Biography of Thaddeus Kosciuszko

Tadeusz Kosciuszko is a world renowned native of Belarus.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko descended from the old, poor Belarusian gentry, who owned from 1509. a small estate of Sekhnovichi in Beresteyskoye Voivodeship and had its own coat of arms and personal seal.

NAME. More often known under his second name - Tadeusz, however, there is also the full form of his baptismal name - Andrei Tadeusz Bonaventura Kosciuszko-Sekhnovichsky.

PLACE OF BIRTH. Merechevschina tract in the Ivatsevichi region.

DATE OF BIRTH. 02/04/1746

The baptism was performed on 02/12/1746. Priest Raimund Korsak in the Kossovsky Church of the Holy Trinity.

EDUCATION. Until the age of 9, like all the children of the gentry, he studied at home. From the age of 9 - at the school of the Catholic Order of PRs in the town of Lyubeshiv (now Ukraine). In 1765. enrolled in the Warsaw Cadet Corps. In 1769. sent as a royal fellow to France, where he studied military engineering in Paris and attended classes at the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He spoke five languages, played the piano and composed music himself.

MILITARY CAREER. His career in America was successful. In 1783. The Congress awarded T. Kostyushko the title of Brigadier General of the United States. T. Kostyushko became famous for his military skill in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had two armies - the crown (Polish) and Lithuanian (the Grand Duchy of Lithuania). Kosciuszko was enlisted in the Polish army in 1790. and two years later he was promoted to lieutenant general. During the uprising of 1794. of the peoples of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, led by the “general of two armies”, Kosciuszko was proclaimed in Krakow the Highest Commander of all the armed forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION. T. Kostyushko's merits were highly appreciated during his lifetime. He received honorary American and French citizenship. He was awarded the Order of Cincinnatus in the USA, and the Virtuti Militari in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Later he was proclaimed National Hero of Poland and the United States of America.

1794 On March 24, Kosciuszko proclaimed the Act of Uprising. Already on April 4, he defeated the Russian troops in the Battle of Racławice.

A decisive battle took place at Matsejowice (near Warsaw) on October 10. The rebel army was defeated, and Kosciuszko, wounded in the battle, was captured by the tsarist troops. He was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. After the death of Catherine II, her son Paul I granted freedom to T. Kosciuszko

LADIES OF THE HEART. In his life, the general did not create a family. His first love - Ludvika Sosnovskaya - the daughter of the governor Yuri Sosnovskiy.

However, Ludvika's father did not want to hear about his daughter's marriage with an ignorant nobleman. The plan of Kosciuszko also failed to kidnap his beloved girl, who was soon married to Prince Jozef Lubomirsky without her consent.

At the age of 44, he falls in love again with 18-year-old Teklya Zhurovskaya. However, again the girl's parents were against marriage.

DEATH. His heart stopped at 10 pm on October 15, 1817 at the home of a friend of Zeltner's (Gord of Salaturn, Switzerland).

MEMORY OF THE COSTUME IN THE WORLD. There are about 200 T. Kosciuszko monuments in the world. His name is the highest point of the Australian continent and a city in the United States. Monuments of Kosciuszko are installed in many cities of the United States (Philadelphia, Washington, Saratoga, etc.).

Belarus also immortalized the memory of its great son. There is the village of Kostyushkovo in the Mogilev region.

In cities: Grodno, Zhabinka, Kossovo, Ivatsevichi, there are Kosciuszko streets.

In 2004, there was a grand opening of the memorial museum-estate of T. Kostyushko in Merechevshchina (Ivatsevichi district, Brese region).