Abstrakt: | In 1809, in the territories of the Austrian Partition, which had been taken away from
Austrians by Polish soldiers, the Central Provisional Military Government of Galicia was
formed. The duties of the Governement was the reorganization of administration in Galicia
and organization of military troops. The President of the Government was Stanisław Kostka
Zamoyski, the most popular and richest magnate in Galicia. Representatives of the local nobility
were appointed to other positions in the Government and in the poviat administration
bodies. Archive materials allowed the tracing of 53 members. They were born between 1740
and 1780, most often from rich landed gentry and nobility. They owned estates in the former
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Their career path was typical of the social state they represented.
Educated, most often in the spirit of the Enlightenment, they took their first steps in
public service as administrative officials or military personnel. Some of these careers seemed
to have been above average, but the fall of the country in 1795 led to their their interruption.
Withdrawing from public life, they returned in 1809. This article, an attempt to form a characteristic
of this group, is part of the research on the elite of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
at the turn of the 19th century. |