151-571: Ukmergė ( pronunciation ; previously Vilkmergė ; Polish : Wiłkomierz ) is a city in Vilnius County , Lithuania , located 78 km (48 mi) northwest of Vilnius . It is the administratebe center of the Ukmergė District Municipality . Ukmergė (Vilkmergė) was mentioned for the first time as a settlement in 1333. The Ukmergė Old Town contains structure of old streets and squares, also well-preserved buildings of
302-499: A / (spelled a ), / ɔ / (spelled o ) and / u / (spelled u and ó as separate letters). The nasal vowels are / ɛ w̃ / (spelled ę ) and / ɔ w̃ / (spelled ą ). Unlike Czech or Slovak, Polish does not retain phonemic vowel length — the letter ó , which formerly represented lengthened /ɔː/ in older forms of the language, is now vestigial and instead corresponds to /u/. The Polish consonant system shows more complexity: its characteristic features include
453-467: A book to a discussion of Poniatowski, The Dispute over Stanisław August ( Spór o Stanisława Augusta , Warsaw, 1988). He notes that the discourse concerning Poniatowski is significantly coloured by the fact that he was the last King of Poland – the King who failed to save the country. This failure, and his prominent position, rendered him a convenient scapegoat for many. Zahorski argues that Poniatowski made
604-637: A commissioner. He spent most of January 1752 at the Austrian court in Vienna . Later that year, after serving at the Radom Tribunal and meeting King Augustus III of Poland , he was elected deputy of the Sejm (Polish parliament). While there his father secured for him the title of Starosta of Przemyśl . In March 1753, he travelled to Hungary and Vienna, where he again met with Williams. He returned to
755-633: A conspiracy and a threat to their absolute monarchies. Prussian statesman Ewald von Hertzberg expressed the fears of European conservatives: "The Poles have given the coup de grâce to the Prussian monarchy by voting in a constitution", elaborating that a strong Commonwealth would likely demand the return of the lands Prussia acquired in the First Partition; a similar sentiment was later expressed by Prussian Foreign Minister, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg-Kehnert . Russia's wars with
906-430: A contemporary who knew them both, this rumour only spread after the death of Poniatowski, was generally disbelieved, and moreover, was circulated by Elżbieta herself, so the marriage is considered by most to be unlikely. He had several notable lovers, including Elżbieta Branicka , who acted as his political adviser and financier, and had children with two of them. With Magdalena Agnieszka Sapieżyna (1739–1780), he became
1057-525: A coup as long as King Augustus was alive. Upon the death of Poland's King Augustus III in October 1763, lobbying began for the election of the new king . Catherine threw her support behind Poniatowski. The Russians spent about 2.5m rubles in aid of his election. Poniatowski's supporters and opponents engaged in some military posturing and even minor clashes. In the end, the Russian army was deployed only
1208-721: A dialect of Polish. Many Silesians consider themselves a separate ethnicity and have been advocating for the recognition of Silesian as a regional language in Poland . The law recognizing it as such was passed by the Sejm and Senate in April 2024, but has been vetoed by President Andrzej Duda in late May of 2024. According to the last official census in Poland in 2011, over half a million people declared Silesian as their native language. Many sociolinguists (e.g. Tomasz Kamusella , Agnieszka Pianka, Alfred F. Majewicz, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz ) assume that extralinguistic criteria decide whether
1359-669: A few culturally and linguistically related tribes from the basins of the Vistula and Oder before eventually accepting baptism in 966. With Western Christianity , Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet , which made it possible to write down Polish, which until then had existed only as a spoken language . The closest relatives of Polish are the Elbe and Baltic Sea Lechitic dialects ( Polabian and Pomeranian varieties). All of them, except Kashubian , are extinct. The precursor to modern Polish
1510-543: A few kilometres from the election sejm , which met at Wola near Warsaw. In the event, there were no other serious contenders, and during the convocation sejm on 7 September 1764 , 32-year-old Poniatowski was elected king, with 5,584 votes. He swore the pacta conventa on 13 November, and a formal coronation took place in Warsaw on 25 November. The new king's "uncles" in the Familia would have preferred another nephew on
1661-702: A fondness for books which continued throughout his life. He went on his first foreign trip in 1748, with elements of the Imperial Russian army as it advanced into the Rhineland to aid Maria Theresia 's troops during the War of the Austrian Succession which ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) . This enabled Poniatowski both to visit the city, also known as Aachen , and to venture into
SECTION 10
#17327797688651812-653: A hill, near the confluence of the Vilkmergė River and the Šventoji River . Ukmergė was attacked by the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order in 1333, 1365, 1378, 1386, and even in 1391, already after the Christianization of Lithuania in 1387. During the last attack, Ukmergė was burned to the ground and had to be completely rebuilt. The region began to adopt Christianity , along with
1963-580: A large gallery of paintings in Warsaw was disrupted by the dismemberment of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Most of the paintings that he had ordered for it can now be seen in London's Dulwich Picture Gallery . Poniatowski also planned to found an Academy of Fine Arts , but this finally came about only after his abdication and departure from Warsaw. Poniatowski accomplished much in the realm of education and literature. He established
2114-520: A large number of branches in all of these areas) offers services available in Polish at all of their cash machines in addition to English and Spanish . According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England and Wales who consider Polish to be their "main" language. In Canada , there is a significant Polish Canadian population : There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to
2265-543: A lect is an independent language or a dialect: speakers of the speech variety or/and political decisions, and this is dynamic (i.e. it changes over time). Also, research organizations such as SIL International and resources for the academic field of linguistics such as Ethnologue , Linguist List and others, for example the Ministry of Administration and Digitization recognized the Silesian language. In July 2007,
2416-454: A nasal consonant, rather than a nasal vowel. For example, ą in dąb ("oak") is pronounced [ɔm] , and ę in tęcza ("rainbow") is pronounced [ɛn] (the nasal assimilates to the following consonant). When followed by l or ł (for example przyjęli , przyjęły ), ę is pronounced as just e . When ę is at the end of the word it is often pronounced as just [ɛ] . Depending on
2567-530: A new order, the Order of Virtuti Militari , to reward Poles for exceptional military leadership and courage in combat. Despite Polish requests, Prussia refused to honour its alliance obligations. In the end, the numerical superiority of the Russians was too great, and defeat looked inevitable. Poniatowski's attempts at negotiations with Russia proved futile. In July 1792, when Warsaw was threatened with siege by
2718-529: A pension granted to him by Catherine. Despite financial troubles, he still supported some of his former allies, and continued to try to represent the Polish cause at the Russian court. He also worked on his memoirs. Poniatowski died of a stroke on 12 February 1798. Paul I sponsored a royal state funeral, and on 3 March he was buried at the Catholic Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg. In 1938, when
2869-470: A policy of religious tolerance , the Familia was opposed to it. The growing rift between Poniatowski and the Familia was exploited by the Russians, who used the issue as a pretext to intervene in the Commonwealth's internal politics and to destabilize the country. Catherine had no wish to see Poniatowski's reform succeed. She had supported his ascent to the throne to ensure the Commonwealth remained
