Józef Rufin Wybicki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjuzɛv vɨˈbit͡skʲi]; 29 September 1747 – 10 March 1822) was a Polish nobleman, jurist, poet, political and military activist of Kashubian descent.[1] He is best remembered as the author of "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" (English: "Dąbrowski's Mazurka"), which was adopted as the Polish national anthem in 1927.
Józef Wybicki | |
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Coat of arms | ![]() Rogala |
Born | (1747-09-29)29 September 1747 Będomin, Pomerania, Poland |
Died | 10 March 1822(1822-03-10) (aged 74) Manieczki, Schrimm, Prussia |
Noble family | Wybicki herbu (coat of arms) Rogala |
Spouse(s) | 1. Kunegunda Wybicka, née Drwęska (1773–1775) 2. Estera Wybicka, née Wierusz-Kowalska (1780) |
Father | Piotr Wybicki |
Mother | Konstancja Wybicka, née z Lniskich |
Wybicki was born in Będomin, in the region of Pomerania in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[2] His family was Pomeranian nobility.[3]
He finished a Jesuit school, and in his youth was a junior court official.[3] Wybicki was elected a deputy to the Repnin Sejm, the session of Polish parliament in 1767, on the eve of the First Partition of Poland.[2] Subsequently he joined the insurgency known as the Confederation of Bar (1768–1772), aimed at opposing the Russian influence and king Stanisław August Poniatowski.[2][3] He was one of the advisors (konsyliarz) of the Confederacy, acting as a diplomat.[4] After the failure of the uprising, he spent some time in the Netherlands, studying law at Leiden University.[3]
Returning to Poland, in the 1770s and 1780s he was associated with the Commission of National Education.[2] He supported King Stanisław August Poniatowski and his proposed reforms.[2][3] He helped draft the liberal Zamoyski Codex of laws of the late 1770s.[5] He was a Patriotic Party activist during the Great Sejm (1788–92) – though he was not one of its first deputies, during much of that time staying at his estate, writing and staging operas.[2][3] He did, however, participate in the Great Sejm's deliberations, beginning in 1791.[5] In 1792, in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War of 1792, like many of Poniatowski's supporters, he joined the Targowica Confederation.[6]
He participated in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794)[2] and was a member of the Military Section of the Provisional Council of the Duchy of Masovia.[7] After the failure of this insurrection he moved to France.[3]
He was a close friend of both Tadeusz Kościuszko and Jan Henryk Dąbrowski.[8] With Dąbrowski he organized the Polish Legions in Italy, serving under Napoleon Bonaparte.[2] In 1797, while in Reggio Emilia, Italy, he wrote Mazurek Dąbrowskiego (Dąbrowski's Mazurek).[2] In 1806 he helped Dąbrowski organize the Greater Poland Uprising.[3]
After the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, he held a number of positions in its Department of Justice, and continued working for it after the Duchy's transformation into Congress Poland.[3] In 1817 he became president of the Supreme Court of Congress Poland.[9]
He died on 10 March 1822 in Manieczki, in Schrimm, then part of the Grand Duchy of Posen, Prussia.[2]
Wybicki was a writer, journalist and a poet.[2] He wrote political-themed poems, plays and political treaties advocating reforms in Poland in the 1770s and 1780s.[2][3] His works of that time analyzed the Polish political system, the concepts of liberty, and advocated for more rights for the peasantry.[10] He would also publish more political brochures in the 1800s, advocating for liberal reforms in the Duchy of Warsaw.[3]
Mazurek Dąbrowskiego (Dąbrowski's Mazurka) remains Wybicki's most famous creation.[3] It has been regarded as an unofficial national anthem since the November Uprising of 1831.[2] In 1927 the Mazurka was officially adopted as the Polish national anthem by the Polish parliament (Sejm).[3][11]
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