the heart of Poland and then decision on to the counteroffensive. Unfortunately, like his soldiers, he was betrayed.
King Stanislaw August Poniatowski has taken a defensive and settlement attitude since the beginning of the campaign. He did not go to the front to warm up the soldiers to fight, and yet he felt that it did not make sense and began to thin towards joining the trade union. He remained deaf to the demands of continued opposition and ordered surrender. He personally surrendered to a Russian diplomat, Yakov Bulhakov.
Similarly, Hugo Kolłataj turned out to be a declarative patriot. It was he who, at the gathering of the government of July 23, 1792, urged the king to surrender and join the camp of national treason. He said to him: “Today, dear Lord, there is simply a request for a trade union, not tomorrow; all minute is costly due to the fact that the blood of Poles is pouring it down.”.
In order to increase the importance of his words, he himself proposed to join Targowice. Interestingly, as it later turned out, he was not accepted. Apparently, even the bargainers became convinced of the duality of this man and refused to usage his services.
The betrayal of Kolłataj and his coaxed king Poniatowski caused a violent reaction and protests of the inhabitants of the capital. They were besides outraged by army commanders and private soldiers who inactive wanted to fight, seeing a chance to regroup and win.
The main Polish forces camp was then under Marquesov. Despaired by the betrayal of the authorities, Prince Joseph Poniatowski sent back his orders of St. Stanislaus and the White Eagle to the king and pulled faithful troops to attack the Cossack ramp, personally commanding and showing considerable bravado. He sought death in battle, preferring it from the shame served by the king and Kolłataj. In the conflict fought on July 25, the Moskals were badly beaten. Their remnants retreated towards Garbov.
Meanwhile, national traitor Hugo Kolłataj, secretly escaped from the capital on the night of July 24-25. He went to Saxon Dresden where another reformers, specified as the brothers Ignacy and Stanisław Potoccy, besides left. Together with them, he wrote and published a propaganda work entitled “On the Establishment and Fall of the Polish Constitution 3 May 1791”. For more than 2 100 years, it has become the basis of a politically correct version of the improvement of the large Sejm.
Kołłątaj emphasized the merits of the reformers and the betrayal of Targowice, carefully depreciating the importance of his disastrous function in the surrender decision. The stay in Saxony was not simply related to propaganda. Kołłątaj took part in preparations for the Kościuszko Revolution.
After her explosion, he left for Warsaw and took part in the radicalization of the crowd for the Jacobin prayer. He became head of the Treasury Department of the National ultimate Council. After the defeat at Maciejowice he took any crucial papers and insurgent money and again fled the capital, this time towards the Austrian cordon.
According to any accounts, General Madaliński ordered him to be captured alive or dead for this act. After respective weeks, a erstwhile officer of the national cavalry, a Telatsky and Antoni Trębicki, came across Kolłataj playing in an inn under Przemyśl. They alerted the Austrian politician Joseph Lueger, who ordered him to be arrested. Captured on December 6, 1794, they were shackled and brought to Przemyśl, where he was almost lynched by a crowd of Poles. Residents chanted passwords Hang! Hang the scum, the thief!
Franciszek Gorzkowski then wrote: This villain, not only that he had done the devil, condemned and dishonored the revolution by hanging, divided the chiefs, with his tyranny he cooled the hearts of Poles, but in a minute of insecurity as a coward fled, and as the villain took with him the treasures of the Kingdom and what he took from citizens.
Unfortunately, both Hugo Kołłątaj and Stanisław August Poniatowski are inactive considered national heroes in Poland.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
