Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki

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Johann Baptist Lampi : Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki with the sons Szczęsny Jerzy (1776–1809) and Stanisław (1782–1831), 1789/1790.

Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki also Stanisław Feliks Potocki (*  1751 or 1752 ; †  March 15, 1805 in Tultschyn ) was a Polish magnate . He was one of the founders of the Russian- backed Targowica Confederation , which aimed to repeal the liberal constitution of May 3, 1791 and accelerated the fall of the former European great power Poland-Lithuania .

family

Hubert Maurer : Zofia divorced de Witte , 1797.

Stanisław Szczęsny came from the Tultschyn line of the Potocki family and was the son of the voivode of Kiev Franciszek Salezy Potocki and Anna Elżbieta Potocka. His three marriages were unhappy. The only child from the first, inappropriate relationship with Gertruda Komorowska died in the mother's womb when his parents had her murdered. (The homosexual Frederick II of Prussia , whose friend Hans Hermann von Katte was beheaded before his eyes, had a similarly disturbing experience .) His second marriage to Józefina Amalia Mniszech had eleven children, few of whom are said to have been Potocki's own.

In his third marriage he was married to Zofia de Witte, a single Glavani. This Greek courtesan had successively been mistress of the Polish Internuntius in Istanbul , Karol Boscamp-Lazopolski, wife of the commandant of the Polish border fortress Kamjanez-Podilskyj , General Józef de Witte, and mistress of the Russian general Grigori Alexandrovich Potjomkin . Zofia's lover since 1791, Potocki von Witte bought the divorce and made the beautiful Bithynier his wife in 1798. But she is also said to have cheated on him - with his own son Szczęsny Jerzy - and ultimately driven him insane. From this connection came eight other children, of which the three illegitimate died early.

Political activity

Potocki Palace in Tulchyn , Ukraine, 1780s.

Potocki held public offices since 1774. From 1782 he was voivode of Ruthenia . He was lieutenant general and since 1789 general of the artillery. As one of the richest magnates, he owned 240,000 serfs . He was originally considered a liberal aristocrat . At times he was the grand master of a Masonic lodge .

However, he rejected political reforms in order to secure the political influence of the magnates. He was therefore in opposition to King Stanisław Poniatowski . He envisioned a kind of federal republic under the control of the magnates. During the four-year Sejm he allied himself in 1788 with Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and Seweryn Rzewuski , but could not prevail. He protested in Vienna against the liberal constitution of May 3, 1791 (the first in Europe), but found no support from Emperor Leopold II .

He received this for this in Saint Petersburg from Catherine II. In 1792 he was Marshal of the Targowica Confederation , which had the goal of repealing the constitution. From his palace in Tultschyn he directed the operations of the Confederates who fought on the Russian side in the Russo-Polish War . The king was then forced to join the confederation. Potocki was instrumental in the meeting of the Sejm of Grodno , at which the constitution was repealed, an alliance with Russia was concluded and the second partition of Poland was approved. With the latter, Russia, Prussia and Austria annexed large parts of the national territory, as they did in 1772. If it had gone according to Potocki's wishes, the king would also have been deposed.

After the Kościuszko uprising had expelled the Russians from Warsaw and Vilna in 1794 , he fled to Petersburg. The highest Polish court sentenced him to death as a traitor in absentia. A portrait of him was hung on the gallows and his property was confiscated .

But as early as 1795, Russia and Prussia ended the existence of the Rzeczpospolita with the Third Partition of Poland . Potocki is said to have said at the time:

“The Poles should let go of all memories of their fatherland; I am forever Russian. "

Katharina made him a Russian general after she had previously awarded him the Alexander Nevsky Order . From now on he stayed in Tulczyn and devoted himself to the administration of his lands.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ C. Lenning: General Handbook of Freemasonry. Volume 2, Leipzig 1865, p. 594.
  2. ↑ Norman Davis : In the Heart of Europe. History of Poland. Munich 2000, p. 164.
personal data
SURNAME Potocki, Stanisław Szczęsny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Potocki, Stanisław Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish magnate and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1751 or 1752
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1805
Place of death Tultschyn