Potocki, Stanislav Schensny

Childhood and adolescence

Stanislav Schenny, whose second home name is a translation of the Latin baptismal name Felix (“happy”), is the only son of the governor of Volyn and Kiev Franz Saleziy Potocki (1700-1772) from his second marriage with Anna Pototskaya (d. 1772) . Youth spent in the parental estate - in Kristinopol in Galicia. His tutor was priest Wolf. Wolff tried to instil in the young graph a high morality, a sense of responsibility, mercy and concern for the peasants.

Schensny’s ​​father and mother were very strict, and his mother was even despotic towards his son. Parents hoped for a profitable dynastic marriage with a princely or earl family. However, Schensny fell in love with Gertrude, the daughter of Count J. Komarovsky, who owned only a few villages. With Gertrude Schensny secretly from their parents married in 1770.

By order of Salesy Potocki, a pregnant Gertrude was kidnapped and taken to a monastery. So that on the way she did not attract attention, she was covered with pillows under which she choked. Gertrude's corpse was thrown into the hole ^[3] . Learning about this, young Pototsky tried to commit suicide, but his djura saved him. Gertrude's father began a lawsuit that threatened Salezia Potocki with exile from Poland. Unable to withstand the shame at the beginning of 1772, the mother of Shchensny, Gunn Elzhbet, suddenly died, and Salesy Potocki died on October 11 of that year. So the 20-year-old Stanislav Schensny became the sole owner of a huge estate, burdened with his father’s million debts.

Tycoon

Since after the first partition of Poland Galicia withdrew to Austria, the young tycoon did not want to live in Kristinopol. In November 1774, Pototsky married his second marriage to a noble family of the young Countess Jozefina Amalia Mnishek and a year later he transferred his residence to the territory of Poland in Tulchin . He gave all his estates in Galicia to Count Poninsky , who undertook to repay his father’s debts and transferred to Potocki for 50 years the right to use the Zvenigorod eldership.

In 1774, when he first visited his estates in Right-Bank Ukraine, Pototsky was amazed at the beauty and generosity of this land. He decided to do housekeeping. In 1782 a beautiful palace was built in Tulchin; a large park was laid here. Traveling with his young wife in Europe, Shchennyy brought many seedlings of pyramidal poplar and other plants from Italy to Tulchin.

In his estates, Potocki was more involved in animal husbandry, agriculture and forestry. In the estates, new varieties of wheat, rye and oats were sown at that time. The peasants were gradually transferred to the so-called general chinsh, that is, instead of all duties, they paid money. When the peasants transferred to such a chinsh were attracted to work for the landowner, they were paid in money. This form of settlement was beneficial to the serfs and contributed to the development of their economic initiative. The key economics developed for Pototsky's estates indicated that “the economy should treat a subordinate (serf) as a person, but if he cannot, which is hard to imagine, then in any case he should consider a subordinate to be the most important property of the owner, to whom he serves. " In another paragraph it says that each subordinate should live not in a dugout, but in an above-ground hut, which a certain ten peasants should build. The key housekeeper should ensure that all farmers every 6 years planted a certain number of apples, pears, cherries and mulberries in their yard. Peasants were also obligated in their yard, as well as in ravines and other unsuitable for plowing lands, to plant fast-growing trees for their needs - willows and poplars.

In Ukraine, Potocki owned about one and a half million hectares, 130,000 serfs worked for him, and the annual income of the estates was 3 million zlotys.

Policy first steps

Since 1773, Potocki has plunged into the political life of Poland. He received from the king the title of Governor of the Russian. The lands of the voivodship — Galicia — then belonged to Austria, and the title of voivod was formal, but this title gave the right to be considered a senator. At the Polish Sejm of 1784, Pototsky announced that he was donating an artillery regiment to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and would ensure its further maintenance. This regiment was to stand in Tulchin , and in 1786, Lieutenant L. Metzel, the future architect of Sofiyivka , was sent here to create an artillery unit. When the Polish Sejm in 1788-1789. things didn’t go the way the tycoons wanted, Pototsky and his family went to Vienna and traveled a lot abroad.

