17 Facts About Stefan Bobrowski

Stefan Bobrowski was a Polish politician and activist for Polish independence.

Stefan Bobrowski participated in the January 1863 Uprising as one of the leaders of its "Red" faction and as a member of that faction's Central National Committee, and of the Provisional National Government.

Stefan Bobrowski tried to establish links with potential revolutionaries within Russia who opposed their country's tsar.

Stefan Bobrowski had agreed to the duel though he was sure to lose due to his extreme near-sightedness.

Stefan Bobrowski was an uncle to English-language novelist Joseph Conrad, and a possible inspiration for the protagonist of Conrad's Lord Jim.

Stefan Bobrowski was born to a Polish szlachta family in Terechowa near Berdyczow, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire.

Stefan Bobrowski organized an illegal print shop in Kiev Pechersk Lavra and oversaw the publication of the society's two newspapers Odrodzenie and Wielkorus.

The Tsarist police found the print shop and closed it down in 1862, while Stefan Bobrowski avoided capture because the police mistakenly arrested another student with the same surname "Stefan Bobrowski".

Stefan Bobrowski traveled to Moldavia, where he checked on the formation of a Polish Legion which was supposed to enter Poland upon the outbreak of hostilities to support the insurrection.

Stefan Bobrowski returned to Kiev, where he subordinated the Triple Society to the KCN.

On 1 January 1863 Stefan Bobrowski came to Warsaw, where he was made a member of the Central Committee of the KCN.

At that point the Central Committee, prodded by Stefan Bobrowski, decided against the appointment of another dictator.

On 20 March 1863 Stefan Bobrowski went to Krakow to investigate the circumstances of Langiewicz's self-proclamation as dictator and his subsequent departure.

Shortly before, he had sent a letter to Langiewicz in which he had commented upon the character of Count Grabowski, who had convinced Langiewicz to become dictator, and in which Stefan Bobrowski had referred to Grabowski as a "common thug whom a serious politician should be ashamed to even mention".

Additionally, when Stefan Bobrowski had met Grabowski face-to-face, he had refused to shake his hand.

Stefan Bobrowski did so despite the fact that he was pretty much guaranteed to lose, as he was extremely short-sighted, while Grabowski had been a renowned marksman in the Prussian army.

Grabowski shot him directly in the heart, and Stefan Bobrowski died on the spot.