The Kołłątaj's Forge () was a group of social and political activists, publicists and writers from the period of the

Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm (Polish language, Polish: ''Sejm Wielki'' or ''Sejm Czteroletni''; Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: ''Didysis seimas'' or ''Ketverių metų seimas'') was a Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwea ...

in the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. Centered on

Hugo Kołłątaj Hugo Stumberg Kołłątaj, also spelled ''Kołłątay'' (1 April 1750 – 28 February 1812), was a prominent Polish constitutional reformer and educationalist, and one of the most prominent figures of the Enlightenment in Poland, Polish Enlighten ...

, one of the most prominent thinkers of the

Polish Enlightenment The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland were developed later than in Western Europe, as the Polish bourgeoisie was weaker, and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Gol ...

, the Forge (''Kuźnica'') activists formed a radical, leftist faction of the reform supporters (the Patriotic Party, an organization that has been called the first Polish

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

). They disseminated news and ideas of the French Revolution in Poland. Their pamphlets criticized

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

and privileges of the nobility. Their name, ''Kołłataj's Forge'', was given to them by their political opponents, and was originally pejorative.

Early development

Kołłątaj put forward the manifesto of the Forge in a series of anonymous letters to the

Marshal of the Sejm The Marshal of the Sejm (, ) is the speaker (chair) of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament. The office traces its origins to the 15th century. In modern Poland, the full title is Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (). ...

Stanisław Małachowski Count Stanisław Małachowski, of the Nałęcz coat-of-arms (; 1736–1809) was a Polish statesman, the first List of Polish Prime Ministers, Prime Minister of Poland, a member of the Poland, Polish government's Permanent Council (Rada Nieustaj� ...

. These letters were published in 1788–1789 as: ''To Stanisław Małachowski... Several Letters from an Anonymous Writer'' (literal translation of ''Do Stanisława Małachowskiego... Anonyma listów kilka''). The work has also been rendered into English as the "Letters from an Anonymous Writer" or "Anonymous Letters to Stanisław Małachowski". They were supplemented in 1790 by the " of the Polish Nation" (''Prawo polityczne narodu polskiego''). Kołłątaj criticized the dysfunctional politics of the Commonwealth, which were dominated by powerful

magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

s, and called for various reforms such as the strengthening of executive (royal) power, improvement of the state's military, elimination of

liberum veto The ''liberum veto'' (Latin for "free veto") was a parliamentary device in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was a form of unanimity voting rule that allowed any member of the Sejm (legislature) to force an immediate end to the current s ...

, universal taxation, and the

emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...

of underprivileged classes (primarily, burghers and the

peasantry A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

). The Forge's projects were highly refined; in fact the "Political Law", which contained the proposal for a new constitution became a major inspiration for the Constitution of 3 May.

Public support

Kołłątaj and other publicists from his group were quite able to influence contemporary public opinion in the

. They were very active, and campaigned not only in the parliament (the

) but also outside of it, gathering support from regular citizens. The Forge writers were particularly adept at ridiculing their political opponents; so in addition to serious treaties, articles and letters, they often published satirical pamphlets. Many of the Forge activists came from outside of the Polish nobility (

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

), which traditionally saw state politics as their exclusive territory. The Forge had strong ties to the

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

of Polish cities and towns, and to a significant degree was able to influence and control their demonstrations. This was used to bring up the fact of the growing importance of the burghers, the need to include them in state politics, and to deliver a warning to the more traditionally-minded politicians about the growing dangers of resisting change. The group was small enough that one of their principal meeting places was Kołłątaj's home in Warsaw. Key activists of the Forge, besides Kołłątaj himself, included Franciszek Salezy Jezierski, Franciszek Ksawery Dmochowski, Józef Meier (Mejer), Antoni Trebicki (Trębicki), Franciszek Jelski, Tomasz Maruszewski, Jan Dembowski and Kazimierz Konopka. Other supporters included Franciszek Zabłocki, Jan Śniadecki and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. Many of them emigrated after the victory of the

Targowica Confederation The Targowica Confederation (, , ) was a confederation established by Polish and Lithuanian magnates on 27 April 1792, in Saint Petersburg, with the backing of the Russian Empress Catherine II. The confederation opposed the Constitution of 3 May ...

in the War in Defense of the Constitution, or after the final

Third Partition of Poland The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...

. Whereas Kołłątaj himself was more of a moderate, some of the Forge's followers were more radical, and many of the

Polish Jacobins Polish Jacobins (or Huguenots) was the name given to a group of late 18th-century radical Polish politicians by their opponents. The group formed during the Great Sejm as an offshoot of the Kołłątaj's Forge, Forge of Hugo Kołłątaj (, and hen ...

of the 1794

Kościuszko Uprising The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794, Second Polish War, Polish Campaign of 1794, and the Polish Revolution of 1794, was an uprising against the Russian and Prussian influence on the Polish–Lithuanian Common ...

were Forge's members. Forge activists usually met in the Kołłątaj's house that was located in the Solec neighborhood in Warsaw.

Early development

Public support

See also

References

Further reading