Konstanty Kalinowski

Konstanty Kalinowski, or Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski ( – ), was a Polish–Lithuanian noble and one of the leaders of the 1863 January Uprising within the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He is a national hero for Poles, Lithuanians, and Belarusians. Particularly in Belarus, Kalinowski is revered as Father of the Nation and icon of Belarusian nationalism.

Kalinowski conducted his activities in the spirit of resurrecting the common state of Lithuania and Ruthenia, and Poland in the traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Early life and education

Kalinowski was born in Mostovlyany, in Grodnensky Uyezd of the Russian Empire (now Mostowlany, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland) to a szlachta family. The Kalinowskis hailed from the Polish region of Mazovia and bore the Kalinowa coat of arms. His father, Szymon, was a manager of the Mostowlany farm and manor. His older brother, would become a historian. In 1849 his father, Szymon bought a folwark near Svislach (now Belarus) where Konstanty grew up.

After graduating from a local school in Svislach in 1855, Kalinowski entered the faculty of Medicine of the University of Moscow as an external student. The Peasants' Truth was issued seven times until 1863. Konstanty was more aligned with the Reds which represented a democratic movement uniting peasants, workers, and some clergy rather than the more moderate Whites.

There is some academic debate about which texts to attribute to Konstanty.

Legacy

Kalinowski is one of the main characters of Uladzimir Karatkievich's 1965 novel Ears of Rye Under Thy Sickle, set on the eve of the Uprising.

During the so-called Jeans Revolution, protesters who disputed the 2006 Belarusian presidential election symbolically renamed October Square, after the Bolshevik revolution, Kalinovski Square. Kalinovski Square was also the title of a documentary film about these events.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Belarusian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine formed a battalion named Kastuś Kalinoŭski, which later transformed into a regiment.

In Ukrainian Rivne, a street was named after Kalinowski. In June 2024, a memorial plaque in honor of Kalinowski was unveiled in a street named after him in Chernihiv.

The Polish Government's scholarship program for Belarusian students expelled from their studies after the Jeans Revolution has been named after Konstanty Kalinowski since 2006.

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