Nezabytovsky, Karl Konstantinovich

Born on November 4, 1865 in the family estate of Alyashevichi in the Grodno district of the Grodno province ^[2] . According to other sources, he was born in Grodno ^[2] . The full name that he received at baptism into Catholicism was Karol-Stanislav. The father was a Catholic nobleman and a wealthy landowner Konstantin Khristoforovich Nezabytovsky, and his mother was a Catholic noblewoman Sofia Kamenskaya. Karol also had two more brothers - Stefan (Stanislav) and Ludwik.

A year after graduating from the university, in 1890, Karol Nezabytovsky married Vilnius Catholic noblewoman Sofia Lenskaya, whose family belonged to the middle-income indigenous nobility of the Minsk district of the Minsk province, and earlier the Minsk voivodship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. From his wife Sofia, he had five children:

• Christopher Nezabytovsky (1900-1920) - died unmarried;
• Mikhail Nezabytovsky (1901-1916) - died unmarried;
• Maria Nezabytovskaya (1903-1994) - married John Balinsky-Yunzill (1899-1974);
• Elena-Isabella Nezabytovskaya (1906-2000) - in 1935 married Count Heinrich Tyszkiewicz (1909—?);
• Irena-Elzhbeta Nezabytovskaya (1907-1997) - married to Count Vincent O'Rourke (1908-1979).

In 1879, together with his older brother Stefan Nezabytovsky, he entered the 4th grade of the classical gymnasium in Vilna, where he studied with Bronislaw Pilsudski and his brother Jozef Pilsudski ^[2] . After graduating from high school in 1884, he entered the Physics and Mathematics Department of St. Petersburg University, where he graduated with honors in 1889. After university, he took up the management of households in family estates in the Minsk and Grodno provinces, the main center of which was Batsevichi in the Bobruisk district of the Minsk province ^[2] .

After the death of his father, Karl inherited the Batsevichi family estate in the Bobruisk district of the Minsk province , as well as the Oleshevichi family estate in the Grodno district of the Grodno province of the Russian Empire. As a dowry from his wife, he received the estate of Khotov in the Minsk district of the Minsk province ^[2] . At the beginning of the 20th century, he bought the Ols estate from the Counts of Zabellles (a palace, a garden and 900 acres of land) in the Bobruisk district of the Minsk province ^[3] , which was a rarity in the region, since in 1864 there was a law according to which Catholics did not have the right to buy land in the western provinces of the Russian Empire.

After the Riga Peace Treaty (1921) , which divided Belarus into parts, only the estates of Oleshevichi and Khotov remained on the Polish side. In interwar Poland, Nezabytovsky additionally in Arkushava (near Gniezno ) bought land with an area of ​​84 morgues , which until the restoration of the Polish state turned out to be the territory of the German Empire and was subject to transfer to German owners ^{[3] [4]} .

He became a member of the Minsk Society of Agriculture (MOSH), and then one of its influential leaders. Relatives of the wife - Lensky - were also important members of the Moscow Union of Artists. Since 1901 he was also an active member of the Society for Mutual Insurance (against fire), an organization under the Moscow Union of Artists. Successfully engaged in farming on estates, he became a significant entrepreneur in the Minsk and Grodno provinces: at the beginning of the 20th century. in Batsevichy there was a mill, oil mills and brick factories, a furniture factory, at which a hospital for workers was organized. In 1909, instead of a wooden palace, he built a new brick palace in Batsevichy, where he had a lot of antique furniture and valuable art objects (he was especially proud of his ancient Austrian porcelain). Having large capital, supported by financially interest-free loans those Catholic landlords who needed money so that they would not lose their property through bankruptcy. This was a common tradition in the Northwest Territory: the bankruptcy of Catholic owners in the face of impossibility for Catholics to acquire land reduced the percentage of Catholic landowners in the province, and therefore would increase the influence of the Russian government and Russian landowners.

By appointment of the Russian authorities in 1897-1917. He held the position of Honorary Magistrate of Bobruisk County, which was usually the height of a career for Catholics, since there were many restrictions on the promotion of Catholics in the western provinces of the empire.