3020-402: A reversed diacritic hook called an ogonek . Polish is a synthetic and fusional language which has seven grammatical cases . It has fixed penultimate stress and an abundance of palatal consonants . Contemporary Polish developed in the 1700s as the successor to the medieval Old Polish (10th–16th centuries) and Middle Polish (16th–18th centuries). Among the major languages, it
3171-491: A single word. This applies in particular to many combinations of preposition plus a personal pronoun, such as do niej ('to her'), na nas ('on us'), prze ze mnie ('because of me'), all stressed on the bolded syllable. The Polish alphabet derives from the Latin script but includes certain additional letters formed using diacritics . The Polish alphabet was one of three major forms of Latin-based orthography developed for Western and some South Slavic languages,
SECTION 20
#17327797688653322-570: A toddler, on the orders of Józef Potocki , Governor of Kiev , as a reprisal for his father's support for King Augustus III and held for some months in Kamieniec-Podolski . He was returned to his parents in Gdańsk. Later he moved with his family to Warsaw . He was initially educated by his mother, then by private tutors, including Russian ambassador Herman Karl von Keyserling . He had few friends in his teenage years and instead developed
3473-528: A traitor. He is criticized primarily for his failure to resolutely stand against opposing forces and prevent the partitions , which led to the destruction of the Polish state. On the other hand, he is remembered as a great patron of arts and sciences who laid the foundation for the Commission of National Education , the first institution of its kind in the world, the Great Sejm of 1788–1792, which led to
3624-405: A verse by Jan Brzechwa ) is W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie [fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ ˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂ ˈbʐmi fˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ] ('In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed'). Unlike languages such as Czech, Polish does not have syllabic consonants – the nucleus of a syllable is always a vowel. The consonant /j/ is restricted to positions adjacent to a vowel. It also cannot precede
3775-479: A virtual puppet state under Russian control, so his attempts to reform the Commonwealth's ailing government structures were a threat to the status quo . Matters came to a head in 1766. During the Sejm in October of that year, Poniatowski attempted to push through a radical reform, restricting the disastrous liberum veto provision. He was opposed by conservatives such as Michał Wielhorski , who were supported by
3926-478: A vowel when it precedes another vowel (it represents /j/ , palatalization of the preceding consonant, or both depending on analysis). Also the letters u and i sometimes represent only semivowels when they follow another vowel, as in autor /ˈawtɔr/ ('author'), mostly in loanwords (so not in native nauka /naˈu.ka/ 'science, the act of learning', for example, nor in nativized Mateusz /maˈte.uʂ/ 'Matthew'). Some loanwords , particularly from
4077-530: A work by De Daugnon, an anecdote is quoted that happened to his mother, Constance, in 1732. An Italian named Antonio Formica appears before her, who was assumed to be an astrologer. Seeing the child born on 17 January of that year, he predicted that he would be king of the Poles. The prediction came true many years later, and fortunately there are records of the existence of a Sicilian physician Dr. Antonio Formica, who lived in Poland during those years, closely linked to
4228-711: Is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group within the Indo-European language family written in the Latin script . It is primarily spoken in Poland and serves as the official language of the country, as well as the language of the Polish diaspora around the world. In 2024, there were over 39.7 million Polish native speakers. It ranks as the sixth most-spoken among languages of the European Union . Polish
4379-419: Is also spoken as a second language in eastern Germany , northern Czech Republic and Slovakia , western parts of Belarus and Ukraine as well as in southeast Lithuania and Latvia . Because of the emigration from Poland during different time periods, most notably after World War II , millions of Polish speakers can also be found in countries such as Canada , Argentina , Brazil , Israel , Australia ,
4530-592: Is discussed in Luise Mühlbach 's novel Joseph II and His Court , and appears in Jane Porter 's 1803 novel, Thaddeus of Warsaw . On screen he has been played by Wieńczysław Gliński in the 1976 3 Maja directed by Grzegorz Królikiewicz. He appears in a Russian TV series . Poniatowski is depicted in numerous portraits, medals and coins. He is prominent in Jan Matejko 's work, especially in
4681-427: Is most closely related to Slovak and Czech but differs in terms of pronunciation and general grammar. Additionally, Polish was profoundly influenced by Latin and other Romance languages like Italian and French as well as Germanic languages (most notably German ), which contributed to a large number of loanwords and similar grammatical structures. Extensive usage of nonstandard dialects has also shaped
Ukmergė - Misplaced Pages Continue
4832-447: Is possible to say ko goście zoba czy li? – here kogo retains its usual stress (first syllable) in spite of the attachment of the clitic. Reanalysis of the endings as inflections when attached to verbs causes the different colloquial stress patterns. These stress patterns are considered part of a "usable" norm of standard Polish - in contrast to the "model" ("high") norm. Some common word combinations are stressed as if they were
4983-595: Is subdivided into regional dialects and maintains strict T–V distinction pronouns, honorifics , and various forms of formalities when addressing individuals. The traditional 32-letter Polish alphabet has nine additions ( ą , ć , ę , ł , ń , ó , ś , ź , ż ) to the letters of the basic 26-letter Latin alphabet , while removing three (x, q, v). Those three letters are at times included in an extended 35-letter alphabet. The traditional set comprises 23 consonants and 9 written vowels , including two nasal vowels ( ę , ą ) defined by
5134-524: Is the Old Polish language . Ultimately, Polish descends from the unattested Proto-Slavic language. The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska , Latin : Liber fundationis claustri Sanctae Mariae Virginis in Heinrichau ), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (in modern orthography: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj ;
5285-529: Is the most widely-used minority language in Lithuania's Vilnius County , by 26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results, as Vilnius was part of Poland from 1922 until 1939. Polish is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. In Ukraine, it is most common in the western parts of Lviv and Volyn Oblasts , while in West Belarus it is used by the significant Polish minority, especially in
5436-430: The kropka (superior dot) over the letter ż , and the ogonek ("little tail") under the letters ą, ę . The letters q, v, x are used only in foreign words and names. Polish orthography is largely phonemic —there is a consistent correspondence between letters (or digraphs and trigraphs ) and phonemes (for exceptions see below). The letters of the alphabet and their normal phonemic values are listed in
5587-401: The ś in święty ("holy") all represent the sound / ɕ / . The exceptions to the above rule are certain loanwords from Latin, Italian, French, Russian or English—where s before i is pronounced as s , e.g. sinus , sinologia , do re mi fa sol la si do , Saint-Simon i saint-simoniści , Sierioża , Siergiej , Singapur , singiel . In other loanwords
5738-596: The Brest and Grodno regions and in areas along the Lithuanian border. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries. In the United States , Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. According to the 2000 United States Census , 667,414 Americans of age five years and over reported Polish as
5889-663: The Cardinal Laws . Although it had abandoned the cause of Poniatowski's reforms, the Familia did not receive the support it expected from the Russians who continued to press for the conservatives' rights. Meanwhile, other factions now rallied under the banner of the Bar Confederation , aimed against the conservatives, Poniatowski and the Russians. After an unsuccessful attempt to raise allies in Western Europe, France, Britain and Austria, Poniatowski and
