Walerian Łukasiński (15 April 1786 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

– 27 January 1868 in

Shlisselburg Shlisselburg (, ; ; ; ), formerly Oreshek (Орешек) (1323–1611) and Petrokrepost (Петрокрепость) (1944–1992), is a town in Kirovsky District, Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the head of the Neva River on Lake Ladoga, ...

) was a Polish officer and political activist. He was sentenced by

Russian Imperial The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

authorities to 14 years' imprisonment. He died after 46 years of solitary incarceration. He became a symbol of the Polish struggle for independence.

Biography

Born in

on 15 April 1786, as a child he lived through the last of the

partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

that destroyed 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 ...

. He joined the Polish military, serving in the army of

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

from 1807 to 1815 and later in that of

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

. In Congress Poland, a

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, ruled by the

Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia Konstantin Pavlovich (; ) was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. He was the heir-presumptive for most of his elder brother Alexander I's reign, but had secretly renounced his c ...

, the

Polish army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

's morale was low. Łukasiński, who reached the rank of a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the

4th Regiment of Line Infantry The 4th Line Infantry Regiment () was a regiment of the Kingdom of Poland. Formed in 1815, the regiment distinguished itself in the battles of the November Uprising and remains one of the best-known units of the Polish Army of the era. The soldie ...

, created a secret organization known as National Freemasonry (''Wolnomularstwo Narodowe''), which existed from 1819 to 1820 and successfully raised morale. In 1818 Łukasiński published "Reflections of an Army Officer Concerning the Need of Organizing the Jews". In 1820 he formally disbanded National Freemasonry and replaced it by another secret organization, Patriotic Society (''Towarzystwo Patriotyczne''). Its goal was to influence public opinion and improve the lot of peasants and Jews. He was arrested by the Russian authorities and sentenced to 7 years of hard labour in

Zamość Zamość (; ; ) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. Zamość was founded in 1580 by Jan Zamoyski ...

. For participation in the prisoners revolt against inhumane conditions, he was accused of being one of the ringleaders and his sentence was doubled to 14 years. After the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

, Tsar

Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I, group=pron (Russian language, Russian: Николай I Павлович; – ) was Emperor of Russia, List of rulers of Partitioned Poland#Kings of the Kingdom of Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 18 ...

became convinced that Łukasiński was one of the main activists of the Polish underground and he was moved to a secure facility in Warsaw. During the

(1830–1831) he was taken with the Russian troops retreating from Warsaw and put in a Russian prison, the

Shlisselburg Fortress The Oreshek Fortress (; Schlüsselburg Fortress, ) is one of a series of fortifications built in Oreshek (now known as Shlisselburg) on Orekhovy Island in Lake Ladoga, near the modern city of Saint Petersburg in Russia. The first fortress was bui ...

. Most of the commanders of the Shlisselburg prison were kept unaware of the identity of the prisoner. One of the few people who, at that time, managed to communicate with Łukasiński, was Russian revolutionary

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...

, who was also imprisoned in Shlisselburg for several years. A few years before his death, after the death of Tsar Nicholas, a commander of the prison successfully petitioned Tsar

Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Grand Du ...

about improving his condition; Łukasiński was moved to a more comfortable cell above ground, where he was given new clothing and furniture and allowed to inquire about events outside and keep a diary.

Influence

Known as the "iron major," he became one of the

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

s of

Polish culture The culture of Poland () is the product of its Geography of Poland, geography and distinct historical evolution, which is closely connected to History of Poland, an intricate thousand-year history. Poland has a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic ma ...

and Poland's struggle for independence in the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the works of literature inspired by him, the most famous is

Stanisław Wyspiański Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter, poet, and interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created symbolic national dramas accordant with the artisti ...

's '' Noc Listopadowa'' ("November Night"). In 2018

Roman Turovsky-Savchuk Roman Mykhailovych Turovsky-Savchuk (born May 16, 1961) is an American artist-painter, photographer and videoinstallation artist, as well as a lutenist-composer,

composed a

tombeau A tombeau (plural tombeaux) is a musical composition (earlier, in the early 16th century, a poem) commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date f ...

in honor of Łukasiński.

References

Biography
* (Łukasiński's diary)

(briefly summarizes Łukasiński's life) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lukasinski, Walerian 1786 births 1868 deaths Polish Army officers Prisoners of Shlisselburg fortress Polish people who died in prison custody Polish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Polish political prisoners in the Russian partition Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Russia Prisoners who died in Russian Empire detention