In 1897 he built a private hotel “Berezina and Evropeyskaya” in Bobruisk (then on the corner of Olkhovskaya and 2nd Slutskaya streets, now on the corner of Chongarskaya and Karl Marx streets), which the people called “Paris” ^[3] .

Kraevtsev activist

The revolution of 1905-1907 in the Russian Empire opened the opportunity for Catholics to engage in open political activity in the State Duma and the State Council of the Russian Empire. The leaders of the Minsk Society of Agriculture became the main developers of the postulates of the liberal-conservative trend of "local residents" and the main organizers of the creation of the Regional Party of Lithuania and Belarus (1907-1908). Karol Nezabytovsky became one of the founding members of the party.

In 1911, when Roman Skirmunt , vice-chairman of the Moscow Union of Artists, was forced to leave the mandate of a member of the State Council of the Russian Empire from the Minsk province, Karl Nezabytovsky, who took second place in the elections of deputies in 1911, took the place of a member of the State Council from the Minsk province, previously owned Skirmuntu was on the board until the end of his term in 1912 ^[2] . During the First World War, probably was constantly in the Minsk province.

After the fall of the Russian autocracy (1917-1918)

After the February Revolution (1917) in Russia, Nezabytovsky, along with other leaders of the Minsk Agricultural Society (MOSH), supported the idea of ​​the political subjectivity of Belarus. The leaders of the Minsk Agricultural Society gained influence in the Polish council of the Minsk land created in May 1917, which included Nezabytovsky. Having removed from the ranks of the “Polish Council” socialist slogans and ideas of supporters of the Polish national democratic party “Endecs” (about incorporating Belarus into Poland), the MOSH members, on the contrary, instilled the idea of ​​the political subjectivity of Belarus, allowing only an equal state union of Belarus and Poland ^[5] . Nezabytovsky became a member of the Union of Mayantkovites (landowners) of the Minsk province (headed by Count Jerzy Chapsky ), in which there were many members of the Moscow Union of Artists. After the October Revolution of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik authorities in Petrograd by the “Land Decree” of October 26, 1917, private ownership of land was abolished, which Nezabytovsky took negatively.

After in December 1917, the Polish Council of Minsk Land (headed by many leaders of the Moscow Union of Artists) established control over the 1st Polish Corps of General Józef Dovbor-Musnicki , whose headquarters was the city of Bobruisk ^[6] , on April 30, 1918, Karl Nezabytovsky He was appointed a member of the liquidation property commission of the corps, and also became a member of the civilian leadership of the city of Bobruisk and organized a Polish-speaking gymnasium in Bobruisk ^[2] . In the territories occupied by the First Polish Corps, the process of the seizure by the peasants of the land of former private estates was quickly stopped, and the estates were returned to the former owners.

Understanding the temporal success of Dovbor-Musnitsky’s success in the struggle by the Bolsheviks and being guided by the principle “just not to Russia,” the leaders of the Moscow Union of Artists and “Polish Soviets” began to seek rapprochement with the pro-German Polish Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland (1916-1918) in Warsaw and the Germans ^[7] . The leaders of the Moscow Union of Artists, guided by the principle of preserving the political subjectivity of Belarus, through their delegates to the Polish Council from Minsk Region, declared to the Polish Regency Council the desire to leave Belarus out of the influence of Bolshevik Russia, but “without the intention of directly incorporating Belarus into Poland”, which meant the creation of Polish -Belarusian Federation ^[8] .