6040-648: The Constitution of 3 May 1791 and as a sponsor of many architectural landmarks. Historians tend to agree that, taking the circumstances into account, he was a skillful statesman, pointing out that passing the Constitution was a sign of bravery, although his unwillingness to organize a proper nationwide uprising afterward is seen as cowardice and the key reason for the Second Partition and the subsequent downfall of Poland. Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski
6191-654: The Familia had no choice but to rely more heavily on the Russian Empire, which treated Poland as a protectorate . In the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772), Poniatowski supported the Russian army's repression of the Bar Confederation. In 1770, the Council of the Bar Confederation proclaimed him dethroned. The following year, he was kidnapped by Bar Confederates and was briefly held prisoner outside of Warsaw, but he managed to escape. In view of
Ukmergė - Misplaced Pages Continue
6342-627: The Lithuanian language in Ukmergė and surroundings villages, which at the time were prohibited by the Russian tsarist authority's imposed Lithuanian press ban . The so-called 'Ukmergė case' has contributed quite a bit to the lifting of the Lithuanian press ban in 1904 and was one of the last cases of its kind. In 1918, after Lithuania declared its independence, the city's name was changed from Vilkmergė to Ukmergė. In 1919 Bolshevik forces occupied
6493-470: The Monitor . Writers and poets who received his patronage included, Stanisław Trembecki , Franciszek Salezy Jezierski , Franciszek Bohomolec and Franciszek Zabłocki . He also supported publishers including, Piotr Świtkowski, and library owners such as Józef Lex. He supported the development of the sciences, particularly cartography ; he hired a personal cartographer, Karol de Perthees, even before he
6644-658: The Netherlands . On his return journey he stopped in Dresden . The following year Poniatowski was apprenticed to the office of Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski , the then Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania . In 1750, he travelled to Berlin where he met a British diplomat, Charles Hanbury Williams , who became his mentor and friend. In 1751, Poniatowski was elected to the Treasury Tribunal in Radom , where he served as
6795-561: The Partition Sejm of 1773–1775, in which Russia was represented by ambassador Otto von Stackelberg , with no allied assistance forthcoming from abroad and with the armies of the partitioning powers occupying Warsaw to compel the Sejm by force of arms, no alternative was available save submission to their will. Eventually Poniatowski and the Sejm acceded to the "partition treaty". At the same time, several other reforms were passed. The Cardinal Laws were confirmed and guaranteed by
6946-666: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 's influence gave Polish the status of lingua franca in Central and Eastern Europe . The process of standardization began in the 14th century and solidified in the 16th century during the Middle Polish era. Standard Polish was based on various dialectal features, with the Greater Poland dialect group serving as the base. After World War II , Standard Polish became
7097-666: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Born into wealthy Polish aristocracy , Poniatowski arrived as a diplomat at the Russian imperial court in Saint Petersburg in 1755 at the age of 22 and became intimately involved with the future empress Catherine the Great . With her aid, he was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania by the Sejm in September 1764 following the death of Augustus III . Contrary to expectations, Poniatowski attempted to reform and strengthen
7248-492: The Rhineland-Palatinate during the War of the Austrian Succession . His younger brothers were, Andrzej Poniatowski (1734–1773), an Austrian Feldmarschall , Michał Jerzy Poniatowski (1736–94) who became Primate of Poland . His two older and married sisters were Ludwika Zamoyska (1728–1804) and Izabella Branicka (1730–1808). Among his nephews was Prince Józef Poniatowski (1763–1813), son of Andrzej. He
7399-625: The School of Chivalry , also called the "Cadet Corps", which functioned from 1765 to 1794 and whose alumni included Tadeusz Kościuszko . He supported the creation of the Commission of National Education , considered to be the world's first Ministry of Education. In 1765 he helped found the Monitor , one of the first Polish newspapers and the leading periodical of the Polish Enlightenment. He sponsored many articles that appeared in
7550-778: The Soviet Union planned to demolish the Church, his remains were transferred to the Second Polish Republic and interred in a church at Wołczyn , his birthplace. This was done in secret and caused controversy in Poland when the matter became known. In 1990, due to the poor state of the Wołczyn church (then in the Byelorussian SSR ), his body was once more exhumed and was brought to Poland, to St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw, where on 3 May 1791 he had celebrated
7701-772: The Targowica Confederation to overthrow the Constitution, which they saw as a threat to the traditional freedoms and privileges they enjoyed. The confederates aligned themselves with Russia's Catherine the Great, and the Russian army entered Poland, marking the start of the Polish–Russian War of 1792 , also known as the War in Defence of the Constitution. The Sejm voted to increase the Polish Army to 100,000 men, but due to insufficient time and funds this number
SECTION 50
#17327797688657852-745: The Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , in 1795, the town was annexed by Russia, becoming a part of the Vilna Governorate . In 1812 the Battle of Deltuva , between the Russian and French armies , occurred not far from Ukmergė; Napoleon 's army raided the town during the French invasion of Russia . During the November Uprising in 1831, the city remained in the hands of rebel elements for several months. In 1843,
8003-406: The United Kingdom and the United States . Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. At the time, it was a collection of dialect groups with some mutual features, but much regional variation was present. Mieszko I , ruler of the Polans tribe from the Greater Poland region, united
8154-474: The classical languages , have the stress on the antepenultimate (third-from-last) syllable. For example, fizyka ( /ˈfizɨka/ ) ('physics') is stressed on the first syllable. This may lead to a rare phenomenon of minimal pairs differing only in stress placement, for example muzyka /ˈmuzɨka/ 'music' vs. muzyka /muˈzɨka/ – genitive singular of muzyk 'musician'. When additional syllables are added to such words through inflection or suffixation ,
8305-505: The flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) , as well as the expulsion of Ukrainians and Operation Vistula , the 1947 migration of Ukrainian minorities in the Recovered Territories in the west of the country, contributed to the country's linguistic homogeneity. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak Polish somewhat differently, although the differences between modern-day vernacular varieties and standard Polish ( język ogólnopolski ) appear relatively slight. Most of
8456-404: The standard language ; considerable colloquialisms and expressions were directly borrowed from German or Yiddish and subsequently adopted into the vernacular of Polish which is in everyday use. Historically, Polish was a lingua franca , important both diplomatically and academically in Central and part of Eastern Europe . In addition to being the official language of Poland, Polish
8607-499: The "Stanisław August style" by Polish art historian Władysław Tatarkiewicz . His chief architects included Domenico Merlini and Jan Kammsetzer . He was also patron to numerous painters. They included Poles such as his protégée, Anna Rajecka and Franciszek Smuglewicz , Jan Bogumił Plersch, son of Jan Jerzy Plersch , Józef Wall, and Zygmunt Vogel , as well as foreign painters including, Marcello Bacciarelli , Bernardo Bellotto , Jean Pillement , Ludwik Marteau , and Per Krafft
