Romuald Traugutt
Encyclopedia
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...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
and war hero, best known for commanding the January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
. From October 1863 to August 1864 he was Dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
of Insurrection. He headed the Polish national government from October 17, 1863 to April 20, 1864, and was president of its Foreign Affairs Office.
Before the uprising he was a Lt. Colonel (podpułkownik) in the Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
army where he had won distinction in the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
. He retired from the army in 1862 and became involved with conservative Polish nationalists. After leading a partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
unit in the initial rebellion, he became leader of the rebel forces in October 1863.
After the uprising failed, he was sentenced to death by the Russian regime and hanged near the Warsaw Citadel
Warsaw Citadel
Cytadela is a 19th-century fortress in Warsaw, Poland. It was built by order of Tsar Nicholas I after the suppression of the 1830 November Uprising in order to bolster imperial Russian control of the city. It served as a prison into the late 1930s.- History :The Citadel was built by personal...
on 5 August 1864, aged 38, together with other rebel commanders (Rafał Krajewski, Józef Toczyski, Roman Żuliński
Roman Zulinski
Roman Żuliński - a Polish mathematician and co-commander of the January Uprising.After the uprising he was sentenced to death and hanged near the Warsaw Citadel on August 5 1864, together with other rebel commanders, including Romuald Traugutt....
and Jan Jeziorański). The Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
is considering his beatification due to his overwhelming devotion to God and his sacrifice for his homeland.
Remembrance
In 1916 a monument was raised in Warsaw on the site of his execution, and in 1925 the area around it was dedicated as Traugutt Park.In 1945, he was honored on the first postage stamp of the newly re-emerged Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
as part of a two stamp set honoring national heroes. He had been earlier honored on a stamp in the 1938 set for the 20th anniversary of Poland’s independence after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Poland issued additional stamps in his honor in 1962 and 1963.
The high school in Częstochowa
Czestochowa
Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship...
is named after him, and a memorial column to him was erected in 1933 in Ciechocinek
Ciechocinek
Ciechocinek is a spa town in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, located on the Vistula River about east of Aleksandrów Kujawski and south-east of the city of Toruń.Ciechocinek is known for its unique 'saline graduation towers'....
.