The result of an agreement with the German command was the offensive in February 1918 of German troops in Minsk. At the same time, the leaders of the Moscow Artists Union sought to influence General Jozef Dovbor-Musnitsky so that he did not interfere with the movement of German troops to the Dnieper. In this mission, in the second decade of February 1918, a delegation from the Polish Council of the Minsk Land (Jerome Kenevich (1867-1925), Karol Nezabytovsky (1865-1952), Cheslav Krupsky ), and the Polish Council of Vilenska went to Bobruisk, the main headquarters of the Polish Corps. land (Vitold Kopec), the Polish Council of the Mogilev Land (Konstantin Gardyalkovsky) and others, which quickly joined Jerzy Osmolovsky and Kozel-Poklevsky ^[8] . The purpose of the delegation was to convince Dovbor-Musnitsky of the inevitability of liquidating Nachpol (Naczelny Polski Komitet Wojskowy, Naczpol) and persuade the Polish general to cooperate with the Germans. The leadership of the Polish Council of the Minsk Land went even further and sent a telegram from Minsk to Bobruisk to their delegation saying that if Dovbor-Musnitsky did not agree with the proposals of the delegation of the “Polish councils”, another officer should be appointed to replace the head of the 1st Polish Corps. The telegram was intercepted, delivered to General Dovbor-Musnitsky and provoked his natural indignation, but ultimately Dovbor-Musnitsky agreed to follow the delegation’s proposals not to interfere with the Germans ^[8] .

During the time of German power in the Minsk province (1918)

On June 18-19, 1918 Karol-Stanislav Nezabytovsky was in Minsk, occupied by German troops, and attended the second Polish meeting organized by the leaders of the Minsk Agricultural Society, which formed the leadership of the Polish Council of Minsk Land. The second Polish meeting was organized with the goal of finally ousting the supporters of the Polish national-democratic party “endecs” (along with their idea of ​​incorporating Belarus into Poland) from the executive committee of the Polish Council of Minsk Land and completely triumphing the idea of ​​political subjectivity of Belarus in the ranks of the “Polish Council” , which allowed only an equal state union of Belarus and Poland ^[5] . Karol Nezabytovsky, being an influential member of the Moscow Union of Artists, was elected to the committee of the Polish Council of Minsk Land on June 18 ^{[9] [10]} .

He participated in the restoration of the corporate organization of the nobility of the Minsk province in 1918-1920. and the election of Count Jerzy Chapsky for the position of Minsk provincial leader (1918-1920).

An attempt to create the Grand Duchy of Lithuania-Belarus (1918)

In early November 1918 in Minsk, Karol Nezabytovsky was part of a delegation of 30 nobles of the Minsk province (mainly from among the members of the Moscow Union of Artists) to the German general Erich von Falkenhayn (1861-1922), commander of the 10th German army. The delegates requested to inform the German Emperor Wilhelm II of their desire to create, under German supervision, the constitutional-monarchical Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Belarus. At the meetings of the Moscow Union of Artists, ideas have long been expressed about the need for a monarchical system of the state: it was Karol Nezabytovsky who aphoristically stated there once that the republic would lead to "cutting the public" ^{[9] [11]} . However, the project to create the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Belarus was not implemented, and at the end of November 1918 Nezabytovsky moved to Warsaw held by the Polish troops Jusef Pilsudski, since the Bolshevik troops entered the Minsk province ^[4] .

Support for the Federal Plans of Jozef Pilsudski (1919-1921)

In Warsaw, Karol Nezabytovsky teamed up with the same emigrant landowners from the Minsk province, who on December 6, 1918 founded their own organization, the Union of Poles of the Belorussian Suburbs (about 200 people), whose meetings were usually chaired by Edward Voynilovich , chairman of the Moscow Union of Artists ^{[12] [13 ] ]} . He supported the idea of ​​the entry of the Lithuanian-Belarusian lands as a subject of the federation into the structure of the renewable in 1919-1920. Jozef Pilsudski of the multinational federal Commonwealth and took part in the financing of the Lithuanian-Belarusian divisions ^[14] .