8758-423: The "Stanisław Augustus Code") was among the proposals. Poniatowski also planned a reform to improve the situation of Polish Jews . In foreign policy, spurned by Russia, Poland turned to another potential ally, the Triple Alliance , represented on the Polish diplomatic scene primarily by the Kingdom of Prussia , which led to the formation of the ultimately futile Polish–Prussian alliance . The pro-Prussian shift
8909-486: The "years of hope." The Familia , which was interested in strengthening its own power base, was dissatisfied with his conciliatory attitude as he reached out to many former opponents of their policies. This uneasy alliance between Poniatowski and the Familia continued for most of the first decade of his rule. One of the points of contention between Poniatowski and the Familia concerned the rights of religious minorities in Poland. Whereas Poniatowski reluctantly supported
9060-416: The 16th century, which is also regarded as the " Golden Age of Polish literature". The orthography was modified in the 19th century and in 1936. Tomasz Kamusella notes that "Polish is the oldest, non-ecclesiastical, written Slavic language with a continuous tradition of literacy and official use, which has lasted unbroken from the 16th century to this day." Polish evolved into the main sociolect of
9211-458: The 1776 reforms, and to prevent Poniatowski from growing too powerful, it supported the opposition during the Sejm of 1778. This marked the end of Poniatowski's reforms, as he found himself without sufficient support to carry them through. In the 1780s, Catherine appeared to favour Poniatowski marginally over the opposition, but she did not support any of his plans for significant reform. Despite repeated attempts, Poniatowski failed to confederate
SECTION 60
#17327797688659362-519: The 1891 painting, Constitution of 3 May 1791 and in another large canvas, Rejtan , and in his series of portraits of Polish monarchs. A bust of Poniatowski was unveiled in Łazienki Palace in 1992. A number of cities in Poland have streets named after him, including Kraków and Warsaw . Poniatowski never married. In his youth, he had loved his cousin Elżbieta Czartoryska , but her father August Aleksander Czartoryski disapproved because he did not think him influential or rich enough. When this
9513-450: The 19th-20th centuries, therefore it was included in the Registry of Cultural Property of Lithuania . The city took its original name Vilkmergė from the Vilkmergėlė [ lt ] River, which was initially called Vilkmergė and assumed a diminutive form after the growth of the settlement. It is commonly thought that the name may be translated as "she-wolf", from the combination of Vilkas ( wolf ) and Merga (maiden). More likely
9664-432: The 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto (91,810 speakers) and Montreal . The geographical distribution of the Polish language was greatly affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II and Polish population transfers (1944–46) . Poles settled in the " Recovered Territories " in the west and north, which had previously been mostly German -speaking. Some Poles remained in
9815-405: The Bar Confederation (1768–1772) that led to the First Partition of Poland (1772). The later part of his reign saw reforms wrought by the Diet (1788–1792) and the Constitution of 3 May 1791 . These reforms were overthrown by the 1792 Targowica Confederation and by the Polish–Russian War of 1792 , leading directly to the Second Partition of Poland (1793), the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) and
9966-412: The Constitution, despite its liberal provisions, "fell somewhere below the French , above the Canadian , and left the General State Laws for the Prussian States (in German: Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten ) far behind", but was "no match for the American Constitution ". George Sanford notes that the Constitution gave Poland "a constitutional monarchy close to the British model of
10117-427: The Elder . His retinue of sculptors, headed by André-Jean Lebrun , included Giacomo Monaldi, Franz Pinck, and Tommaso Righi . Jan Filip Holzhaeusser was his court engraver and the designer of many commemorative medals. According to a 1795 inventory, Stanisław August's art collection, spread among numerous buildings, contained 2,889 pieces, including works by Rembrandt , Rubens , and van Dyck . His plan to create
10268-432: The Great Sejm, including the Constitution. Faced with his powerlessness, Poniatowski once again considered abdication; in the meantime he tried to salvage whatever reforms he could. Poniatowski's plans had been ruined by the Kościuszko Uprising . The King had not encouraged it, but once it began he supported it, seeing no other honourable option. Its defeat marked the end of the Commonwealth. Poniatowski tried to govern
10419-527: The Henryków monastery, noted that "Hoc est in polonico" ("This is in Polish"). The earliest treatise on Polish orthography was written by Jakub Parkosz [ pl ] around 1470. The first printed book in Polish appeared in either 1508 or 1513, while the oldest Polish newspaper was established in 1661. Starting in the 1520s, large numbers of books in the Polish language were published, contributing to increased homogeneity of grammar and orthography. The writing system achieved its overall form in
10570-451: The King, who planned to build their careers on service to him. Few were privy to his plans for reforms, which were kept hidden from the conservative opposition and Russia. Poniatowski scored a political victory during the Sejm of 1776, which further strengthened the council. Chancellor Andrzej Zamoyski was tasked with the codification of the Polish law, a project that became known as the Zamoyski Code . Russia supported some, but not all, of
10721-411: The Netherlands, where he met many key members of that country's political and economic sphere. By late August, he had arrived in Paris , where he moved among the elites. In February 1754, he travelled on to Britain , where he spent some months. There, he was befriended by Charles Yorke , the future Lord Chancellor of Great Britain . He returned to the Commonwealth later that year, however he eschewed
10872-733: The Ottoman Empire by both the Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire , Poniatowski tried to draw Poland into the Austro-Russian alliance , seeing a war with the Ottomans as an opportunity to strengthen the Commonwealth. Catherine gave permission for the next Sejm to be called, as she considered some form of limited military alliance with Poland against the Ottomans might be useful. The Polish-Russian alliance
11023-425: The Ottomans and Sweden having ended, Catherine was furious over the adoption of the Constitution, which threatened Russian influence in Poland. One of Russia's chief foreign policy authors, Alexander Bezborodko , upon learning of the Constitution, commented that "the worst possible news have arrived from Warsaw: the Polish king has become almost sovereign." Shortly thereafter, conservative Polish nobility formed
11174-496: The Polish aristocracy. Curiously enough, it is said that it could be the same person. When elected to the throne, he was seen by many as simply an "instrument for displacing the somnolent Saxons from the throne of Poland", yet as the British historian, Norman Davies notes, " he turned out to be an ardent patriot, and a convinced reformer. " Still, according to many, his reforms did not go far enough, leading to accusations that he
11325-559: The Polish text of the 1791 Constitution gives his title as Stanisław August, by the grace of God and the will of the people, King of Poland , Grand Duke of Lithuania and Duke of Ruthenia , Prussia , Masovia , Samogitia , Kiev , Volhynia , Podolia , Podlasie , Livonia , Smolensk , Severia and Chernihiv . a Sources vary as to whether Konstancja Grabowska and Kazimierz Grabowski were Poniatowski's children. They are listed as such by several sources, including Jerzy Michalski 's article on Stanisław August Poniatowski in
11476-411: The Polish throne, but asking him to stay away from St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, Poniatowski hoped that Catherine would consider his offer of marriage, an idea seen as plausible by some international observers. He participated in the failed plot by the Familia to stage a coup d'état against King Augustus III . In August 1763, however, Catherine advised him and the Familia that she would not support