In May 1791, the Polish Sejm adopted a new constitution and laws that restricted the rights of the feudal lords. This caused dissatisfaction among the Polish nobility. Pototsky joined the "Russian Party", the purpose of which was to restore magnetism and the old economy, called "Polish freedom." In October 1791, Pototsky, together with the hetmans Severin Rzhevusky and Xavier Branitsky, arrived in Iasi at the main apartment of the Russian troops who took part in the war with Turkey to discuss plans to fight for their rights. Probably it was here, in Iasi, that Pototsky met a beautiful Greek woman, Sophia, the wife of the general of the Russian army, the commander of Kherson, Count Jozef Witt .

In the pro-Russian party

Pototsky, together with other magnates, sent the “confederation” project to Empress Catherine II in order to overthrow the then Polish government and create a new one in which they would play a dominant role. Defending, on the one hand, the advantages and power of the nobility, and on the other, an alliance with Russia, Pototsky soon lost the love of his people, which he used before. Having refused from the position of the Russian voevod to be elected Bratslav deputy in the Sejm, he arrived in Warsaw, hoping to get to the chairmen of the Sejm. The Seym met on October 6, 1788 - and, much to Potocki’s amazement, he was not elected chairman. At that time, the beautiful Sophia Witt arrived here, with secret instructions from the Russian government. From the very first meeting, Pototsky passionately fell in love with Sofia, but he still managed to resist his passion. When Pototsky proposed an alliance with Russia, voices rose against him that he was a traitor. Irritated by the slander that fell on him and was not capable of oppositional struggle, he left the Diet and returned to Ukraine.

In a letter of May 13, Empress Catherine wrote to Potemkin : “This virtuous citizen can be sure that I will never forget the feelings he expressed about me and my Empire.” The empress assured that she would take the first opportunity to express her gratitude to his wife and children.

In 1790, well- born Poles came to Iasi to Potemkin, dissatisfied with the reformist aspirations of the progressive party and looking for support from Russia. Sophia Witt, who was here, also fell, according to Ralle, among the guns with which they tried to incline Potocki to their side. Potocki joined the confederation . The reward for this was Sophia's love, which Pototsky bought from her husband Witt. Catherine II, through Count Bezborodko, told Potocki and Rzhevussky that they and all supporters of the old form of government would find a true friend in it. Finally, on December 29, a peace treaty was signed.

In January 1792, the Polish Seym removed Potocki from all government posts.

In February 1792, Pototsky and Rzhevussky hurried to appear in St. Petersburg as persecuted exiles, deprived of their titles and estates by personal enemies and enemies of Russia, and asked the sovereign for the protection and restoration of the former constitution guaranteed by her. They were received cordially and with participation. “How not to accept them,” said the empress, “For 30 years, Potocki has been faithful to us for a loyal friend of Russia, and another of the enemy has become a friend.” Catherine decided to intervene in Polish affairs in the same way: she promised Potocki to attend to the inviolability of their possessions and strong support for the confederation to subvert the innovations made in Poland. In April, part of the Russian troops from Turkey , under the command of Kakhovsky , were ordered to move to Poland and cross the Dnieper . The Empress ordered Kakhovsky to recognize the Targowitz Confederation and to act with her together. Following the Russian troops and under their protection, the confederation of Count Potocki in Targowitz opened the meeting and promulgated a confederation act, under which Count Stanislav Schensny was the first to sign, followed by others. In this act, the Confederates pledged to “destroy the constitution on May 3, the grave of freedom" and not to dissolve their union until the former freedom and republican form of government were restored.

Soon the republican troops joined the confederation, and the successful actions of the Russians prompted the king to join the act of the Targowitz confederation, and on August 19 the orders that existed before May 3, 1791 were restored in Poland and the oath of troops and residents to the king and the Targowitz confederation was reinstated.