Already on January 18, 1919, as the representative of the Union, Karl Nezabytovsky, together with Edward Voinilovich, expressed to R. Foster, the representative of the American military-political mission that conducted a probe in Poland, the postulates of the positions of Minsk nobles about the need to recognize the federal state for which Pilsudski is fighting , within the borders of 1772 (that is, within the borders of the Commonwealth before its first partition in 1772 ) ^[4] . At the end of January 1919 in Warsaw, together with Michal Yastrzheski (a member of the Moscow Union of Artists and a close friend of Edward Voynilovich), Nezabytovsky was a representative of the Union of Poles of the Belarusian Outskirts and the Minsk Agricultural Society at a meeting with representatives of the Polish Central Agricultural Society (including its chairman Marian Kiniorsky ) and spoke out against any agrarian reform to transfer part of the land from landowners to landless citizens without proper redemption of the transferred land for money ^[4] . In the spring of 1919 he became the plenipotentiary of the Polish Red Cross on the Belarusian front of the Polish-Soviet war ^[4] .

After occupying the Lithuanian-Belarusian divisions of Minsk in 1919, he took up the post of head of one of the main divisions of the Moscow Union of Artists - the trade department (the so-called "agricultural syndicate") and held this position until July 1920, when the Bolshevik troops approached Minsk - the Red Army ^{[ 4]} .

It was not possible to realize the idea of ​​the Polish-Belarusian Federation. As a result of the Riga Peace Treaty (1921), all the Nezabytovsky estates and other real estate that were on the Soviet side (Batsevichi and Olsa) were nationalized by the Soviet government. На польской стороне остались имения Хотов (2300 моргов) около Столбцов, Глубокое и Олешевичи (вместе 2360 моргов) ^[4] .

В межвоенной Польши (1921—1939)

1 мая 1921 г. Незабытовский присутствовал на общем собрании 54 членов МОСХ в Варшаве в зале Центрального общества сельского хозяйства (в доме № 30 на улице Коперника), где Эдвард Войнилович зачитал протокол об упразднении МОСХ, что было одобрено всеми присутствующими членами общества, так же как и политическая часть того протокола, которая резко осуждала Рижский мирный договор (1921 года) и раздел Беларуси на части. Политическая часть была опубликована в газетах. Незабытовский одним из первых присоединился к политической группировке «виленских консерваторов», которая до «Майского переворота» (1926) Юзефа Пилсудского имела слабое политическое влияние в Польше. 31 мая 1926 года Незабытовский встретился с Пилсудским, с которым имел дружескую частную беседу: во время разговора он уверял Пилсудского о большой роли масонства , а также выразил критические замечания относительно прежней аграрной политики Владислава Грабского , которая привела к снижению цен на сельскохозяйственную продукцию ^[4] .

4 июля 1926 г. в Вильнюсе на собрании 100 лиц была создана "Консервативная организация государственного труда" (Organizacja Zachowawcza Pracy Państwowej), которая позиционировалась как общественное объединение «виленских консерваторов». В её состав вошел и Незабытовский ^{[4] [15]} . Поддержка «виленскими консерваторами» переворота и новой политики Пилсудского, личное знакомство Пилсудского и Незабытовского (ещё с гимназии), а также знания и опыт Незабытовского в аграрных вопросах, привели к тому, что 2 октября 1926 года Пилсудский ввёл двух «виленских консерваторов» (Карла Незабытовского и Александра Мейштовича) в состав нового правительства ^[4] : Незабытовский стал министром сельского хозяйства и государственных имуществ (1926—1927), а затем (по причине переименования должности) министром сельского хозяйства (1927—1929). Именно Незабытовский предложил Мейштовича на пост министра юстиции (1926—1928), на что Пилсудский согласился ^[4] . Присяга на должность состоялась 10 октября 1926 г. Именно с Незабытовским и Мейштовичем Юзеф Пилсудский приехал 25 октября 1926 г. в Несвиж князей Радзивиллов на встречу с лидерами «виленских консерваторов» — местными консервативными аристократами и богатыми помещиками (из северо-восточных воеводств Польши — бывших Виленской, Гродненской и Минской губерний Российской империи), пытаясь получить союзников против польских «эндеков» ^[16] . Визит в Несвиж имел большое значение для необходимого роста поддержки Пилсудского со стороны землевладельцев всей Польши ^[17] .