11627-622: The Prussian and Russian ambassadors and who threatened war if the reform was passed. The dissidents, supported by the Russians, formed the Radom Confederation . Abandoned by the Familia , Poniatowski's reforms failed to pass at the Repnin Sejm , named after Russian ambassador Nicholas Repnin , who promised to guarantee with all the might of the Russian Empire the Golden Liberties of the Polish nobility, enshrined in
11778-462: The Russian capital on 14 August 1758. Poniatowski attended the Sejms of 1758, 1760, and 1762. He continued his involvement with the Familia , and supported a pro-Russian and anti-Prussian stance in Polish politics. His father died in 1762, leaving him a modest inheritance. In 1762, when Catherine ascended the Russian throne, she sent him several letters professing her support for his own ascension to
11929-658: The Russians, as he had done in the past. Poniatowski had not saved the Commonwealth, however. He and the reformers had lost much of their influence, both within the country and with Catherine. Neither were the Targowica Confederates victorious. To their surprise, there ensued the Second Partition of Poland . With the new deputies bribed or intimidated by the Russian troops, the Grodno Sejm took place. On 23 November 1793, it annulled all acts of
12080-737: The Russians, the king came to believe that surrender was the only alternative to total defeat. Having received assurances from Russian ambassador Yakov Bulgakov that no territorial changes would occur, a cabinet of ministers called the Guard of Laws (or Guardians of Law, Polish : Straż Praw ) voted eight to four in favor of surrender. On 24 July 1792, Poniatowski joined the Targowica Confederation. The Polish Army disintegrated. Many reform leaders, believing their cause lost, went into self-exile, although they hoped that Poniatowski would be able to negotiate an acceptable compromise with
12231-547: The Sejm, as his parents wanted to keep him out of the political furore surrounding the Ostrogski family 's land inheritance (see: fee tail – Ordynacja Ostrogska ). The following year he received the title of Stolnik of Lithuania. Poniatowski owed his rise and influence to his family connections with the powerful Czartoryski family and their political faction, known as the Familia , with whom he had grown close. It
12382-671: The Silesian language was recognized by ISO , and was attributed an ISO code of szl. Some additional characteristic but less widespread regional dialects include: Polish linguistics has been characterized by a strong strive towards promoting prescriptive ideas of language intervention and usage uniformity, along with normatively-oriented notions of language "correctness" (unusual by Western standards). Polish has six oral vowels (seven oral vowels in written form), which are all monophthongs , and two nasal vowels . The oral vowels are / i / (spelled i ), / ɨ / (spelled y and also transcribed as /ɘ/ or /ɪ/), / ɛ / (spelled e ), /
12533-424: The abdication: they feared that his refusal would lead to a Russian confiscation of their properties and their ruin. Catherine died on 17 November 1796, succeeded by her son, Paul I of Russia . On 15 February 1797, Poniatowski left for Saint Petersburg. He had hoped to be allowed to travel abroad, but was unable to secure permission to do so. A virtual prisoner in St. Petersburg's Marble Palace , he subsisted on
12684-569: The adoption of the Constitution that he had coauthored. A third funeral ceremony was held on 14 February 1995. Stanisław August Poniatowski has been called the Polish Enlightenment 's most important patron of the arts. His cultural projects were attuned to his socio-political aims of overthrowing the myth of the Golden Freedoms and the traditional ideology of Sarmatism . His weekly " Thursday Dinners " were considered
12835-417: The arts and sciences was a major drain on the royal treasury. He also supported numerous public initiatives, and attempted to use the royal treasury to cover the state's expenses when tax revenues were insufficient. The Sejm promised several times to compensate his treasury to little practical effect. Nonetheless contemporary critics frequently accused him of being a spendthrift. Andrzej Zahorski dedicated
12986-642: The arts and sciences, Poniatowski was awarded in 1766 a royal Fellowship of the Royal Society , where he became the first royal Fellow outside British royalty. In 1778 he was awarded fellowship of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences , and in 1791 of the Berlin Academy of Sciences . He also supported the development of industry and manufacturing, areas in which the Commonwealth lagged behind most of Western Europe. Among
13137-485: The cases mentioned above, the letter i if followed by another vowel in the same word usually represents / j / , yet a palatalization of the previous consonant is always assumed. The reverse case, where the consonant remains unpalatalized but is followed by a palatalized consonant, is written by using j instead of i : for example, zjeść , "to eat up". The letters ą and ę , when followed by plosives and affricates, represent an oral vowel followed by
13288-548: The city center suffered from extensive bomb damage. For years after the return of the Soviets, the city's people organized and participated in resistance movements . The deportation of the city's population to Siberia continued. In 1950 the monument to Lithuania's Independence was destroyed. The city reconstructed it in 1990, even before the restoration of Lithuania's independence was declared. Around 1964, two coupled Soviet R-12 Dvina (SS-4) nuclear missile bases were built in
13439-470: The city during the Lithuanian–Soviet War , but it was soon liberated by the Lithuanian army led by Jonas Variakojis . Over five hundred Bolshevik prisoners were taken during the Battle of Ukmergė. An iron foundry was established in the same year. In 1920, the Lithuanian army stopped Polish incursions into the rest of the country, after a series of battles that were waged to establish borders between
13590-478: The city include Wilkemerge or Wilkamergen in 1225, Vilkenberge (1333), Wilkinberg (1384, 1455), Vilkomir (1455), Wilkomir (1611), Wilkomirz (1613), Wilkomiria (1766), Ukmerge (1900), Aukmergė (1908); Ūkmergė (1911), Wilkomierz (1918), and Vilkmergė (1919). Ukmergė was first mentioned in 1225, and named as a settlement in Hermann von Wartberge 's chronicle in 1333. It was essentially a wooden fortress that stood on
13741-501: The city population was 21,258 people, of which: There are many sightings in Ukmergė. One of them is a small stone puppy statue named Dog Keksas, to be found in Vienuolyno g. 17 (Ukmerge 20114). Ukmergė is twinned with: Polish language Polish ( endonym : język polski , [ˈjɛ̃zɘk ˈpɔlskʲi] , polszczyzna [pɔlˈʂt͡ʂɘzna] or simply polski , [ˈpɔlskʲi] )
13892-464: The combined influence of Catherine, of Russian empress Elizabeth and of chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin , Poniatowski was able to rejoin the Russian court now as ambassador of Saxony the following January. Still in St Petersburg, he appears to have been a source of intrigue between various European governments, some supporting his appointment, others demanding his withdrawal. He eventually left
14043-617: The continuing weakness of the Polish-Lithuanian state, Austria, Russia, and Prussia collaborated to threaten military intervention in exchange for substantial territorial concessions from the Commonwealth – a decision they made without consulting Poniatowski or any other Polish parties. Although Poniatowski protested against the First Partition of the Commonwealth (1772), he was powerless to do anything about it. He considered abdication , but decided against it. During
14194-713: The corresponding sentence in modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij ; and in English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest ), written around 1280. The book is exhibited in the Archdiocesal Museum in Wrocław, and as of 2015 has been added to UNESCO 's " Memory of the World " list. The medieval recorder of this phrase, the Cistercian monk Peter of
14345-417: The council to be easier to control than the unruly Sejms, and indeed it remained under the influence of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, it was a significant improvement on the earlier Commonwealth governance. The new legislation was guaranteed by the Russian Empire, giving it licence to interfere in Commonwealth politics when legislation it favoured was threatened. The aftermath of the Partition Sejm saw
