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KOLLONTAJ, HUGO (1750–1812)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 891 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KOLLONTAJ, See also:HUGO (1750–1812) , See also:Polish politician and writer, was See also:born in 1750 at Niecislawice in See also:Sandomir, and educated at Pinczow and See also:Cracow. After taking orders he went (1770) to See also:Rome, where he obtained the degree of See also:doctor of See also:theology and See also:common See also:law, and devoted himself enthusiastically to the study of the See also:fine arts, especially of See also:architecture and See also:painting. At Rome too he obtained a canonry attached to Cracow See also:cathedral, and on his return to See also:Poland in 1755 threw himself See also:heart and soul into the question of educational reform. His efforts were impeded by the obstruction of the See also:clergy of Cracow, who regarded him as an adventurer; but he succeeded in reforming the university after his own mind, and was its See also:rector for three years (1782–1785). Kollontaj next turned his See also:attention to politics. In 1786 he was appointed referendarius of Lithuania, and during the Four Years' See also:Diet (1788–1792) displayed an amazing and many-sided activity as one of the reformers of the constitution. He grouped around him all the leading writers, publicists and progressive See also:young men of the See also:day; declaimed against prejudices; stimulated the timid; inspired the lukewarm with See also:enthusiasm; and never rested till the constitution of the 3rd of May 1791 had been carried through. In See also:June 1791 Kollontaj was appointed See also:vice-See also:chancellor. On the See also:triumph of the reactionaries and the fall of the See also:national party, he secretly placed in the See also:king's hands his See also:adhesion to the triumphant See also:Confederation of Targowica, a false step, much blamed at the See also:time, but due not to See also:personal ambition but to a See also:desire to See also:save something from the See also:wreck of the constitution. He then emigrated to See also:Dresden. On the outbreak of See also:Kosciuszko's insurrection he returned to Poland, and as member of the national See also:government and See also:minister of See also:finance took a leading See also:part in affairs. But his radicalism had now become of a disruptive quality, and he quarrelled with and even thwarted Kosciuszko because the See also:dictator would not admit that the Polish See also:republic could only be saved by the methods of Jacobinism.

On the other See also:

hand, the more conservative See also:section of the Poles regarded Kollontaj as " a second See also:Robespierre," and he is even suspected of complicity in the outrages of the 17th and 18th of June 1794, when the See also:Warsaw See also:mob massacred the See also:political prisoners. On the collapse of the insurrection Kollontaj emigrated to See also:Austria, where from 1795 to 1802 he was detained as a prisoner. He was finally released through the See also:mediation of See also:Prince See also:Adam See also:Czartoryski, and returned to Poland utterly discredited. The See also:remainder of his See also:life was a ceaseless struggle against privation and See also:prejudice. He died at Warsaw on the 28th of See also:February 1812. Of his numerous See also:works the most notable are: Political Speeches as Vice-Chancellor (Pol.) (in 6 vols., Warsaw, 1791); On the Erection and Fall of the Constitution of May (Pol.) (See also:Leipzig, 1793; See also:Paris, 1868 ) ; See also:Correspondence with T. Czacki (Pol.) (Cracow, 1854) ; Letters 'written during See also:Emigration, 1792–r g94 (Pol.) (See also:Posen, 1872). See Ignacz Badeni, See also:Necrology of Hugo Kollontaj (Pol.) (Cracow, 1819) ; Henryk Schmitt, See also:Review of the Life and Works of Kollontaj (Pol.) (See also:Lemberg, 186o) ; Wojciek Grochowski, " Life of Kollontaj (Pol.) in Tygod Illus. (Warsaw, 1861). (R. N.

End of Article: KOLLONTAJ, HUGO (1750–1812)

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