Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki

Count Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki (10 June 1861 – 12 April 1908) was a Polish aristocrat and Austro-Hungarian politician who was Governor of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria from 1903 until his assassination by Ukrainian nationalist in 1908.

Early life Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki was born on 10 June 1861 in Krzeszowice, the younger son of Adam Potocki, a member of the Potocki family and a politician in the Eastern European region of Galicia, at the time under the control of the Austrian Empire, and his wife, Katarzyna née Branicka.

He was educated at the Saint Anne Gymnasium in Kraków from 1877, passing the matura exam with honours in 1879. He studied at the Jagiellonian University, where he obtained a doctorate in law in 1884. Although this system increased the conservatives’ chances of getting their candidates elected, in general the reform of significantly reduced the chances of the conservatives. Not wanting to allow the socialists and Ukrainian nationalists to win too many seats, during the elections of May 1907 Potocki, alongside the conservatives, also supported the National Democrats, and in Eastern Galicia the Ukrainian Russophiles.

In December 1907 he brought about an alliance between the conservative National Right Party and the Polish People’s Party, representing peasantry.

Assassination

On 12 April 1908, Potocki held a Sunday reception with citizens at the Government House, the governor's residence in Lviv. Shortly after 13:40, Potocki was shot three times at point-blank range with a revolver by , a student and the youngest member of a prominent family of Greek Catholic priests and politicians. Sichynskyi had previously partaken in a pro-autonomy riot by Ukrainian students at the University of Lviv in 1907, and he had been pardoned after being arrested for involvement in the riots. It was allegedly an act of revenge for the death of the Ukrainian peasant politician Marko Kahanets, who had been killed during election-related unrest.

In addition to political qualms, there was at first speculation that Sichynskyi had been suffering from suicidal urges when he killed Potocki, as his eldest brother had previously committed suicide and Sichynskyi himself was believed to be suicidal. During mental evaluations conducted prior to his trial, however, Austrian police assessed that he was mentally healthy. Sichynskyi would be imprisoned for only a year before being set free by sympathetic prison guards. He emigrated to the United States, where he remained as a minor, pro-Soviet figure in the Ukrainian diaspora community until his death.

Family and estate Potocki was the heir to a vast fortune, which he multiplied throughout his career. It comprised numerous estates in Galicia, Congress Poland and Ukraine. In Galicia, he owned estates covering 19,000 hectares, including above all Krzeszowice and Kamionka Strumiłłowa, as well as two coal mines, several other mineral mines, an oil refinery in Trzebinia, a brickyard, sawmills, and two distilleries. In Congress Poland, he held the Międzyrzec estate and other properties amounting to 41,000 hectares. In Ukraine, he owned the Burzanka-Wilkowce estate of 27,000 hectares and two sugar factories. He also possessed smaller estates in Hungary and Moravia.

In 1889, he married Krystyna Tyszkiewicz-Łohojska in Trakų Vokė in Lithuania, the daughter of Jan Witold and Iza Adelajda Tyszkiewicz-Łohojski. They had six daughters:

Katarzyna (1890–1977), wife of Leon Aleksander Sapieha; Maria Teresa (b. 1891), wife of Józef Tyszkiewicz; Izabela (1893–1962), wife of Franciszek Krasiński; Krystyna (1894–1963), wife of Stanisław Siemieński-Lewiński; Zofia (1902–1940), wife of Władysław Jezierski; Joanna (1904–1967), wife of Stanisław Potocki;

And three sons:

Adam (1896–1966), husband of Maria Dembińska, owner of Krzeszowice; Artur (1899–1941), husband of Maria Tarnowska; Andrzej (1900–1939), husband of Zofia Tarnowska, owner of Międzyrzec Podlaski, participant in the September Campaign, killed near Wielkie Oczy.