14496-792: The country in the brief period after the fall of the Uprising, but on 2 December 1794, Catherine demanded he leave Warsaw, a request to which he acceded on 7 January 1795, leaving the capital under Russian military escort and settling briefly in Grodno . On 24 October 1795, the Act of the final, Third Partition of Poland was signed. One month and one day later, on 25 November, Poniatowski signed his abdication. Reportedly, his sister, Ludwika Maria Zamoyska and her daughter also his favourite niece, Urszula Zamoyska , who had been threatened with confiscation of their property, had contributed to persuading him to sign
14647-412: The country's second order of chivalry , to reward Poles and others for noteworthy service to the King. Together with the Familia he tried to reform the ineffective system of government, by reducing the powers of the hetmans (Commonwealth's top military commanders) and treasurers, moving them to commissions elected by the Sejm and accountable to the King. In his memoirs, Poniatowski called this period
14798-479: The disappearance of yers . Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants. Examples of such clusters can be found in words such as bezwzględny [bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ] ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'), źdźbło [ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ] ('blade of grass'), wstrząs [ˈfstʂɔw̃s] ('shock'), and krnąbrność [ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ] ('disobedience'). A popular Polish tongue-twister (from
14949-430: The distinction between regular penultimate and exceptional antepenultimate stress. Another class of exceptions is verbs with the conditional endings -by, -bym, -byśmy , etc. These endings are not counted in determining the position of the stress; for example, zro biłbym ('I would do') is stressed on the first syllable, and zro bi libyśmy ('we would do') on the second. According to prescriptive authorities ,
15100-531: The eastern parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth wrote Polish in the Arabic alphabet. The Cyrillic script is used to a certain extent today by Polish speakers in Western Belarus , especially for religious texts. The diacritics used in the Polish alphabet are the kreska (graphically similar to the acute accent ) over the letters ć, ń, ó, ś, ź and through the letter in ł ;
15251-420: The end of words (where devoicing occurs) and in certain consonant clusters (where assimilation occurs). For details, see Voicing and devoicing in the article on Polish phonology. Most Polish words are paroxytones (that is, the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable of a polysyllabic word), although there are exceptions. Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from
15402-882: The endeavours in which he invested were the manufacture of cannons and firearms and the mining industry. Poniatowski himself left several literary works: his memoirs, some political brochures and recorded speeches from the Sejm. He was considered a great orator and a skilled conversationalist. King Stanisław Augustus remains a controversial figure. In Polish historiography and in popular works, he has been criticized or marginalized by authors such as, Szymon Askenazy , Joachim Lelewel , Jerzy Łojek (whom Andrzej Zahorski describes as Poniatowski's most vocal critic among modern historians), Tadeusz Korzon , Karol Zyszewski and Krystyna Zienkowska; whereas more neutral or positive views have been expressed by Paweł Jasienica , Walerian Kalinka , Władysław Konopczyński , Stanisław Mackiewicz , Emanuel Rostworowski and Stanisław Wasylewski. In
15553-476: The entire country. Polish has traditionally been described as consisting of three to five main regional dialects: Silesian and Kashubian , spoken in Upper Silesia and Pomerania respectively, are thought of as either Polish dialects or distinct languages , depending on the criteria used. Kashubian contains a number of features not found elsewhere in Poland, e.g. nine distinct oral vowels (vs.
15704-415: The error of joining the Targowica Confederation. Although he wanted to preserve the integrity of the Polish state, it was far too late for that – he succeeded instead in cementing the damage to his own reputation for succeeding centuries. Poniatowski has been the subject of numerous biographies and many works of art. Voltaire , who saw Poniatowski as a model reformist, based his character, King Teucer in
15855-463: The father of Konstancja Żwanowa (1768–1810) and Michał Cichocki (1770–1828). With Elżbieta Szydłowska (1748–1810), he became the father of Stanisław Konopnicy-Grabowski (1780–1845), Michał Grabowski (1773–1812), Kazimierz Grabowski (1770–?), Konstancja Grabowska and Izabela Grabowska (1776–1858). In a work by De Daugnon, an anecdote is quoted that happened to his mother, Constance, in 1732. An Italian named Antonio Formica appears before her, who
16006-547: The final and Third Partition of Poland (1795), marking the end of the Commonwealth. Stripped of all meaningful power, Poniatowski abdicated in November 1795 and spent the last years of his life as a captive in Saint Petersburg's Marble Palace . A controversial figure in Poland's history , he is viewed with ambivalence as a brave and skillful statesman by some and as an overly hesitant coward by others, and even as
16157-467: The following table. The following digraphs and trigraphs are used: Voiced consonant letters frequently come to represent voiceless sounds (as shown in the tables); this occurs at the end of words and in certain clusters, due to the neutralization mentioned in the Phonology section above. Occasionally also voiceless consonant letters can represent voiced sounds in clusters. The spelling rule for
16308-548: The language spoken at home, which is about 1.4% of people who speak languages other than English , 0.25% of the US population, and 6% of the Polish-American population. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census (over 50%) were found in three states: Illinois (185,749), New York (111,740), and New Jersey (74,663). Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services (which has
16459-399: The large but ailing Commonwealth. His efforts were met with external opposition from neighbouring Prussia , Russia and Austria , all committed to keeping the Commonwealth weak. From within he was opposed by conservative interests, which saw the reforms as a threat to their traditional liberties and privileges granted centuries earlier. The defining crisis of his early reign was the War of
16610-439: The letter y . The predominant stress pattern in Polish is penultimate stress – in a word of more than one syllable, the next-to-last syllable is stressed. Alternating preceding syllables carry secondary stress, e.g. in a four-syllable word, where the primary stress is on the third syllable, there will be secondary stress on the first. Each vowel represents one syllable, although the letter i normally does not represent
16761-431: The middle aged and young speak vernaculars close to standard Polish, while the traditional dialects are preserved among older people in rural areas. First-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty recognizing the regional and social differences. The modern standard dialect , often termed as "correct Polish", is spoken or at least understood throughout
16912-520: The most scintillating social functions in the Polish capital. He founded Warsaw's National Theatre , Poland's first public theatre, and sponsored an associated Ballet schoolsballet school. He remodeled Ujazdów Palace and the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and erected the elegant Łazienki (Royal Baths) Palace in Warsaw's Łazienki, Park . He involved himself deeply in the detail of his architectural projects, and his eclectic style has been dubbed
17063-460: The most widely spoken variant of Polish across the country, and most dialects stopped being the form of Polish spoken in villages. Poland is one of the most linguistically homogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their first language . Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in areas which were once administered or occupied by Poland, notably in neighboring Lithuania , Belarus , and Ukraine . Polish
17214-416: The name Tarzan . Stanis%C5%82aw August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus , and as Stanisław August Poniatowski ( Lithuanian : Stanislovas Augustas Poniatovskis ), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch of
