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POTOCKI, STANISLAW FELIX (1752–1805)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 209 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

POTOCKI, STANISLAW See also:FELIX (1752–1805) , See also:Polish politician, son of Franciszek Salezy Potocki, See also:palatine of See also:Kiev, of the Tulczyn See also:line of the See also:family, was See also:born in 1752. He entered the public service, and owing to the See also:influence of his relations became See also:grand See also:standard-See also:bearer of the See also:Crown at the See also:age of twenty-two. In 1782 he was made palatine of See also:Russia, in 1784 a See also:lieutenant-See also:general, and in 1789 he See also:purchased the See also:rank of a general of See also:artillery from the Saxon See also:minister, See also:Bruhl, for 20,000 ducats. Elected See also:deputy for Braclaw at the famous Four Years' See also:Diet, he began that career of treachery which was to terminate in the ruin of his See also:country. Yet his previous career had awakened many hopes in him. A grand seigneur ruling patriarchally in his vast estates, liberal, enlightened, a generous See also:master and a professed patriot, his popularity culminated in 1784 when he presented an See also:infantry See also:regiment of 400 men as a See also:free See also:gift to the See also:republic. But he identified the public welfare with the welfare of the individual magnates. His See also:scheme was the See also:division of See also:Poland into an See also:oligarchy of autonomous grandees exercising the supreme See also:power in rotation (in fact a perpetual See also:interregnum), and in 1788 he won over to his views two other See also:great lords, See also:Xavier Branicki and Severin Rzewuski. The See also:election of See also:Malachowski (q.v.) and Kazimierz Sapieha as marshals of the diet still further alienated him from the Liberals; and, after strenuously but vainly opposing every project of reform, he retired to See also:Vienna whence he continued to carry on an active propaganda against the new ideas. He protested against the constitution of the 3rd of May 1791, and after attempting fruitlessly to induce the See also:emperor See also:Leopold to take up arms " for the See also:defence of the liberties of the republic," proceeded with his See also:friends in See also:March 1792 to St See also:Petersburg, and subsequently with the connivance of the empress See also:Catherine formed the See also:confederation of Targowica for the See also:maintenance of the See also:ancient institutions of Poland (May 14, 1792), of which he was the See also:marshal, or rather the See also:dictator, directing its operations from his See also:castle at Tulczyn. When the May constitution was overthrown and the Prussians were already in occupation of Great Poland, Potocki (March 1793) went on a See also:diplomatic See also:mission to St Petersburg; but, finding himself duped and set aside, retired to Vienna till 1797, when he settled down at Tulczyn and devoted himself for the See also:remainder of his See also:life to the improvement of his estates. He wrote On the Polish See also:Succession (Pol.) (See also:Amsterdam, 1789); Protest against the Succession to the See also:Throne (Pol.) (ibid.

1990); and other See also:

political See also:works. See See also:Friedrich Schulz, Poland in the See also:year 1793 (Pol.) (See also:Warsaw, 1899); Josef Zajaczek, See also:History of the Revolution of 1794 (Pol.) (See also:Lemberg, 1881). (R. N.

End of Article: POTOCKI, STANISLAW FELIX (1752–1805)

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