Mariusz Zaruski was a Brigadier-General in the Polish Army, a pioneer of Polish sports yachting, an outstanding climber of the winter and caves of Tatra Mountains

Tatra Mountains

The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra , are a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains...

. He was a photographer, painter, poet and writer, a seamen and traveler, a conspirator, legionnaire and lancer in Polish cavalry

Polish cavalry

The Polish cavalry can trace its origins back to the days of Medieval mounted knights. Poland had always been a country of flatlands and fields and mounted forces operate well in this environment...

 and an adjutant of Polish President.

During his active life, he was a devoted social activist, sportsman and teacher.

Biography

Zaruski was born on 18 January 1867 in Dumanowo near the Kamieniec Podolski in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. During his youth at Odessa University

Odessa University

The I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University , located in Odessa, Ukraine, is one of the country's major universities. It was founded in 1865, by an edict of Czar Alexander II of Russia, reorganizing the Richelieu Lyceum of Odessa into the new Imperial Novorossiya University. In the Soviet...

 where he studied mathematics and physics, he was attracted to sea activities. As a volunteer, he worked as seaman on various ships. He traveled a lot to distant regions like Siberia, China, Japan, India, Egypt and Syria.

For his participation in a Polish patriotic anti-Russian organization, the Russian government exiled him to Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...

 in 1894. There, while being a prisoner he was able to graduate from the Seaman School. Conditionally he was allowed to work on merchant ship “Derzhava”. On his first sea journey on the ship, he went to Norway with the logs and fur cargo. Later he became a captain of the ship “Nadezhda”.

After finishing his prison term, Zaruski returned to Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

 where he had lived for 2 years. There he married Izabela Kietlińska. Later, he moved to Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 where between 1901-1906 he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts

Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts

The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, or Kraków Academy of Fine Arts , located in Kraków, Poland, is the oldest Polish fine-arts academy, established in 1818.It is a state-run university that offers 5- and 6-year Master's degree programs...

. In 1907, after graduation, the couple moved to Zakopane

Zakopane

Zakopane , is a town in southern Poland. It lies in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998 it was in of Nowy Sącz Province, but since 1999 it has been in Lesser Poland Province. It had a population of about 28,000 as of 2004. Zakopane is a...

 so as to improve Izabela's health.

For many years Mariusz Zaruski had been working in Zakopane as a mountain guide for tourists and rescuer. He organized the Tatra Mountain Rescue Service. In his articles in Polish newspapers he publicized and popularized the tourism of the Zakopane region. He was the first climber to reach the Kozi Wierch and Kościelec

Koscielec

Kościelec may refer to the following places in Poland:mountains:*Kościelec, 2155 m a.s.l., a mountain in Polish part of High Tatras villages, towns:*Kościelec, Pomeranian Voivodeship...

 mountains. At the start of the First World War he organized 11th Polish Cavalry Regiment and became its commander. For his bravery during the offensive on Wilno City on April 16, 1919, he was decorated with the highest Polish Military distinction the Order of Virtuti Militari 5th Class and several times with the Cross of Valour.

He ended up his military carrier in a rank of the Brigadier-General and Adjutant of the Polish President Stanisław Wojciechowski. He retired before the May Revolt in 1926. During his retirement, he devoted his time to popularize moral, economical and political benefits of Poland’s access to the Baltic Sea. He introduced members of Polish elite to the yacht sport. Through his teaching he attracted countless number of Polish youth to seamanship and yachting.

Together with Antoni Aleksandrowicz he organized the Polish Yacht Club. Thanks to his government connections he was able to acquire for the club the first in Poland’s history ocean yacht “Witeź”. On his initiative the Sea and River League and the Committee of National Flotilla were established. The committee founded the sailing ship “Dar Pomorza”.
He was an organizer of the Inspectorate of Youth Marine Education. He helped to establish the Marine Terminology Commission which included representatives from Marine Academy and Universities. The Commission edited six volumes of the Polish – English – French – German - Russian Marine Dictionary. In Poland, before the Second World War, boy scouts movement was important part of marine educations among Polish youth.

General Zaruski played a leading role as a seamanship instructor for Polish Scouts units in Jastarnia

Jastarnia

Jastarnia is a small town in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodship, northern Poland. It is located on the Hel Peninsula on the Baltic Sea. Popular Polish seaside resort and small fishing port....

 located on the shore of the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

. He used to say that the hardship of sailor’s duties strengthen sailor’s moral character. In 1935 he became a captain of the schooner Zawisza Czarny

Zawisza Czarny

Zawisza Czarny z Garbowa , Sulima Coat of Arms, was a Polish knight and nobleman. He served as a soldier and diplomat under the Polish king Władysław II and Hungarian-Bohemian king Sigismund of Luxembourg...

.
At the same time he was elected as the President of the Polish Sailing Association. During his presidency all youth at universities, boy scouts and yacht clubs all over Poland were integrated in one mass movement devoted to seamanship and marine education. As a captain on “Zawisza Czarny” he was treated with such respect and adoration by youths that they called him no other than “Sir General”. His last voyage on the Zawisza Czarny was in 1939.

Deliberately, despite the fact that he could leave Poland at the outbreak of the World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he did not abandon his motherland. He was arrested then imprisoned by Soviet Secret Service NKVD

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

 in Lwów after Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 invaded Poland in September 1939. On 29 March 1941, NKVD sentenced him, as a socially dangerous element, to penal resettlement to Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...

 in Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

. He died of cholera in Soviet prison in Kherson

Kherson

Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...

 on 8 April 1941.

In Autumn of 1991, thanks to the Polish Scouts - Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego

Zwiazek Harcerstwa Polskiego

Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego is the coeducational Polish Scouting organization recognized by the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It was founded in 1918 and currently is the largest Scouting organization in Poland...

 efforts, ashes of gen. Zaruski were brought to Poland and buried in Zakopane Cemetery. He was decorated posthumously by the Polish state with the Grand Cross of Order of Poland’s Rebirth in 1997.

Family

Father Seweryn, mother Eufrozyna, older brother Stanisław, younger brother Bolesław. His devoted wife: Izabella Kietlińska.

Literary legacy

Includes: collection of poems and novels about the Tatra mountains titled Na bezdrożach tatrzańskich (1923) as well as his marine novels titled Wśród wichrów i fal (1935). He expressed his passion for horses in several of his poems.

He gave countless speeches, lectures and published many articles. He wrote several textbooks for sailors and first in Polish history textbook of marine navigation.

Honours and awards

• Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari,
• Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (posthumously in 1997; previously awarded the Commander's Cross and the Officer's Cross
• Cross of Independence
  Cross of Independence
  Cross of Independence was one of the highest Polish military decorations between World Wars I and II. It was awarded to individuals who had "fought heroically for the independence of Poland," and was released in three versions.- History :...
  
  
• Cross of Valour (five times)
• Commemorative Medal for War 1918-1921.