17365-586: The nobles in Poland–Lithuania in the 15th century. The history of Polish as a language of state governance begins in the 16th century in the Kingdom of Poland . Over the later centuries, Polish served as the official language in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Congress Poland , the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria , and as the administrative language in the Russian Empire 's Western Krai . The growth of
17516-673: The others being Czech orthography and Croatian orthography , the last of these being a 19th-century invention trying to make a compromise between the first two. Kashubian uses a Polish-based system, Slovak uses a Czech-based system, and Slovene follows the Croatian one; the Sorbian languages blend the Polish and the Czech ones. Historically, Poland's once diverse and multi-ethnic population utilized many forms of scripture to write Polish. For instance, Lipka Tatars and Muslims inhabiting
17667-401: The palatal sounds / ɕ / , / ʑ / , / tɕ / , / dʑ / and / ɲ / is as follows: before the vowel i the plain letters s, z, c, dz, n are used; before other vowels the combinations si, zi, ci, dzi, ni are used; when not followed by a vowel the diacritic forms ś, ź, ć, dź, ń are used. For example, the s in siwy ("grey-haired"), the si in siarka ("sulfur") and
17818-512: The partitioning powers. Royal prerogative was restricted, so that the King lost the power to confer titular roles, and military promotions, to appoint ministers and senators. Starostwo territories, and Crown lands would be awarded by auction. The Sejm also created two notable institutions: the Permanent Council , a government body in continuous operation, and the Commission of National Education . The partitioning powers intended
17969-463: The play Les Lois de Minos (1772) on Poniatowski. At least 58 contemporary poems were dedicated to him or praised him. Since then, he has been a major character in many works of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski , in the Rok 1794 trilogy by Władysław Stanisław Reymont , in the novels of Tadeusz Łopalewski , and in the dramas of Ignacy Grabowski, Tadeusz Miciński , Roman Brandstaetter and Bogdan Śmigielski. He
18120-520: The previously Polish-ruled territories in the east that were annexed by the USSR , resulting in the present-day Polish-speaking communities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, although many Poles were expelled from those areas to areas within Poland's new borders. To the east of Poland, the most significant Polish minority lives in a long strip along either side of the Lithuania - Belarus border. Meanwhile,
18271-517: The rest of Lithuania, in 1386. In the following year, 1387, its first Catholic church, St. Peter and St. Paul , was built. It was one of the first Roman Catholic churches established in Lithuania. The town was granted municipal rights at some time after the Battle of Wiłkomierz in 1435, and written sources dating from 1486 referred to it as a city. King Sigismund the Old confirmed these rights. During
18422-543: The rise of a conservative faction opposed to the Permanent Council, seeing it as a threat to their Golden Freedoms. This faction was supported by the Czartoryski family, but not by Poniatowski, who proved to be quite adept at making the Council follow his wishes. This marked the formation of new anti-royal and pro-royal factions in Polish politics. The royal faction was made up primarily of people indebted to
18573-540: The same applies to the first and second person plural past tense endings -śmy, -ście , although this rule is often ignored in colloquial speech (so zro bi liśmy 'we did' should be prescriptively stressed on the second syllable, although in practice it is commonly stressed on the third as zrobi li śmy ). These irregular stress patterns are explained by the fact that these endings are detachable clitics rather than true verbal inflections: for example, instead of ko go zoba czy liście? ('whom did you see?') it
18724-504: The second root of the dual-stemmed name is the verb merg-/merk- meaning "to submerge" or "to dip". According to local legend, Vilkmergė was a girl raised by wolves, who bridged the divide between animals and humans, in the same way as Rudyard Kipling 's Mowgli . The folk etymology of "Ukmergė", by contrast, is "farm girl" (Lith. ūkis = farm). The original name has been adopted by the local soccer team, " Vilkmergė Ukmergė " as well as popular HBH Vilkmergė beer. Other historic names for
18875-399: The sejms , which would have made them immune to the liberum veto . Thus, although he had a majority in the Sejms, Poniatowski was unable to pass even the smallest reform. The Zamoyski Code was rejected by the Sejm of 1780, and opposition attacks on the King dominated the Sejms of 1782 and 1786. Reforms became possible again in the late 1780s. In the context of the wars being waged against
19026-410: The series of affricate and palatal consonants that resulted from four Proto-Slavic palatalizations and two further palatalizations that took place in Polish. The full set of consonants, together with their most common spellings, can be presented as follows (although other phonological analyses exist): Neutralization occurs between voiced – voiceless consonant pairs in certain environments, at
19177-506: The six of standard Polish) and (in the northern dialects) phonemic word stress, an archaic feature preserved from Common Slavic times and not found anywhere else among the West Slavic languages . However, it was described by some linguists as lacking most of the linguistic and social determinants of language-hood. Many linguistic sources categorize Silesian as a regional language separate from Polish, while some consider Silesian to be
19328-494: The stress normally becomes regular. For example, uniwersytet ( /uɲiˈvɛrsɨtɛt/ , 'university') has irregular stress on the third (or antepenultimate) syllable, but the genitive uniwersytetu ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛtu/ ) and derived adjective uniwersytecki ( /uɲivɛrsɨˈtɛt͡skʲi/ ) have regular stress on the penultimate syllables. Loanwords generally become nativized to have penultimate stress. In psycholinguistic experiments, speakers of Polish have been demonstrated to be sensitive to
19479-598: The throne he attempted to introduce a number of reforms. He founded the Knights School , and began to form a diplomatic service, with semi-permanent diplomatic representatives throughout Europe, Russia and the Ottoman Empire . On 7 May 1765, Poniatowski established the Order of the Knights of Saint Stanislaus , in honour of Saint Stanislaus of Krakow , Bishop and Martyr, Poland's and his own patron saint, as
19630-456: The throne, Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski , characterized by one of his contemporaries as " débauché, si non dévoyé " (French: "debauched if not depraved"), but Czartoryski had declined to seek office. "Stanisław August", as he now styled himself combining the names of his two immediate royal predecessors, began his rule with only mixed support within the nation. It was mainly the small nobility who favoured his election. In his first years on
19781-481: The time." According to a contemporary account, Poniatowski himself described it, as "founded principally on those of England and the United States of America, but avoiding the faults and errors of both, and adapted as much as possible to the local and particular circumstances of the country." The Constitution of 3 May remained to the end a work in progress. A new civil and criminal code (provisionally called
19932-551: The times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , the city had been the center of powiat in the Vilnius Voivodeship . In 1655, the Swedish and Russian armies plundered the city. Because of these incessant wars, the growth of Ukmergė suffered many setbacks. Jews began to settle in the city in the late 17th century, and built a synagogue and a cemetery. In the years 1711–1712, the bubonic plague swept through
20083-458: The town and wreaked havoc upon its population. At various times, the 1st Lithuanian National Cavalry Brigade , the 2nd and 3rd Lithuanian Vanguard Regiments and the 1st Lithuanian Infantry Regiment were stationed in the town. In 1792, by the initiative of the city's representative in the Great Sejm , Józef Dominik Kossakowski , King Stanisław August Poniatowski renewed the town's municipal rights and gave it its current coat of arms . During