In May 1792, a manifesto of a confederation of magnates, directed against the Polish constitution, was proclaimed in Targowice, the border town of the estates of Potocki, and Potocki became a marshal of the Targowitz Confederation. On the eve of the second division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Potocki left Poland, transferring the management of his property to his wife Yuzefina, and settled in Hamburg. Later he sent a letter to Catherine I: “If E. i. at. recognizes it possible that I wear the uniform of her army, it will make me extremely proud and extremely happy ... "

On August 31, a solemn unification of the Polish and Lithuanian confederations in Brest-Litovsk followed. On September 14, Pototsky received the rescript from Catherine with gratitude; In addition, Countess Pototskaya was granted to the State Lady ( 1792 ), and he himself received the Order of St. Andrew the First Called . On October 6, Count Stanislav presented to the Empress a plan for the future form of government of the republic, which was to be submitted to the Sejm at the confederation.

Targovitskaya Confederation , thanks to Russia and as its instrument, prevailed. Another party began to rule Poland — Stanislav Felix Potocki, who sought, like the previous one, not so much for the common good, as for the personal. On October 14, its meetings began in Grodno , where Pototsky arrived with his beloved Sophia, who now openly traveled everywhere with him. The main activity of the Confederates was aimed at the destruction of all the laws of the Four-year Diet . All power passed into their hands, and they generously used it to their advantage. But soon there was a threat of confederation from Prussia. Pototsky appealed for protection to the Russian empress. Confederation was in uncertainty and fear. The courier brought the Order of St. Catherine of the 1st Degree to Countess Pototskaya from St. Petersburg and the empress’s handwritten letter, but the Russian court was silent. Finally, on March 27, at 10 am, a manifesto on the accession of some regions of Poland to Russia was made public. The confederation rule in them was destroyed, and the population swore allegiance to the empress. Polish troops also swore allegiance to Catherine.

In 1795, Pototsky arrived in St. Petersburg, where his wife, Yuzefina, State Lady Catherine II, was at the court. Since 1797 Pototsky - general of the Russian service.

All the huge estates of Potocki, when they came under Russian rule, remained with him. At this time, Pototsky completely obeyed the beautiful Sophia, as only she also tied him to life in the desperate position in which he found himself after the Second Partition of the Commonwealth. Soon the lack of money joined the loneliness: Joseph Witt sent Pototsky an ultimatum: either immediately return his wife, or pay a fabulous sum. Then Potocki decided to divorce Yuzefina; the count and countess Witt were also to be divorced. In early 1796, Pototsky returned with Sofia to Russia. October 30, 1798 he was dismissed from service. All his attempts at divorce were in vain: Jozefina did not agree. Potocki’s long bargaining with Witt was finally over, and the first bought Sofia for more than 2 million Polish zlotys.

At the beginning of 1798, Yuzefina died. On April 17 of the same year, the marriage of Sofia Konstantinovna Witt , nee Glavone, with her old lover was committed near Tulchin . The Potockis settled in Uman ; here Schensny has built a huge garden, which, in honor of his third wife, called Sofiyevka (now, an arboreal dendrological park of exceptional beauty and abundance of rare vegetation, visited by thousands of tourists from all over the world). Their life flowed calmly, in the circle of old friends Potocki, who shared with him the participation in the ill-fated confederation. Little by little, some other magnates remembered the road to Umansky Palace.

March 15, 1805 Stanislav Schensny Potocki died. The coffin was placed in the church and left for the whole night. At night, unknown persons removed their uniform from the dead man, took away all orders and valuables, and put a completely naked body and leaned against the wall, next was a pinned piece of paper with an inscription “for treason”. The Poles did not forgive Potocki for his betrayal. He was buried in the Smolensk Lutheran cemetery . Subsequently, the ashes were transferred to the family crypt in the crypt of the Church of the Visitation by the Blessed Virgin Mary Elizabeth , located on the territory of the Vyborg Roman Catholic cemetery in St. Petersburg in 1856 ^[4] .