После вступления в должность министра Незабытовский начал кампанию по повышению цен на продукцию сельского хозяйства и разрушения преград для экспорта продуктов за границу, чтобы обеспечить приток валюты в Польшу. Однако вице-премьер Казимир Бартель был сторонником низких цен на продукты, поэтому Незабытовскому пришлось считаться с этим вопреки собственным взглядам ^[4] .

Присутствовал 18 июня 1928 года на похоронах Эдварда Войниловича (1847—1928) в Быдгоще , а после опубликовал в местной газете «Dziennik Bydgoski» (5 июля 1928 Г.) хвалебную статью в его память «Pamięci wielkiego obywatela i prawdziwego chrześcijanina», сравнивая Войниловича с апостолом («ведь только настоящий христианин в состоянии с покорностью и повиновением воле Божьей может свои несчастья так мужественно переносить и иметь еще слова утешения для других»).

Занимая должность министра, Незабытовский стал сенатором (1928—1930) от Полесского воеводства.

7 декабря 1929 подал в отставку, как и другие члены кабинета Казимира Свитальского , и не вошел в состав нового кабинета Казимира Бартеля ^[18] . После окончания срока члена сената от Полесского воеводства 30 августа 1930 года, оставил политику и начал заниматься только управлением своего поместья Хотов ^[18] . В 1930 г. был награждён Командорским крестом со звездой ордена Возрождения Польши.

Частная жизнь в Польше (1930—1939)

После отхода от политики жил в имении Хотов, хозяйство которого держал на высоком уровне и где построил новый костёл ^[18] . Писал статьи в газеты консервативной направленности, в том числе и в газету «виленских консерваторов» «Słowo». Например, опубликовал в 1933 г. в польском консервативным журнале «Nasza Przyszłość» (t. 27 1933) свою статью «Czy polacy są słowianami» («Являются ли поляки славянами?»), где отстаивал идею, что поляки не славяне ^[18] .

В эмиграции во Франции и Великобритании (1939—1952)

С началом оккупации Польши (1939) немецкими войсками в ходе Второй мировой войны, 17 сентября 1939 г. Незабытовский с семьей выехал в Великобританию, после Францию, затем снова переехал в Великобританию ^[18] . Написал несколько мемуарных статей, в первую очередь воспоминания о занятии должности министра и школьные годы рядом с Юзефом Пилсудским («Od szkolnej ławy z Piłsudskim», 1952.) ^[18] . В последние годы жизни жил в нищете и содержался в частном пансионате «Antokol» (названном в честь предместья Вильнюса — Антоколь) для «ветеранов» политической элиты межвоенной Польши, финансируемого за счет польского Гражданского комитета ^[18] .

Смерть и похороны

Умер 26 ноября 1952 г. в городе Бэкенхэм (графство Кент , Великобритания ). Был похоронен на местном кладбище Элмерс Энд (Elmers End Cemetery) города Бэкенхэм (Beckenham), что теперь уже является частью Большого Лондона ^[18] .

В некрологе, размещенном в британской польскоязычной газете «Wiadomości», о Кароле Незабытовском было написано: «Карол Незабытовзски был неординарной и очень предприимчивой личностью. Строил на территории Бобруйщины дороги и мосты. Организовывал благотворительную деятельность. Помогал молодежи <...> Сейчас трудно встретить людей с такой силой духа» ^[3] .

В 1993 году дочь Кароля Незабытовского Ирена О'Рурик (1907—1997) с внуком Иваном посетила Бацевичи и Бобруйск. Посмотрела на место разрушенной усадьбы в Бацевичах, где она провела своё детство. ^[3] .

• Przyczyny ruiny gospodarki w Polsce i jak je usunąć // Słowo . — 1926. — 7—8 XI.
• Pamięci wielkiego obywatela i prawdziwego chrześcijanina // Dziennik Bydgoski. — 1928. — 5 lipca.
• Czy polacy są słowianami // Nasza Przyszłość : wolna trybuna zachowawczej myśli państwowej. — 1933. — t. 27.
• Od szkolnej ławy z Piłsudskim // Wiadomości. — 1952. — nr 3, 7, 13, 19.

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