20234-678: The town became a part of the newly established Kovno Governorate . In 1863, the city participated in the January Uprising against Russia. In 1876 a match factory was established in Ukmergė. In 1877 a fire again ravaged the town. The future president of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona , was born in Užulėnis near Ukmergė, and was educated in the local school. In 1882 a printing-house was opened. In 1899–1902, thirteen people (including two Lithuanian vicars : Kazimieras Šleivys and Vladislovas Opulskis) were punished for distributing books written in
20385-670: The town began. When the Germans attacked the Soviet Union and its occupied territories, on June 22, 1941, the retreating Soviets gave instructions to their operatives to kill some 120 prisoners; however, most of them escaped; only eight of them were tortured to death. After the German invasion, the Nazis rounded up and killed about 10,000 members of the town's Jewish population with the help of Lithuanian collaborators. During World War II,
20536-493: The two newly re-established countries. An electric plant, a printing house and 120 other small businesses were opened. The city had five newspapers until 1939. In 1930, a monument named Lituania Restituta was erected to commemorate the first decade of restored Lithuanian independence. A Polish high school also operated in Ukmergė during the interbellum. In 1940, after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania , deportations of people from
20687-563: The vowel i is changed to y , e.g. Syria , Sybir , synchronizacja , Syrakuzy . The following table shows the correspondence between the sounds and spelling: Digraphs and trigraphs are used: Similar principles apply to / kʲ / , / ɡʲ / , / xʲ / and /lʲ/ , except that these can only occur before vowels, so the spellings are k, g, (c)h, l before i , and ki, gi, (c)hi, li otherwise. Most Polish speakers, however, do not consider palatalization of k, g, (c)h or l as creating new sounds. Except in
20838-407: The woods near Ukmergė under Nikita Khrushchev . Each had four surface launch pads, semi-underground hangars to store the missiles and several accessory buildings. The bases were mentioned in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. They both are in a ruined state at present, and freely accessible to the public. According to the 2021 census,
20989-443: The word, the phoneme / x / can be spelt h or ch , the phoneme / ʐ / can be spelt ż or rz , and / u / can be spelt u or ó . In several cases it determines the meaning, for example: może ("maybe") and morze ("sea"). In occasional words, letters that normally form a digraph are pronounced separately. For example, rz represents /rz/ , not / ʐ / , in words like zamarzać ("freeze") and in
21140-580: Was a great-grandson of poet and courtier Jan Andrzej Morsztyn and of Lady Catherine Gordon, lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga ; thus descended from the Marquesses of Huntly and the Scottish nobility. The Poniatowski family had achieved high status among the Polish nobility ( szlachta ) of the time. He spent the first few years of his childhood in Gdańsk . He was temporarily kidnapped as
21291-542: Was accused by others of weakness and subservience, even of treason, especially in the years following the Second Partition . During the Kościuszko Uprising , there were rumours that Polish Jacobins had been planning a coup d'état and Poniatowski's assassination. Another line of criticism alleged poor financial management on his part. Poniatowski actually had little personal wealth. Most of his income came from Crown Estates and monopolies. His lavish patronage of
21442-442: Was assumed to be an astrologer. Seeing the child born on 17 January of that year, he predicted that he would be king of the Poles. The prediction came true many years later, and fortunately there are records of the existence of a Sicilian doctor Dr. Antonio Formica, who lived in Poland during those years, closely linked to the Polish aristocracy. Curiously enough, it is said that it could be the same person. The English translation of
21593-464: Was being overly cautious, even indecisive, a fault to which he himself admitted. His decision to rely on Russia has been often criticized. Poniatowski saw Russia as a "lesser evil" – willing to support the notional "independence" of a weak Poland within the Russian sphere of influence. However, in the event Russia imposed the Partitions of Poland rather than choose to support internal reform. He
21744-586: Was born on 17 January 1732 in Wołczyn (then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and now Vowchyn, Belarus ). He was one of eight surviving children, and the fourth son, of Princess Konstancja Czartoryska and of Count Stanisław Poniatowski , Ciołek coat of arms , Castellan of Kraków . His older brothers were Kazimierz Poniatowski (1721–1800), a Podkomorzy at Court, Franciszek Poniatowski (1723–1749), Canon of Wawel Cathedral who suffered from epilepsy and Aleksander Poniatowski (1725–1744), an officer killed in
21895-612: Was elected king. A plan he initiated to map the entire territory of the Commonwealth, however, was never finished. At the Royal Castle in Warsaw , he organized an astronomical observatory and supported astronomers Jan Śniadecki and Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt . He also sponsored historical studies, including the collection, cataloging and copying of historical manuscripts. He encouraged publications of biographies of famous Polish historical figures, and sponsored paintings and sculptures of them. For his contributions to
22046-410: Was never achieved. Poniatowski and the reformers could field only a 37,000-man army, many of them untested recruits. This army, under the command of the King's nephew Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko , managed to defeat the Russians or fight them to a draw on several occasions. Following the victorious Battle of Zieleńce , in which Polish forces were commanded by his nephew, the King founded
22197-618: Was no longer an issue, she was already married. His pacta conventa specified that he should marry a Polish noblewoman, although he himself always hoped to marry into some royal family . Upon his accession to the throne, he had hopes of marrying Catherine II , writing to her on 2 November 1763 in a moment of doubt, "If I desired the throne, it was because I saw you on it." When she made it clear through his envoy Rzewuski that she would not marry him, there were hopes of an Austrian archduchess, Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria (1743–1808) . A marriage to Princess Sophia Albertina of Sweden
22348-527: Was not implemented, as in the end the only acceptable compromise proved unattractive to both sides. However, in the ensuing Four-Year Sejm of 1788–92 (known as the Great Sejm ), Poniatowski threw his lot in with the reformers associated with the Patriotic Party of Stanisław Małachowski , Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj , and co-authored the Constitution of 3 May 1791 . The Constitution introduced sweeping reforms. According to Jacek Jędruch ,
22499-481: Was not supported by Poniatowski, who nevertheless acceded to the decision of the majority of Sejm deputies. The passing of the Constitution of 3 May, although officially applauded by Frederick William II of Prussia , who sent a congratulatory note to Warsaw, caused further worry in Prussia. The contacts of Polish reformers with the revolutionary French National Assembly were seen by Poland's neighbours as evidence of
22650-427: Was suggested despite the religious differences, but this match was opposed by his sisters, Ludwika Maria Poniatowska and Izabella Poniatowska , and nothing came of it. The ceremonial role of queen and hostess of his court was played by his favourite niece, Urszula Zamoyska . A few historians believe that he later contracted a secret marriage with Elżbieta Szydłowska . However, according to Wirydianna Fiszerowa ,
22801-618: Was the Familia who sent him in 1755 to Saint Petersburg in the service of Williams, who had been nominated British ambassador to Russia. In Saint Petersburg, Williams introduced Poniatowski to the 26-year-old Catherine Alexeievna , the future empress Catherine the Great. The two became lovers. Whatever his feelings for Catherine, it is likely Poniatowski also saw an opportunity to use the relationship for his own benefit, using her influence to bolster his career. Poniatowski had to leave St. Petersburg in July 1756 due to court intrigue. Through
#864135