After the death of her husband, his widow took up her property and charity and turned into an exemplary family man, leaving behind a good memory. From her marriage to Potocki, she had three sons and two beautiful daughters, of whom Countess Sophia was married to Count P. D. Kiselyov , and Countess Olga — for L. Naryshkin . Countess Sofia Pototskaya (born in 1766), known by the nickname "la belle Phanariote", died in 1822 at the age of 56.

Stanislav Pototsky was married three times:

1. wife since December 26, 1770 Gertrud Komarovskaya (died 1771), married secretly, there were no children from marriage.
2. wife from December 1, 1774, to Jozefina Amalia Mniszek (1752-1798), the only daughter of Jerzy August Mnishek (1715-1778) and Countess Maria Amalia Frederik von Brül (c. 1737-1772). The wedding was played in Dukla . Countess Pototskaya was a talented artist and worked under the guidance of A. Albertrandi . She was known to society for her witty conversations, in which she did not always observe the proper measure of decency. Belonging to the Russian party, she enjoyed the location of Empress Catherine II. In 1792 she was granted to the State Lady, and in 1793 she received the Order of St. Catherine of the Great Cross . She died in 1798 in St. Petersburg. She left numerous offspring (11 children), “works of years and leisure,” as she herself put it ^[5] :
   • Pelagia Roza Pototskaya (1775–1846), 1st husband since 1793, Prince Frantisek Sapega (1772–1829), 2nd husband since 1806, Prince Pavel Sapega (1781–1855)
   • Felix (Shchenny) Jerzy Potocki (1776-1809)
   • Ludwika (Louise Sophia) Pototskaya (1779–1850), wife since 1793, the great Lithuanian hunter of Józef Kossakovsky (1771–1840)
   • Victoria Pototskaya (1780–1826), 1st husband since 1801, Count Antoine Louis Octavius ​​de Choiseul-Gufier (1773–1840). In 1821, after a divorce, she re-married General Alexei Nikolayevich Bakhmetyev (1774-1841)
   • Rosa Potocki (1780–1862), 1st husband, Count Anthony Potocki (1780–1850), 2nd husband since 1813, Count Vladislav Branitsky (1783–1843)
   • Constance Pototskaya (1781-1852), 1st husband since 1798, Polish writer Count Jan Potocki (1761-1815), 2nd husband since 1817 Earl Edward Raczynski (1786-1845)
   • Yaroslav Pototsky (1781–1838), Major General, Chamberlain; the only of the sons of Stanislav Schensny, whose male line continues to this day.
   • Stanislav Pototsky (1786–1831), Russian major general and adjutant general , participant in the Napoleonic wars
   • Octavia Pototskaya (1787–1842), wife of Jan Kaetan Sveykovsky
   • Vladimir Pototsky (1788–1812), colonel of horse artillery
   • Idalia Pototskaya (1793-1859), wife since 1806 of prince Nikolay Sapega (1779-1853)
3. wife since April 17, 1798 Sofia Glavone (1760-1822), the wedding was in Tulchin , children:
   • Alexander Pototsky (1798–1868), a participant in the November Uprising .
   • Mechislav Frantisek Jozef Potocki (1799–1876), Polish magnate and adventurer
   • Sofia Pototskaya (1801–1875), wife since 1829, General of Infantry, Count Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselev (1788–1872)
   • Olga Pototskaya (1803–1861), wife since 1824, Lieutenant General Lev Alexandrovich Naryshkin (1785–1846)
   • Boleslaw Potocki (1805-1893), Master of Ceremonies of the St. Petersburg Court

• Biography in the Russian Biographical Dictionary
• Cameristov Rostislav The robbery of Count Stanislav Potocki near Kiev in 1780 (Unidentified) . Borscht The appeal date is March 12, 2018.