Hugo Kołłątaj | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Chancellor of the Crown | |
 Portrait byJózef Peszka | |
| Coat of arms | Kotwica |
| Born | (1750-04-01)1 April 1750 Dederkały Wielkie,Wołyń |
| Died | 28 February 1812(1812-02-28) (aged 61) Warsaw,Duchy of Warsaw |
| Buried | Powązki Cemetery |
| Noble family | Kołłątaj |
| Father | Antoni Kołłątaj |
| Mother | Marianna Mierzeńska |
| Signature |  |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Age of Enlightenment |
| Region | Western philosophy Polish philosophy |
| School | Polish Enlightenment Kołłątaj's Forge |
| Institutions | Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning |
| Main interests | Pedagogy,history,political philosophy,geology,mineralogy,anthropology |
| Notable works | A Few Anonymous Letters [pl] 3rd May Constitution Proclamation of Połaniec |
Hugo Stumberg Kołłątaj, also spelledKołłątay (1 April 1750 – 28 February 1812), was a prominent Polish constitutional reformer and educationalist, and one of the most prominent figures of thePolish Enlightenment.[1][2] He served asDeputy Chancellor of the Crown between 1791–92. He was aCatholic priest, social and political activist,political thinker,historian,philosopher, andpolymath.
Hugo Kołłątaj was born on 1 April 1750 inDederkały Wielkie (now in Western Ukraine) inVolhynia into a family of Polish nobility. Soon after, his family moved toNieciesławice, nearSandomierz, where he spent his childhood.[3][4][5][6] He attended school inPińczów.[7][8][9] He began his studies at theKraków Academy, subsequently,Jagiellonian University, where he studied law and gained a doctorate.[1][4] Afterwards, around 1775 he tookholy orders.[10] He studied inVienna and Italy (Naples andRome), where he would have encounteredEnlightenmentphilosophy.[1][4][6][11] He is thought to have gained two further doctorates abroad in philosophy andtheology.[10]
Returning to Poland, he became acanon ofKraków,[11] andparish priest ofKrzyżanowice Dolne andTuczępy.[5] He was active in theCommission of National Education and theSociety for Elementary Books, where he took a prominent role in the development of the national network of schools.[1][6][12] He spent two years in Warsaw, but returned to Kraków where he reformed the Kraków Academy, on whose board he sat from 1777, and whoserector he was between 1783–1786.[1][10][11][12] The reform of the Academy was very substantial. It established innovative standards. Notably, he substitutedPolish forLatin which till then was used for lectures. The removal of Latin in favour of a national language in higher education was then still uncommon in Europe.[13] The reform proved so controversial that his political enemies plotted successfully to have him temporarily removed from Kraków in 1781, on grounds of corruption and immorality. Although in 1782 the decision was rescinded.[14]
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Kołłątaj was also active politically. In 1786 he assumed the office of theReferendary ofLithuania, and moved to Warsaw.[1][6] He became prominent in thereform movement, heading an informal group that was on the radical wing of thePatriotic Party, and labelled by their political enemies as "Kołłątaj's Forge".[1][6][10][12] As leader of the Patriotic Party during theGreat Sejm, he set out its programme in hisSeveral Anonymous Letters toStanisław Małachowski (1788–1789) and in his essay,The Political Law of the Polish Nation (1790).[1][6] In his works he advocated a republican-tinged constitutional reform and the need for other social reforms.[1][12] Among the goals he pursued were the strengthening of the king's constitutional position, a larger national army, abolition of theliberum veto, the introduction of universal taxation, and the emancipation of both townspeople and the peasantry.[6] An organizer of the townspeople's movement, he edited a text that demanded reform and which was delivered to theking during theBlack Procession of 1789.[1][6]
Kołłątaj co-authored theConstitution of 3 May 1791.[12] He also founded theFriends of the Constitution to assist in the document's implementation.[1] In 1786 he received theOrder of Saint Stanislaus and in 1791, theOrder of the White Eagle.[3] In 1791–92 he served asCrown Vice Chancellor (Podkanclerzy Koronny).[1][12]
During thePolish-Russian war that broke out over the3 May Constitution, Kołłątaj, along with other royal advisers, persuaded KingStanisław August, himself a co-author of the Constitution, to seek a compromise with their opponents and to join theTargowica Confederation that had been formed to bring down the Constitution.[12] However, in 1792, when the Confederates' won, Kołłątaj emigrated toLeipzig andDresden, where in 1793 he wrote, withIgnacy Potocki, an essay entitled,On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish May 3 Constitution.[1][6]
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In exile, his political views became more radical and he became involved with the preparation for an insurrection.[1] In 1794 he took part in theKościuszko Uprising, contributing to itsUprising Act on 24 March 1794 and to thePołaniec Manifesto on 7 May 1794. He headed theSupreme National Council'sTreasury Department, and backing the Uprising's wing ofPolish Jacobins.[1][6] After the suppression of the Uprising in the same year, Kołłątaj was imprisoned by the Austrians until 1802.[12] In 1805, withTadeusz Czacki, he organized theKrzemieniec Lyceum in Volhynia.[1][6] In 1807, after the creation of theDuchy of Warsaw, he was initially involved in its government,[10] but was soon excluded from it through the intrigues of political opponents, and soon afterwards, was interned and imprisoned by the Russian authorities until 1808.[1][6] On his release he found himself barred from public office. Despite that he sought to present a programme for rebuilding and developing Poland in his "Remarks on the Present Position of That Part of the Polish Lands that, since the Treaty of Tilsit, have come to be called the Duchy of Warsaw", (1809).[1] In 1809 he became a member of theWarsaw Society of Friends of Learning. In the years 1809–1810 he was once again involved with the Kraków Academy, bringing it back from its temporarilyGermanized form.[11][12]
In hisThe Physico-Moral Order (1811), Kołłątaj sought to create a socio-ethical system emphasizing theequality of all people, based on thephysiocratic idea of a "physico-moral order".[15] Steeped in thenatural sciences,geology andmineralogy in particular, he went on to writeA Critical Analysis of Historical Principles regarding the Origins of Humankind, published posthumously in 1842.[16] In this work he put forward the first Polish presentation of ideas of socialevolution based ongeological concepts. This work is also seen as an important contribution tocultural anthropology.[15] InThe State of Education in Poland in the Final Years of the Reign of Augustus III, published posthumously in 1841, he argued against theJesuit domination of education and presented a study of thehistory of education.[15]
He died on 28 February 1812, "forgotten and abandoned" by his contemporaries.[1][10] He was buried in thePowązki Cemetery.[10]
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Despite his lonely death, Kołłątaj became an influence on many subsequent reformers and is now recognized as one of the key figures of theEnlightenment in Poland, and "one of the greatest minds of his epoch".[1][6] He is one of the figures immortalized inJan Matejko's 1891 painting,Constitution of May 3, 1791.
Several learned institutions in Poland are named in Hugo Kołłątaj's honour, including theAgricultural University of Cracow of which he was co-founder and patron.
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